32.2373, Review: Anthropological Linguistics: Blommaert, Dong (2020)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-2373. Wed Jul 14 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.2373, Review: Anthropological Linguistics: Blommaert, Dong (2020)

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Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2021 00:05:29
From: Manuela Vida-Mannl [manuela.vidamannl at tu-dortmund.de]
Subject: Ethnographic Fieldwork (2nd edition)

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-2471.html

AUTHOR: Jan  Blommaert
AUTHOR: Jie  Dong
TITLE: Ethnographic Fieldwork (2nd edition)
SUBTITLE: A Beginner's Guide
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: Manuela Vida-Mannl, Technische Universität Dortmund

SUMMARY

The second edition of ''Ethnographic Fieldwork: A beginner’s guide'', by Jan
Blommaert and Dong Jie, is a practical guide on how to plan and enact
ethnographic fieldwork. Similar to the first edition, this edition is aimed at
students who are at the beginning of their research journey. The book is
divided into three focus areas: a theoretical part (Chapters 1 and 2, pp.
1-15), an assessment of ethnographic fieldwork (Chapters 3-6, pp. 16-85), and
a postscript (Chapter 7, pp. 86-98) which focuses on the increasing
digitalization of research fields and, according to the authors, constitutes
the main difference between the first and the second edition. Each chapter
ends with a recommendation of additional readings.

Chapter 1 (pp. 1-3) provides the reader with the aim of the book, which is
“providing some general suggestions […] at demarcating a space in which what
we do can be called ‘research’.” (p. 1), an outline, and an overview of the
following chapters. Chapter 2 (pp. 4-15) is the heart of the theoretical part
of the book, as it assesses the scientific tradition of ethnography. The
authors offer a comprehensive but compact overview of the history, the roots,
and some key aspects of ethnography, focusing especially on its ontological
and epistemic level. They stress the anthropological roots of the field and
the potential insight an ethnographic perspective offers when the target of
its implementation is not a “simplification and reduction of complexity” (p.
11) but approaches language as a situated, complex, and messy social action.
The chapter ends with a summarizing discussion of why and how generalizability
and representativeness of ethnographic data can and should (or should not) be
achieved.

The second part of the book takes a more hands-on perspective and assesses
ethnographic fieldwork. This elaboration is divided into “The Sequence 1:
Prior to Fieldwork” (Chapter 3, pp. 16-23), “The Sequence 2: In the Field”
(Chapter 4, pp. 24-61), and “The Sequence 3: After Fieldwork” (Chapter 5, pp.
62-83) and is followed by a conclusion (pp. 84-85). In Chapter 3, the authors
describe why preparation before fieldwork is essential and unique for every
project or topic. They claim ethnographically collected data, i.e., situated
language use, to be understandable and relevant only within their micro- and
macro-contexts. Rooted in this understanding, examples are provided as to how
researchers should prepare, what information should be known, and which
questions should be answered before departing for data collection.

In Chapter 4, the nature of working in the field and the demands it brings
with it are described, while helpful and reassuring advice is offered.
Blommaert and Dong use quite extensive descriptions of Dong’s experiences
during fieldwork in Beijing to contextualize their elaborations. After
reassuring the reader that all field trips start chaotic (at least to some
degree) and that all fieldwork must be understood as a learning opportunity
for researchers, the authors continue to present different ways of collecting
different kinds of ethnographic data. In so doing, they present common
misconceptions, such as attempting to observe everything or the tendency to
perceive only recorded data as “real” data. When introducing ethnographic data
collection, they differentiate between observing and collecting, and stress
the importance of multiplicity, i.e., including recordings as well as, e.g.,
field notes and photographs. The final part of this chapter offers a helpful
guide to conducting fruitful interviews and addresses some common mistakes
that occur when interviews are perceived as “neutral information collection”
rather than “interactive conversations”.

Chapter 5 is concerned with the tasks and challenges researchers face after
returning from fieldwork. After confirming that the messiness of fieldwork is
represented in messy data, the authors again reassure the reader of the
importance of reflecting the complex reality of language use. They claim that
research can never be “carried out in a ‘context-free’ manner” (p. 65) and,
therefore, it and the collected data will always be subjective. Rather than
ignoring this subjectivity and pretending to be objective, researchers should
make use of it to question their interpretation of what they have observed and
collected. Since interviews are a common data-elicitation method, the authors
offer an overview of techniques and methods that might be useful during their
transcription and analysis. Special focus is put on identifying structural
units and patterns within created transcripts, as they are a means for going
beyond the words and accessing the social contexts and relations of the
narrative and/or the interviewee, something often implicitly given in the data
although at the center of ethnography. Chapter 6 (pp. 84-85) marks the end of
this part of the book and offers a summary of the key aspects introduced in
Chapters 2-5.

Chapter 7 (pp. 86-98) has been added to the second edition to account for the
increasing importance of digitalization and online activities. Blommaert and
Dong reflect on this development and argue that aspects of (ethnographic)
research that used to be unproblematic have become complex and noteworthy
because of the increasing importance of the “online-word”. In assessing what
the authors call “The Online-Offline Nexus” (p. 86), they focus on three main
aspects of research: 1. What is observed?, 2. Who is involved?, and 3. Where
is it observed?. Due to the difficulties of determining and the impossibility
of truly controlling these parameters of research in an online setting, the
authors argue that (ethnographic) research has to be adapted and further
developed to continue to elicit relevant information. Rather than using less
ethnography, because fieldwork has become more complex, they suggest using
this tradition more to increase the understanding of dynamics. 

EVALUATION

This book represents a down-to-earth summary of key issues in ethnographic
research and offers helpful and practical advice for (beginning) researchers.
Mixing anecdotes from their own research journeys with core literature, Jan
Blommaert and Dong Jie have created an informative yet joyful read. The
authors aim at providing an accessible starting point for researchers who are
at the beginning of their ethnographic fieldwork, and are truly successful in
achieving this. While the authors provide the reader with a very handy summary
of the ethnographic tradition and its development, relying heavily on its
well-known roots (cf. Blommaert 2001 for references and discussion), more
recent assessments and work are missing. However, this is not necessarily
needed, as the goal of the book is a practical rather than a theoretical one.

While the book at hand provides important information and considerations about
fieldwork within the tradition of ethnography and beyond, its main
achievement, in my opinion, is the reassurance it offers. Rather than
pretending to know all the answers and to have found “the one right way” to do
research, Blommaert and Dong confirm, e.g., that not understanding the
situation and relations one finds oneself in may be part of the experience and
is not necessarily a sign of lacking preparation. They stress that things
rarely go as planned and chaos happens. Rather than teaching and lecturing
junior researchers and students, who are likely to be the readers of this
book, about their flaws, Blommaert and Dong include themselves as experienced
researchers when addressing frequently occurring problems. 

The authors have created a humorous, honest, reassuring, and heartfelt book
that can help us to remember the true reasons we conduct research: our
curiosity to understand and analyze complex interactions. Especially in times
of social and academic pressure, of “routes” and schedules young researchers
must follow to be “successful”, to enter the next phase of their career or to
become visible, we read that chaos is normal, that one should enjoy small
victories and be open to learning. This perspective has the potential to lift
a huge weight from junior researchers and students. In not focusing on being
preoccupied with details and necessities or on feeling the pressure for our
fieldwork/research to be successful, the authors stress the importance of
uniqueness and understanding rather than postulating uniformity. This book
encourages beginner researchers to do meaningful research.

The positive mindset in which this book was rooted when first published is
continued in its final chapter. The authors explain that, due to the
increasing difficulties in determining and controlling even basic parameters
of research in the digital age, ethnographic research—and all research
really—has been aggravated. However, rather than dwelling on this hardship and
finding reasons to limit their scope, Blommaert and Dong argue for more
ethnographic research and more careful assessments of complex relations and
messy reality. Rather than being overwhelmed by assessing and ordering the
influence of digitalization, the authors happily declare that their work has
become even more interesting. Despite minor shortcomings (i.e., dated
literature), I enjoyed reading this book very much and would recommend it for
beginning as well as experienced researchers; It might very well offer new or
neglected perspectives for both groups. 

REFERENCES

Blommaert, J. 2001. “Context is/as critique”. Critique of Anthropology, 21(1):
13-32.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Manuela Vida-Mannl is a post-doctoral researcher at TU Dortmund University,
Germany. Her research foci include multilingualism, sociolinguistics, language
acquisition, and the use of English in global settings. She is especially
interested in the dynamics of (social & spatial) mobility and social
stratification on Global North-Global South trajectories and is currently
working on an investigation of these dynamics within multilingual settings in
Cuba and Croatia.





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