Editing Autoethnography (section)

== Definitions ==
Historically, researchers have had trouble reaching a consensus regarding the definition of autoethnography.<ref name=":27">{{Cite book |last1=Ellingson |first1=Laura L. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/123818192 |title=Handbook of Constructionist Research |last2=Ellis |first2=Carolyn |date=2008 |publisher=Guilford Press |isbn=978-1-59385-305-1 |editor-last=Holstein |editor-first=James A. |location=New York |pages=445–465 |language=English |chapter=Autoethnography as Constructionist Project |oclc=123818192 |editor-last2=Gubrium |editor-first2=Jaber F.}}</ref> Whereas some scholars situate autoethnography within the family of narrative methods, others place it within the ethnographic tradition.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Robin |last2=Lilyea |first2=Bruce |date=2022 |title=I'm Interested in Autoethnography, but How Do I Do It? |url=https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol27/iss1/14/ |journal=The Qualitative Report |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=197–208 |doi=10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5288|doi-access=free }}</ref> However, it generally refers to research that involves critical observation of an individual's lived experiences and connecting those experience to broader cultural, political, and social concepts.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":22" /><ref name=":21" /><ref name=":4" />

Autoethnography can refer to research in which a researcher reflexively studies a group they belong to or their subjective experience.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Hayano |first=David M. |date=1979 |title=Auto-Ethnography: Paradigms, Problems, and Prospects |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44125560 |journal=Human Organization |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=99–104 |doi=10.17730/humo.38.1.u761n5601t4g318v |jstor=44125560 |issn=0018-7259|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":4" /> In the 1970s, autoethnography was more narrowly defined as "insider ethnography", referring to studies of the (culture of) a group of which the researcher is a member.<ref name=":6" />

According to Adams et al., autoethnography

# uses a researcher's personal experience to describe and critique cultural beliefs, practices, and experiences; 
# acknowledges and values a researcher's relationships with others
# uses deep and careful self-reflection—typically referred to as “reflexivity”—to name and interrogate the intersections between self and society, the particular and the general, the personal and the political
# shows people in the process of figuring out what to do, how to live, and the meaning of their struggles
# balances intellectual and methodological rigor, emotion, and creativity
# strives for social justice and to make life better.<ref name=":24" />
[[Arthur P. Bochner|Bochner]] and [[Carolyn Ellis|Ellis]] have also defined autoethnography as "an autobiographical genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural."<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last1=Bochner |first1=Arthur |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315545417/evocative-autoethnography-arthur-bochner-carolyn-ellis |title=Evocative Autoethnography: Writing Lives and Telling Stories |last2=Ellis |first2=Carolyn |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |location=New York, New York |language=English |doi=10.4324/9781315545417|isbn=9781134815876 }}</ref>{{Rp|page=65}} They further indicate that autoethnography is typically written in first-person and can "appear in a variety of forms," such as "short stories, poetry, fiction, novels, photographic essays, personal essays, journals, fragmented and layered writing, and social science prose."<ref name=":7" />{{Rp|page=65}}