A cautionary tale about ‘respondent validation’: The dissonant meeting of ‘field self’ and ‘author self’

Burrows, Daniel 2023. A cautionary tale about ‘respondent validation’: The dissonant meeting of ‘field self’ and ‘author self’. Smith, Robin James and Delamont, Sara, eds. Leaving the Field: Methodological Insights from Ethnographic Exits, Manchester: Manchester University Press,

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Abstract

In this chapter the author reflects on his experiences of respondent validation following a publisher’s acceptance of a book proposal, which was based on ethnographic fieldwork he had conducted with a social work team for his doctoral thesis. The author was surprised to find that the participants in his study were initially resistant to the idea of the publication of the book, and he experienced guilt as he realised that he had presented two distinct versions of himself to participants: his affable ‘field self’ and the more critical ‘author self’. The author’s experience of leaving, and then returning to, the field has provided insight into the way that social life can create conflicting selves that exist authentically, depending on the social context. The self is a dynamic, performative process, not a state of being, and its forms coalesce according to people, place and time. Most of the time, we shift between selves smoothly and without giving our fragmentation thought. Doing ethnography can force us to confront the dissonance of different selves that are equally real and authentic, because, by its very nature, it requires that we encounter the field self from the perspective of the authorial self. Engaging in respondent validation lays the otherwise hidden ‘author self’ bare to participants, and this provides an unsettling challenge for the management of field relations.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
ISBN:	9781526157669
Last Modified:	22 Jan 2024 10:41
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/164749

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