Autoethnography
A reflective anthropology technique, auto ethnography is where the researcher uses self-reflection to explore and think through personal experiences and connect the same with the context of research, specifically cultural.
“Autoethnography is an emerging qualitative research method that allows the author to write in a highly personalized style, drawing on his or her experience to extend understanding about a societal phenomenon. The intent of auto ethnography is to acknowledge the inextricable link between the personal and the cultural and to make room for nontraditional forms of inquiry and expression.”
Nature & context
Design Anthropology, User Research
Resources
Journal to self-reflect, research notes, artifacts (if any collected).
Procedure
Before: Understand the context and segregate research data, be it pictures, notes, voice notes, videos, artifacts etc. Remember to consider specific cultural practices and write the reflections from self perspective, on a personal level. Care to be taken to avoid judgments and bias.
During: Reflect on observations and insights gathered during the initial phases of research. Compare and contrast and try to relate to how observations (specifically cultural) is similar or different from self's practices.
After: Keep iterating on the reflections by including the new findings/insights. Make sure that the predispositions are verified and the reflections include facts and not assumptions.
Use Case
While doing the project to reduce food wastage, almost all of our focus was on reducing the food wastage in America. This was because all of my team members were from an Asian culture and we had similar food practices. There were moments during my research, when I was wondering how are practices different in the US compared to Asia. However, now that I think about it, I could have used Auto ethnography to reflect on my own practices, what I observed through research and my predispositions to understand the right cause (probably).
Sense Making Data
Reflection on action, through auto ethnography is about revisiting what has been observed, understood through research and reflect on researcher's own thoughts specifically focusing on cultural differences. So the data to focus on here is the resulting reflections that might give rise to new insights.