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There is a fruitful tension in ethnomethodological work. On the one hand, real-world data are used to rein in analytical privilege. On the other, conceptual discussions necessarily take place in a more open analytical space. Describing settings in detail and thinking about things in the abstract are both essential components of the ethnomethodological project. What ethnographies might consist in complicates this picture. Garfinkel initially deflated the concept of 'ethnography', using it to refer to how all members of society make sense of their world. Sacks, on the other hand, initially construed his sociological project as a more rigorous form of professional ethnography. Ethnographic methods rightly remain an important tool for ethnomethodological analyses. They provide an empirical grounding for analysis and facilitate 'thinking about things' in a more open manner than some other forms of data. This paper argues that ethnographic analyses more generally can be used as ethnomethodological resources, (re)introducing the idea that others' fieldwork and analyses are legitimate resources for ethnomethodological work. Some materials from Elijah Anderson's classic ethnography A Place on the Corner are used to illustrate the possibilities taking this approach might offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings reflexivity into conversation with debates about positionality and live sociology to argue for reflexivity to be reimagined as an enduring practice that is collaborative, responsible, iterative, engaged, agile and creative. We elaborate our argument with reference to examples and contemplations drawn from our experiences researching what Brexit means for Britons living in the EU-27 for the BrExpats research project, which was informed from the outset by reflexive practice. We outline three (of a number of) potential strategies for engaging in reflexive practice: reflexive positioning, reflexive navigating and reflexive interpreting or sense-making. We acknowledge that these are not separate actions in practice but are conceptually distinguishable aspects of an ongoing reflexive practice, informed by our understanding of the cognitive relationship between reflexivity and practice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I describe an approach to analysing the affective flows produced in sociomaterial assemblages of visual images and humans in research processes. The approach combines Deleuzian understandings of repetition and difference, and of lines of articulation and flight, with interpretative techniques drawn from visual social semiotics. I use examples from my research into images shared by professionals on Twitter to illustrate how this approach can reveal not only the forces, intensities and hidden logics that lead to particular responses, but also the ways in which these responses impact on research decisions and interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text discusses the relationship between ethnomethodology and ethnography and sketches what can be called an ethnomethodological ethnography. To do so, it shows that Garfinkel and his collaborators work ethnographically in order to adequately describe social phenomena and make their phenomenal field properties noticeable. To highlight the distinctive features of ethnomethodological ethnography, the text first discusses other ethnographic approaches. Differences between these approaches and the ethnomethodological ethnography become apparent through two argumentative steps: first, by discussing Garfinkel's reflections on ethnomethodology and ethnography, and second, by discussing actual ethnographies by Garfinkel's collaborators. The text concludes with a general reflection on the methodological principles of ethnomethodological ethnography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the sociology and practices of translation. The main argument is that translation work should be understood in ethnomethodological terms as an indexical, social, and interactive practice that produces an ongoing "third space" of difference. The article provides insights into the practice of ethnographic translation work in a multilingual and foreign research context. The study reveals that cooperation between locally involved translators and researchers is highly productive—even necessary—for translation, transcription, and interaction analyses. Moreover, the article argues that in order to make translation practice understandable, not only ethnographic research, linguistic knowledge and cooperation between translators and researchers is required but equally reflections on social theory and the production of scientific texts. Finally, a novel sociologically informed methodology of translation work for qualitative social research is offered using the concepts of "cooperation," "indexicality," "power," "representation," and "third space." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses methodological, ethical, and epistemological issues that arise when research is conducted in a tight-knit network of respondents: in this case, artists in search of fame and recognition, while performing in a tribute band – a relatively downgraded form of music. The study was conducted in Switzerland and used qualitative methodology, consisting mainly of observations of concerts and semi-structured interviews with musicians, cultural intermediaries and audience members. With an aim to contribute to the reflexivity of sociology as a discipline and ideally provide methodological traces for future research in similar conditions, the article first presents the general methodology used in this study. Then, the discussion turns to the uses and difficulties of certain methodological elements such as Howard Becker's advice on 'playing dumb' for obtaining more subtle information, dealing with 'counter-interpretations' by study participants, or the extension of research relations to the online realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When conducting interviews about sensitive subject matter such as family life, powerful emotions may arise. The kinds of unexpected distress that can surface in interviews concerning topics laden with personal significance are different to the readily anticipated trauma that accompanies interviews in post-crisis or post-conflict situation. This article analyses the ethical considerations that accompany such research, drawing upon literature from oral history and qualitative sociology. The article traces ethical issues during the temporal phases of qualitative research – before, during and after an interview – before proposing three strategies that interviewers can adopt to help protect narrators from ongoing harm or distress after an interview. Such ethical safeguards include the self-interview, the post-interview follow-up with the narrator, and adopting an ethics of reciprocity that allows the narrator to feel that they are contributing to a larger purpose through involvement in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The value of fiction for public sociology and within qualitative research is well established. However, questions about process remain. Drawing from three contemporary projects – a novel, a series of short stories, and a collection of micro-fiction – this article focuses methodological attention on how sociological imagination may be crafted in and with fiction. In particular I discuss the poetics and aesthetic form of a story: the language, mode of storytelling and voice(s) with which a story is told; and the imagery and sensory qualities which bring a story-world to life. By bringing conceptual considerations together with practical concerns, this article aims to extend the considerable body of work on the value of fiction for the production and dissemination of social research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I take on the problem of the face in images and visual research on children. This is a problem that is engendered through the visual representations of children and the act of deploying the visualizing techniques associated with visual methods (pictures, video, etc.). It nevertheless is a problem, I argue, that has been couched singularly within a question of ethics in child studies, criminology, and sociology, among other disciplines. Here, I utilize the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to challenge the unquestioned ethical commitment to the pixilation of children's faces in publications. To trouble and reconceptualize the problem of visual representations of children, I assert that this problem is intimately connected to the cultural politics of childhood. For illustrative purposes, I analyze how children are represented in Today's Child advertisements and Roman Vishniac's Children of a Vanished World. This article concludes with a broader discussion of the (child's) face, digital images, and (micro)politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]