Autoethnographic International Relations: Exploring the self as a source of knowledge

Review of International Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 779-798

  Brigg, Morgan ^a   Bleiker, Roland ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77958609546     PISSN: 02602105     EISSN: 14699044     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0260210510000689     Document Type: Article

References (105)

1. Morgan Brigg, Asking after Selves: Knowledge and Settler-Indigenous Conflict Resolution, PhD Thesis, University of Queensland (2005);
2. 'Governance and Susceptibility in Conflict Resolution: Possibilities beyond control', Social and Legal Studies, 16:1 (2007), pp. 27-47. For contingency theory
3. Stephen Muecke, 'Contingency theory: The Madagascan experiment', Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 6:2 (2004), pp. 201-15.
4. For instance, Roland Bleiker, Aesthetics and World Politics (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009);
5. 'Why, then, is it so bright? Towards an Aesthetics of Peace at a Time of War', Review of International Studies, 29 (Summer 2003), pp. 387-400;
6. 'The Aesthetic Turn in International Political Theory', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 30:3 (2001), pp. 509-33;
7. and 'Forget IR Theory', Alternatives: Social Transformation and Humane Governance, 22:1 (1997), pp. 57-86.
8. Gary King, Sidney Verba and Robert O. Keohane, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994).
9. Gary King, Sidney Verba and Robert O. Keohane,Ibid.,Keohane, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, pp. 3-6, 15.
10. See chapters in Joseph Kruzel and James N. Rosenau (eds), Journeys through World Politics: Autobiographical Reflections of Thirty-Four Academic Travelers (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1989).
11. King, Verba and Keohane, Designing Social Inquiry, p. 15.
12. King, Verba and Keohane, Designing Social Inquiry Ibid., pp. 6, 15.
13. For context see Leszek Kolakowski, The Alienation of Reason: A History of Positivist Thought, trans. N. Guterman (New York: Anchor, 1969), pp. 1-10;
14. David M. Ricci, The Tragedy of Political Science: Politics, Scholarship and Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).
15. Nicholas Onuf, 'A Constructivist Manifesto', in K. Burch and R. A. Denemark (eds), Constituting International Political Economy (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1998), p. 8. See also Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 47.
16. John Gerald Ruggie, Constructing the World Polity: Essays on International Institutionalism (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 35.
17. Richard Price and Chris Reus-Smit, 'Dangerous Liaisons: Critical International Theory and Constructivism', European Journal of International Relations, 4:3 (1998), pp. 259-294
18. For a critique see Maja Zehfuss, Constructivism and International Relations: The Politics of Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002);
19. Cynthia Weber, 'IR: The Resurrection: Or New Frontiers of Incorporation', European Journal of International Relations, 5:4 (1999), pp. 435-450
20. See Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (New York: Vintage, 1970), p. 312.
21. E. A. Grosz, The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution and the Untimely (Crows Nest, N. S. W.: Allen & Unwin, 2004), p. 191.
22. See Robert Nadeau and Menas Kafatos, The Non-Local Universe: The New Physics and Matters of the Mind (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
23. See Clifford Geertz, 'From the Native's Point of View: On the nature of anthropological understanding', in P. Rabinow and W. M. Sullivan (eds), Interpretive Social Science: A reader (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), pp. 225-241, p. 229;
24. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. What is Philosophy?, trans. H. Tomlinson and G. Burchell (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), pp. 134-5;
25. Jean-Luc Nancy, Being Singular Plural (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), p. 56.
26. Iver B. Neumann, '"A Speech that the Entire Ministry May Stand for", or: Why Diplomats Never Produce Anything New', International Political Sociology, 1:2 (2007), pp. 183-200.
27. For other excellent examples of participatory research into International Relations see Michael N. Barnett, 'The UN Security Council, Indifference, and Genocide in Rwanda', Cultural Anthropology, 12:4 (November 1997), pp. 551-78
28. J. C. Sharman, 'Testing the Global Transparency Regime', International Studies Quarterly, 54, (forthcoming in June 2011).
29. J. C. Sharman, 'Testing the Global Transparency Regime', International Studies Quarterly, 54, (forthcoming in June 2011). Ibid.
30. Ken Booth, 'Security and Self Reflections of a Fallen Realist', Occasional Paper Number 26 (York University, Centre for International and Strategic Studies, 1994).
31. Roxanne Lynn Doty, 'Maladies of Our Souls: Identity and Voice in the Writing of Academic International Relations', Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 17:2 (2004), pp. 377-392
32. Elizabeth Dauphinee, The Ethics of Researching War: Looking for Bosnia (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2007).
33. Carol Cohn, 'Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals', Signs, 12:4 (1987), pp. 687-718.
34. Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 4.
35. J. Ann Tickner, 'Feminism meets International Relations: Some Methodological Issues', in B. A. Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacquiy True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 27-8;
36. Sandra Harding, The Science Question in Feminism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986);
37. Sandra Harding, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991);
38. Sandra Harding, Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987).
39. Cohn, 'Sex and Death in the Rational World', pp. 688, 712.
40. See also Carol Cohn, 'Motives and Methods: Using Multi-Sited Ethnography to Study US National Security Discourses', in Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, Maria and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 27-8.
41. Cohn, 'Sex and Death in the Rational World', p. 688.
42. Kim Huynh, Where the Sea Takes Us: A Vietnamese - Australian Story (Sydney: HarperCollins, 2007).
43. Ackerly, Stern and True, Feminist Methodologies.
44. See also J. Ann Tickner, 'What is your Research Program? Some Feminist Answers to International Relations Methodological Questions', International Studies Quarterly, 49:1 (2005), pp. 1-22.
45. Jennifer Milliken, 'The Study of Discourse in International Relations: A Critique of Research and Methods', European Journal of International Relations, 5:2 (1999), pp. 225-254
46. Andrew Sparkes, 'The fatal flaw: A narrative of the fragile body-self', Qualitative Inquiry, 2:4 (1996), pp. 463-494
47. Ann Neville-Jan, 'Encounters in a world of pain: An autoethnography', American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 57:1 (2003), pp. 88-98.
48. Carol Rambo Ronai, 'The Reflexive Self through Narrative: A Night in the Life of an Erotic Dancer/Researcher', in Michael G. Flaherty and Carolyn Ellis (eds), Investigating Subjectivity: Research on Lived Experience (Newbury Park [Ca.]: Sage Publications, 1992), pp. 102-24;
49. Marcela Ramirez, Zlatko Skrbi and Michael Emmison, 'Transnational Family Reunions as Lived Experience: Narrating a Salvadoran Autoethnography', Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 14:4 (2007), pp. 411-431
50. See, for example, the Special Issue, 9:2 (April 2003): Arts-Based Approaches to Qualitative Inquiry. For further overviews and examples of autoethnography
51. Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey and Sara Delamont, Key themes in qualitative research: continuities and changes (Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2003), pp. 64-7;
52. Leon Anderson, 'Analytic Autoethnography', Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35:4 (2006), pp. 373-95;
53. Mark Neumann, 'Collecting Ourselves at the End of the Century', in A. P. Bochner and C. Ellis (eds), Composing Ethnography: Alternative Forms of Qualitative Writing (London: Sage, 1996), pp, 172-98;
54. and Deborah E. Reed-Danahay, 'Introduction', in D. E. Reed-Danahay (ed.), Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social (Oxford: Berg, 1997).
55. For some key publications see the edited collections by Michael G. Flaherty and Carolyn Ellis (eds), Investigating Subjectivity: Research on Lived Experience (Newbury Park (Ca.): Sage Publications, 1992);
56. Deborah E. Reed-Danahay (ed.), Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social (Oxford: Berg, 1997);
57. and Arthur P. Bochner and Carolyn Ellis (eds), Ethnographically speaking: autoethnography, literature, and aesthetics (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002).
58. Patricia Ticineto Clough, 'Autotelecommunication and autoethnography: A reading of Carolyn Ellis's final negotiations', The Sociological Quarterly, 38:1 (1997), pp. 95-110, at 100-1;
59. Andrew C. Sparkes, 'Autoethnography: Self-Indulgence or Something More?', in A. P. Bochner and C. Ellis (eds), Ethnographically speaking: autoethnography, literature, and aesthetics (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002), pp. 209-232, p. 22.
60. See Anderson, 'Analytic Autoethnography'.
61. Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Objects (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).
62. James Clifford, 'On Ethnographic Self-Fashioning: Conrad and Malinowski', in Thomas C. Heller, S. Morton and D. E. Wellbery (eds), Reconstructing Individualism: Autonomy, individuality, and the self in Western thought (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986), pp 140-162
63. Christian Ghasarian, 'Sur les chemins de l'ethnographie reflexive', in C. Ghasarian (ed.), De l'ethnographie à l'anthropologie reflexive: Nouveaux terrains, nouvelles pratiques, nouveaux enjeux (Paris: Armand Colin, 2002).
64. Christian Ghasarian, 'Sur les chemins de l'ethnographie reflexive', in C. Ghasarian (ed.), De l'ethnographie à l'anthropologie reflexive: Nouveaux terrains, nouvelles pratiques, nouveaux enjeux (Paris: Armand Colin, 2002). Ibid.
65. See Nicholas L. Holt, 'Representation, Legitimation, and Autoethnography: An Autoethnographic Writing Story', International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2:1 (2003), np.;
66. Arthur P. Bochner and Carolyn Ellis, 'Introduction: Talking Over Ethnography', in Arthur P. Bochner and Carolyn Ellis (eds), Composing Ethnography: Alternative Forms of Qualitative Writing (London: Sage, 1996), pp. 13-45;
67. Carolyn Ellis, Final Negotiations: a story of love, loss, and chronic illness (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995).
68. Sonia Ryang, 'Ethnography or Self-cultural Anthropology? Reflections on Writing About Ourselves', Dialectical Anthropology, 25:3/4 (2000), pp. 297-320, at 315.
69. See also Clough, 'Autotelecommunication and autoethnography'.
70. Holt, 'Representation, Legitimation, and Autoethnography';
71. Andrew C. Sparkes, 'Autoethnography and narratives of self: Reflections on criteria in action', Sociology of Sport Journal, 17:1 (2000), pp. 21-43, at 28-31.
72. Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, 2nd edition (London: Sheed & Ward, 1979), pp. xxii-xxiii.
73. See Gadamer, Truth and Method, p. xxii;
74. Jay Bernstein, 'The Death of Sensuous Particulars: Adorno and Abstract Expressionism', Radical Philosophy, 76 (March/April 1996), pp. 7-18;
75. and Prem Kumar Rajaram, 'Disruptive Writing and a Critique of Territoriality', Review of International Studies, 30:3 (2004), pp. 351-372
76. Ellis, Final Negotiations, p. 303.
77. Alphonso Lingis, Dangerous Emotions (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000), p. 14.
78. S. Laurel Weldon, 'Inclusion and Understanding: A Collective Methodology for Feminist International Relations', in B. A. Ackerly, Maria Stern and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 68-71.
79. Ackerly, Stern and True, Feminist Methodologies, p. 5.
80. Sparkes, 'Autoethnography and narratives of self', p. 31.
81. Laurel Richardson, 'Evaluating Ethnography', Qualitative Inquiry, 6:2 (2000), pp. 253-255, at 253.
82. Carolyn Ellis, 'Creating Criteria: An Ethnographic Short Story', Qualitative Inquiry, 6:2 (2000), pp. 273-277, at 275.
83. Richardson, 'Evaluating Ethnography', p. 254.
84. Norman K. Denzin, 'Aesthetics and the Practices of Qualitative Inquiry', Qualitative Inquiry, 6:2 (2000), pp. 256-265, at 258.
85. Denzin, 'Aesthetics and the Practices of Qualitative Inquiry', p. 262.
86. Ian Shapiro, 'Problems, Methods, and Theories: What's Wrong with Political Science and What to do about it', in S. K. White and J. D. Moon (eds), What is political theory? (London: Sage, 2004), pp. 193-216, p. 597.
87. See also Donald Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994
88. Geertz, 'From the Native's Point of View', p. 229.
89. Sylviane Agacinski, 'Another Experience of the Question, or Experiencing the Question Other-Wise', in P. Connor, J.-L. Nancy and E. Cadava (eds), Who comes after the subject? (New York;
90. London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 9-23, p. 12.
91. In an article of this length we are unable to engage important theoretical traditions - let alone individual theorists and philosophers - which might support and guide this effort. Perhaps the most obvious tradition to serve as a philosophical resource - because of the way it positions the self as the creator of knowledge - is the interpretive tradition, most well known through the above cited work of Hans Georg Gadamer. In the phenomenological tradition, the work of Emmanuel Levinas is valuable, particularly for his approach to moving beyond essence and the self in order to encounter others (see, for example, Emmanuel Levinas, Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, trans. A. Lingis (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1991). Post-structuralism, including the work of Deleuze and Guatarri (1987) on becoming-other, also has much to offer. Finally, we have already mentioned some feminist authors, but could easily add important feminist scholarship on narrative
92. (see Adriana Cavarero, Relating Narratives: Storytelling and Selfhood (London and New York: Routledge, 2000) and situated knowledges
93. (see Donna Jeanne Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, New York: Routledge, 1991).
94. See, for example, José Gil, Metamorphoses of the Body (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), p. 126. The literature on emotions and politics has meanwhile grown into a complex body of theory. We do not pretend to even begin addressing the issues at stake here. For examples of recent attempts to engage the respective methodological issues in the realm of International Relations scholarship
95. Roland Bleiker and Emma Hutchison, 'Fear No More: Emotions and World Politics', Review of International Studies, Special Issue on 'Cultures and Politics of Global Communication', 34 (2008), pp. 115-135;
96. Neta C. Crawford, 'The Passion of World Politics: Propositions on Emotions and Emotional Relationships', International Security, 24:4 (Spring 2000), pp. 116-36;
97. Emma Hutchison, 'Trauma and the Politics of Emotions: Constituting Identity, Security and Community after the Bali Bombing', International Relations, 24:1 (2010);
98. Jonathan Mercer, 'Emotional Beliefs', International Organization, 64:2 (Jan 2010), pp 1-31;
99. and Andrew A. G. Ross, 'Coming in From the Cold: Constructivism and Emotions', European Journal of International Relations, 12:2 (2006), pp. 197-222.
100. S. Muecke, 'Travelling the subterranean river of blood: Philosophy and magic in cultural studies', Cultural Studies, 13:1 (1999), pp. 1-17.
101. S. Muecke, 'Travelling the subterranean river of blood: Philosophy and magic in cultural studies', Cultural Studies, 13:1 (1999), pp. 1-17. Ibid.
102. Roxanne L. Euben, 'Travelling Theorists and Translating Practices' in S. K. White and J. D. Moon (eds), What is political theory? (London: Sage, 2004), pp. 145-173, p. 148.
103. Quentin Skinner, Vision of Politics: Regarding Methods, 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 4, 44;
104. Paul Feyerabend, Against Method (London: Verso, 2002), pp. 214-229
105. Muecke, 'Contingency theory', p. 214.