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Article published In:
Methodology in Linguistic Landscape Research
Edited by Robert Blackwood
[Linguistic Landscape 3:3] 2017
► pp. 306–326

Inclusive ethnographies

Beyond the binaries of observer and observed in linguistic landscape studies

| University of Jyväskylä
| Western Oregon University

In ethnographically oriented linguistic landscape studies, social spaces are studied in co-operation with research participants, many times through mobile encounters such as walking. Talking, walking, photographing and video recording as well as writing the fieldwork diary are activities that result in the accumulation of heterogeneous, multimodal corpora. We analyze data from a Hungarian school ethnography project to reconstruct fieldwork encounters and analyze embodiment, the handling of devices (e.g. the photo camera) and verbal interaction in exploratory, participant-led walking tours. Our analysis shows that situated practices of embodied conduct and verbal interaction blur the boundaries between observation and observers, and thus LL research is not only about space- and place-making and sense-making routines, but the fieldwork encounters are also transformative and contribute to space- and place-making themselves. Our findings provide insight for ethnographic researchers and enrich the already robust qualitative and quantitative strategies employed in the field.

Keywords: videography, photography, methodologies, participatory research, qualitative research, ethnography
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: LL studies and inclusive ethnographies
  • 2.Walking and LL studies
  • 3.A schoolscape ethnography project
    • 3.1Agency and schoolscape in focus
    • 3.2The wider societal context
    • 3.3On the fieldwork setting
    • 3.4Tourist guide technique: A type of walking interviews
  • 4.Analysis
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Link to the online appendices
  • References
Published online: 19 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.17008.sza
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