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Getting Out, Goethe, and Serendipitous Ethnography

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Wellbeing and Self-Transformation in Natural Landscapes

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Abstract

This chapter presents fieldwork and the success of serendipitous ethnography in context. It further problematises traditional ethnographic methods in relation to this research project working with groups of people in natural spaces. This chapter introduces the diverse research case studies. Crowther details observant participation, happenings upon case studies, and access and involvement with case study groups before moving on to serendipitous ethnography and Goethean observation in this context. This refers to being with groups and utilising responsive and flexible methods whilst observing without ego. Within this chapter, Crowther speaks of the journey, the excursion, and the participation in activities as a primary means to understanding these experiences. She details alternative and organic methods and why serendipitous ethnography is a necessary methodological framework within this research context.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These methods were adopted from The Natural Change Project by the facilitator. I felt that my story was no longer my own in this instance—a fate I would not wish to impose on informants.

  2. 2.

    ‘Flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi 2002) describes the phenomenon of ‘being in the zone,’ of times of total immersion in the task at hand when an individual’s body and mind are stretched in an effort to accomplish something worthwhile: perhaps flow may have been encountered within these experiences. In flow, one is said to be in a space where ‘time stops,’ where meaning and purpose is out with the self (Seligman 2011). An integral aspect of flow as in peak experience is a belief that by investing all psychic energy into interaction, one ‘becomes part of a system of action greater than that which the individual self had been before.’ (Ibid: 65).

  3. 3.

    Kahneman and Riis (2005).

  4. 4.

    Kahneman and Riis (2005: 285).

  5. 5.

    Kahneman and Riis (2005).

  6. 6.

    Kahneman and Riis (2005: 286).

  7. 7.

    Kahneman and Riis (2005: 286).

  8. 8.

    Kahneman and Riis (2005: 287).

  9. 9.

    (Moeran 2007: 04).

  10. 10.

    Moeran (2007: 12).

  11. 11.

    Moeran (2007).

  12. 12.

    Moeran (2007).

  13. 13.

    Moeran (2007: 20).

  14. 14.

    Moeran (2007: 13).

  15. 15.

    Moeran (2007: 15).

  16. 16.

    Wilkinson (2017).

  17. 17.

    Wilkinson (2017: 619).

  18. 18.

    Wilkinson (2017: 614).

  19. 19.

    Wilkinson (2017: 619).

  20. 20.

    Ingold (2018: 59).

  21. 21.

    Ingold (2018).

  22. 22.

    Ingold (2018: 61).

  23. 23.

    For a more step-by-step outline of what may be considered as walking and talking as a method, see the ‘Go Along interview ’ (See Kusenbach 2003; Carpiano 2009) more simply described as ‘on the hoof’ conversation by Pinder (2007: 116).

  24. 24.

    This is similar to hanging out or ‘deep hanging out’ (Geertz 2008)—spending downtime or unstructured time with informants, chatting, observing, and so on.

  25. 25.

    Madden (2013: 01).

  26. 26.

    see Kusenbach (2003) and Carpiano (2009).

  27. 27.

    Rivioal and Salazar (2013: 180).

  28. 28.

    Merton 1948 in Rivioal and Salazar (2013: 178).

  29. 29.

    See Glaser and Strauss (1967).

  30. 30.

    Hannerz (2006) in Rivioal and Salazar (2013).

  31. 31.

    in Rivioal and Salazar (2013: 183).

  32. 32.

    Madden (2013: 16–17).

  33. 33.

    Rivioal and Salazar (2013).

  34. 34.

    Fetterman (2010).

  35. 35.

    Rivioal and Salazar (2013: 02).

  36. 36.

    Rivioal and Salazar (2013: 178).

  37. 37.

    Rivioal and Salazar (2013).

  38. 38.

    Law (2004).

  39. 39.

    Le Courant (2013: 186).

  40. 40.

    Le Courant (2013).

  41. 41.

    See Russell et al. (2007).

  42. 42.

    Ingold (2018).

  43. 43.

    Le Courant (2013: 195).

  44. 44.

    Le Courant (2013: 195).

  45. 45.

    Le Courant (2013).

  46. 46.

    Davis (2007).

  47. 47.

    Davis (2007: 09).

  48. 48.

    Davis (2007: 11).

  49. 49.

    Davis (2007: 02).

  50. 50.

    Davis (2007: 02).

  51. 51.

    Davis (2007).

  52. 52.

    in Hazan and Hertzog (2012).

  53. 53.

    Ben-Ari (Ibid: 67).

  54. 54.

    Davis (2007).

  55. 55.

    Herzfeld (2012).

  56. 56.

    Herzfeld (2012: 114).

  57. 57.

    Herzfeld (2012: 114).

  58. 58.

    Hazan and Hertzog (2012).

  59. 59.

    Fabietti also speaks of an interdisciplinary career trajectory and another, Shapira also discusses anthropological serendipity in relation to her career (both in Hazan and Hertzog 2012).

  60. 60.

    Goethe (1823/2010: 19).

  61. 61.

    Greverus (2002: 1).

  62. 62.

    Greverus (2002).

  63. 63.

    Greverus (Ibid: 09).

  64. 64.

    Goethe published his first scientific work in 1790. Though previously he had been considered a philosopher, dramatist, poet, and statesman, he penned The Metamorphosis of Plants (1790/2009). This work is associated with Goethean observation, a way of observing and understanding plants and the non-human natural world.

  65. 65.

    Goethe (1823/2010: 19).

  66. 66.

    Greverus (2002).

  67. 67.

    Greverus (2002: 41).

  68. 68.

    Greverus (2002: 10).

  69. 69.

    Goethe (1823/2010: 20).

  70. 70.

    Ingold (2010: 135).

  71. 71.

    Lewis (2000: 54).

  72. 72.

    Ingold (2010).

  73. 73.

    Senda-Cook (2012).

  74. 74.

    Senda-Cook (2012).

  75. 75.

    Senda-Cook (2012: 144).

  76. 76.

    Philo (2003).

  77. 77.

    Philo (2003: 12).

  78. 78.

    Rousseau (1783/2011).

  79. 79.

    Rousseau (1783/2011).

  80. 80.

    Philo (2003: 07).

  81. 81.

    Bachelard (1960/1969).

  82. 82.

    Berleant (1992: 14–15).

  83. 83.

    Berleant (1992).

  84. 84.

    Berleant (1992: 14–15).

  85. 85.

    Bloch (2012).

  86. 86.

    Bloch (2012).

  87. 87.

    A Scottish stirring utensil.

  88. 88.

    A tool for making holes in the ground to place seeds into.

  89. 89.

    Bion (1970).

  90. 90.

    Bion (1970: 246).

  91. 91.

    Bion (1970: 248).

  92. 92.

    Bird-Rose (2013).

  93. 93.

    Bird-Rose (2013: 93).

  94. 94.

    Tuan (1979).

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  1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Rebecca Crowther

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Crowther, R. (2019). Getting Out, Goethe, and Serendipitous Ethnography. In: Wellbeing and Self-Transformation in Natural Landscapes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97673-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97673-0_3

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