Types of Tales
Positivistic classification schemes are difficult to avoid, as they are so entrenched in the social sciences, and in this chapter I review one such a scheme to demonstrate some of the varieties of ethnographic writing. Van Maanen (2011) delineates a numbe
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TYPES OF TALES
Positivistic classification schemes are difficult to avoid, as they are so entrenched in the social sciences, and in this chapter I review one such a scheme to demonstrate some of the varieties of ethnographic writing. Van Maanen (2011) delineates a number of forms ethnographic writing may take. These types, like many classificatory schemes, overlap and may appear in different sections of one document, but they are nonetheless useful for thinking about how to frame your own narratives. These types of writing also reflect trends and changes of fashion within the field of ethnography. While it is beyond the scope of this book, many of these forms of writing have been influenced by larger debates surrounding epistemologies and issues of representation. It is worthwhile for ethnographers to be familiar with this particular academic conversation and to consider how your own work is both influenced by and situated in these debates. Realist Tales
The writer of a realist tale attempts to assume an objective, omnipotent stance in the portrayal of their narrative. The realist tale has what Van Maanen (2011: 46) refers to as an “institutional voice,” with a focus solely on what the research proclaims is the ‘goings on’ of the group under study. The piece may take on a documentary tone, with a lot of focus on mundane details to support various points that the author wants to make. Written in third person, the ‘I’ of the author is not present in the narrative, nor is there any discussion of researcher subjectivity. Historically, this style of writing up results was used to justify the ‘science’ of ethnography (and more general, of the social sciences). Tapping into the ethos that good science is exemplified by objectivity, the writer assumes a detached, god-like vantage point. When subjectivity enters the narrative, it is from the participant’s point of view in the form of quotes. “The narrator,” Van Maanen (2011: 53) writes, “speaks for the group studied as a passive observer who roams imperialistically across the setting to tell of events that happen in this way or that.”
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Chapter 8
This type of writing has been problematized by methodologists, and should be viewed with a critical lens by ethnographers in particular due to the imperialistic roots of our chosen method. Lack of reflexivity translates to a lack of transparency on the part of the researcher. What was the researcher’s motive? What biases interrupted the researcher’s gaze? While there may be no malign intent on the part of the researcher, critics argue that we need to interrogate this style and explore the unsaid as well as the said. Deconstruction of objectivity in research raises questions not easily answered about the possibility of an objective stance. With the emphasis on researchers’ standpoint and reflexivity in recent decades, stand-alone realist tales have largely fallen out of fashion, although this type of tale is still the primary mode of writing quantitative research reports. On the other hand, a researcher should be cognizant th
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