Deconstructing Hierarchies: Autoethnographic Reflections About Field Work Developed in a Neighborhood Proximate to the Ex-Clandestine Center for Detention, Torture, and Extermination: Campo de la Ribera (Córdoba, Argentina)

Authors

  • Vanesa Garbero Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-16.3.2354

Keywords:

autoethnography, qualitative research, fieldwork, reflexivity, personal narrative, relationship of power, narratives

Abstract

In this article, I reflect on the development of fieldwork, exploring aspects that are related to my subjectivity, as the "knower," in the research process. It is a writing exercise framed within the literary-scientific subgenre called autoethnography, which encourages researchers to perform their own socio-analysis, question their habitus, break the illusion of a neutral distance with the object being studied, write in the first person, and express their emotions and feelings to reveal the relationship between the personal and cultural aspects of understanding social phenomena. I consider my fieldwork as a transforming experience that changes the way I look, feel, and understand the world of the researcher vis á vis my subjectivity, while proposing that the power relations established in conducting research, in its different manifestations, are relationships which are complex, variable, and negotiated with collaborators. I conclude with an introspective analysis of the hierarchies that, despite good intentions, researchers can perpetuate on the marginal communities in which they work.

URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1503359

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Vanesa Garbero, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

Vanesa GARBERO es magister en sociología por el Centro de Estudios Avanzados de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Está cursando su doctorado en cencias sociales en la Universidad de Buenos Aires y es becaria del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET). Investiga las memorias y representaciones de la sociedad civil en torno al terrorismo de Estado, las tensiones entre memorias locales y la oficial y las políticas públicas vinculadas con el pasado reciente.

Published

2015-09-21

How to Cite

Garbero, V. (2015). Deconstructing Hierarchies: Autoethnographic Reflections About Field Work Developed in a Neighborhood Proximate to the Ex-Clandestine Center for Detention, Torture, and Extermination: Campo de la Ribera (Córdoba, Argentina). Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 16(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-16.3.2354

Issue

Section

Single Contributions