Netzwerk Phänomenologische Metaphysik
145618

(2006) Human Studies 29 (4).

Puttings things into words

ethnographic description and the silence of the social

Stefan Hirschauer

pp. 413-

The article defines a new referential problem of ethnographic description: the verbalization of the "silent" dimension of the social. As a documentary procedure, description has been devalued by more advanced recording techniques that set a naturalistic standard concerning the reification of qualitative "data." I discuss this standard from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge and replace it by a challenge unknown to all empirical procedures relying on primary verbalizations of informants. Descriptions have to solve the problems of the voiceless, the silent, the unspeakable, the pre-linguistic, and the indescribable. Ethnography puts something into words, which did not exist in language before. To respond to this task, descriptions have to turn away from the logic of recording and develop into a theory-oriented research practice

Publication details

DOI: 10.1007/s10746-007-9041-1

Full citation:

Hirschauer, S. (2006). Puttings things into words: ethnographic description and the silence of the social. Human Studies 29 (4), pp. 413-.

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