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Ethnographies of postsocialist change

Hörschelmann, K.; Stenning, A.

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Authors

K. Hörschelmann

A. Stenning



Abstract

In this paper, we examine the value of ethnographic research for developing a critical area studies approach that promotes cosmopolitan scholarship and contributes to the decentring of universal knowledge claims. We focus on the potential of ethnographic research on postsocialist change to form part of such a re-envisaged, critical area studies. The paper seeks to demonstrate to what extent ethnographic research not only offers a better understanding of the social and cultural practices through which postsocialist transformations are lived and negotiated, but also produces new conceptual insights on the basis of engaging with empirical complexity. Problems of researcher positionality, the politics of representation, methodology and ethics are discussed in relation to recent critiques of anthropological writing and research. We draw on Massey's (2005) concept of space-time and Robinson's (2003) and Gibson-Graham's (2004) proposals for a postcolonial, critical area studies to identify ways of reimagining ethnography as a mode of engagement rather than observation and of producing rather than surveying difference.

Citation

Hörschelmann, K., & Stenning, A. (2008). Ethnographies of postsocialist change. Progress in Human Geography, 32(3), 339-361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132508089094

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jun 1, 2008
Deposit Date Jan 27, 2009
Publicly Available Date Jan 26, 2010
Journal Progress in Human Geography
Print ISSN 0309-1325
Electronic ISSN 1477-0288
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 32
Issue 3
Pages 339-361
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132508089094
Keywords Area studies, Ethnography, Postsocialism.
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1555040

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Copyright Statement
The final definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal Progress in human geography 32/3 2008 © 2008 SAGE Publications Ltd by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Progress in human geography page: http://phg.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com/





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