Rapport in three ethnographic studies of language and gender in private contexts

Building rapport between researcher and researched tends to be seen as essential to ethnographic research ‘even while the path to rapport seems always to have been fraught with difficulties, uncertainties, happenstance, ethical ambiguity, fear, and self-doubt’ (Marcus, 1989: 106). In this talk I will discuss the benefits and challenges of aiming for a close and trusting relationship between researcher and researched in language and gender studies of spontaneous talk in private contexts. On the basis of three of my own studies, including one study of young South London men, one of a multicultural teenage couple, and one of a group of adolescent Bangladeshi girls, I will show how close rapport can generate the kind of ethnographic insight which was central to my understanding of young speakers’ practices, identities and relationships. On the other hand, I will discuss some of the difficulties that a close and trusting relationship can bring when, for example, the researched challenge the interpretation of the researcher or request changes to the researcher’s work.

References: Marcus, George E (1989) Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.