Ethnography of Writing

This theme focuses on understanding ethnographic writing not merely as a medium for reporting research findings but as an active, embodied practice integral to the ethnographic method. Key inquiries revolve around the reflexivity embedded in writing, its role in shaping knowledge production, narrative strategies, and the tensions of representation that arise from the ethnographer's positionality and the social context of fieldwork. The importance lies in illuminating how writing practices influence the construction and communication of ethnographic knowledge, addressing perennial debates from the 'writing culture' critique to contemporary methodological innovations.

This theme interrogates writing not just as produced texts but as active, observable social practices situated in interactional contexts. Scholars employ ethnomethodology (EM) and conversation analysis (CA) to elucidate the detailed, moment-by-moment organization of writing acts, focusing especially on handwriting as a multimodal embodied practice. Complementing this, praxeological approaches examine writing as routine, meaningful social practice, addressing both epistemological and methodological challenges to empirically studying writing's performativity and situatedness. This research trajectory advances tools for transparency, replicability, and nuanced understanding of writing beyond static text analysis.

This theme explores ethnographic and ethnographically-informed research focused on writing as embedded within institutional, disciplinary, and pedagogical contexts. It considers how ethnographic methods illuminate the socio-cultural dynamics of writing instruction, genre enactment, and academic literacies development, particularly in second-language (L2) and higher education settings. The research informs praxis by revealing lived experiences and tensions around writing and literacy development, guiding effective pedagogy, curricular design, and disciplinary genre understanding.