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Researcher and Employee: Reflections on Reflective Practice in Rural Development Research
Author(s) -
McAreavey Ruth
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9523.2008.00459.x
Subject(s) - reflexivity , ethnography , perspective (graphical) , sociology , context (archaeology) , field (mathematics) , position (finance) , public relations , epistemology , social science , political science , business , geography , anthropology , mathematics , archaeology , finance , artificial intelligence , computer science , pure mathematics , philosophy
This article describes an ethnographic study that was used to critically assess the links between rural development policy and practice. It does so from the novel perspective of the researcher as an employee in the organisation where the ethnography study was conducted. The article argues that this distinctive position gives rise to specific methodological issues. Particular attention is paid in the analysis to marginalised issues in reflexive practice literature, namely, the structural context. In so doing this research places at centre stage the importance of reflexivity in the field of rural sociology, an area in which to date it has had limited acceptance.