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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter August 15, 2018

Reflexive subjects: Exploring the narrative habitus of self-aware interviewees

  • Linda Martina Mülli EMAIL logo
From the journal Fabula

Abstract

The notion of ‘self-aware interviewees' contains two features that emerged when studying early career professionals in the United Nations headquarters in Geneva and Vienna. First, it entails considerations on the researcher's positionality vis-à-vis the ‘reflexive subjects' encountered in the field. It also considers the benefit of ‘para-ethnographic sensibilities' and the related re-negotiation of the relationship informant-ethnographer. Second, it addresses the narrative habitus encountered among UN neophytes. This paper ultimately states that analyzing the self-aware interviewees' (auto-)narrations implies reflections on power relations in a particular research setting.

Zusammenfassung

In diesem Beitrag verbinde ich den Ausdruck von ‚selbstbewussten‘ oder ‚sich selbst bewussten‘ Interviewpartnerinnen und -partnern mit zwei Besonderheiten: Zum einen untersuche ich P a r a - e t h n o g r a p h i s c h e S e n s i b i l i t ä t e n von Berufseinsteigerinnen und -einsteigern bei den Vereinten Nationen (UNO) in Genf und Wien sowie das damit verbundene Aushandeln der Beziehung zwischen Interviewten und Ethnographin. Zum anderen gehe ich der Frage nach, was bei den UNO-Newcomern den spezifischen narrativen Habitus ausmacht. Die Analyse der (Selbst-)Erzählungen von selbstbewussten und sich selbst bewussten Informantinnen und Informanten impliziert dezidierte Überlegungen zu Machtverhältnissen in einem spezifischen Forschungskontext.

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Online erschienen: 2018-08-15

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