Seeing autoethnograpy

Last updated on August 30th, 2019 at 10:39 am

Once I started blogging, I found myself becoming more aware of bloggable moments. I saw blog posts in the things that I do every day. I still ‘see’ blog posts, I just don’t always have the time to write them up!

Now that I’m reading a lot about autoethnography and starting to write my dissertation, I’m finding that I am seeing autoethnographic moments. The little epiphanies that happen on a daily or weekly basis become things that would make good autoethnographic stories. I believe this is what Ellis & Bochner call ‘living the autoethnographic life’.

Muncey (2010) highlights that “there is no distinction between research and living a life” (p.3). Although I don’t necessarily agree in the broader sense – in that I think research brings an awareness to living that doesn’t necessarily happen when you are not researching. Perhaps that is the mindfulness that psychologists often tout as a way to manage stress in life. Perhaps the awareness because of research is my personal mindfulness practice?

Reference

Muncey, T. (2010). Why do autoethnography? Discovering the individual in research. In Creating Autoethnographies. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi:10.4135/9781446268339

Feature image by Darragh O Connor CC licence