By François-Xavier de Vaujany, PSL, Université Paris-Dauphine
Ethnography, auto-ethnography and collaborative ethnography are more and more parts of my research and teaching practices. Open Walked Event-Based Experimentations (OWEE), these collaborative learning expeditions experimented since 2016, have been an opportunity for me to explore further the collaborative side of ethnography with co-produced articles, shared log books and collaborative use of social media.
By means of a movie I use for some of my teachings, the Passenger directed in 1975 by Michelangelo Antonioni, I would like to come back here to three key issues about collaborative ethnography: “reversibility” of the conversation, “silence” and “depth” (more than “perspective”). Those are topics which particularly resonate with the work of the philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Collaborative ethnography is not about ‘applying’ a research protocol. Sometimes, the use of logbooks in the context of ethnography