Abstract
Drawing on extensive ‘fieldwork’ in the Parisian suburb of La Courneuve, this chapter emphasizes the need for ethnographers to provide more details on, and justification of their methods in their publications. First, it discusses the challenge of defining and delineating the ‘field’ and suggests that ‘mental maps’ or ‘narrative cartographies’ are a valuable tool for exploring and decomposing the ‘field’. Second, it reflects on the positionality of the researcher. It shows how the ethnographer can easily become ‘the observed’ (rather than the observer) due to unexpected role ascriptions by informants. These role ascriptions should, however, not be seen as an obstacle to the ethnographic research but rather as part of the core data, revealing the dynamics and policing of boundaries between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’.
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Notes
- 1.
Parts of this chapter are derived from the methodology section of my PhD dissertation (Slooter 2015).
- 2.
Goffman’s On the Run is however not a pure example of a realist tale; the researcher’s voice (the ‘I’) is present throughout the book.
- 3.
The murder occurred in a context of growing xenophobia in France. In 1982 and 1983, a number of racist murders took place across the Republic and right-wing political party Front National celebrated its first victory, in the municipal elections of 1983 (see Jazouli 1992: 43–52).
- 4.
- 5.
Numbers are based on 2011 and 2012 and derived from the Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques.
- 6.
Of those counted as ‘étranger’, 50.6% have an African nationality, 30.7% an Asian nationality and 11.8% a nationality from a country in the European Union. Numbers are based on 2006 and derived from the Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques: www.insee.fr
- 7.
Due to copyright regulations, I am not able to present their drawings here. However, the original maps of Sofyan and Mariam can be found in my PhD dissertation (Slooter 2015: 106, 110).
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Slooter, L. (2018). Conflicting Boundaries and Roles: Impressions of Ethnographic Fieldwork in the French Banlieues . In: Millar, G. (eds) Ethnographic Peace Research. Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65563-5_6
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