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Relational Geometries of the Body: Doing Ethnographic Fieldwork

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The Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education

Part of the book series: Professional and Practice-based Learning ((PPBL,volume 11))

Abstract

This chapter takes a practice-theory informed approach to understanding the body doing ethnographic fieldwork. It treats ethnographic fieldwork as a form of professional practice, albeit a contested one, in which the notion of embodiment is widely established. However new lines of understanding and new ways of giving accounts of these practices are opened up by contemporary practice theories. In particular this chapter takes up the work of Schatzki, and links this to the framing developed by Green and Hopwood (Chap. 2, this volume) – the body as background, resource, and metaphor. These are used to present and expand the concept of relational geometries of the body, a distinctive and useful tool for grappling with questions of the body in fieldwork practice. The geometric approach highlights relationality between the ethnographer and other bodies (including material artefacts), viewing this as central to judgements and performances in fieldwork, and intimately folded into the intellectual and ethical work of ethnographic research. In this way the account rejects Cartesian mind/body dualisms, and instead focuses on the shifting relationships of the doing body.

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Acknowledgements

The University of Technology, Sydney funded the research discussed in this chapter through the Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship scheme. I would like to thank the staff of Karitane, in particular those on the Residential Unit, and the families who participated, for allowing me into their lives as professionals and as parents. Alison Lee provided immense inspiration in the early phases of this project. The community of ethnographers at UTS continues to offer inter-disciplinary support and colleagueship. I wish to thank Anne Kinsella and Mary Johnsson for their helpful comments on drafts, and Bill Green for his constructive input.

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  1. School of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Nick Hopwood

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  1. Nick Hopwood
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Correspondence to Nick Hopwood .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Teacher Education, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia

    Bill Green

  2. School of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Nick Hopwood

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Hopwood, N. (2015). Relational Geometries of the Body: Doing Ethnographic Fieldwork. In: Green, B., Hopwood, N. (eds) The Body in Professional Practice, Learning and Education. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00140-1_4

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