Teaching engaged ethnography and socio-cultural change: Participating in an urban movement in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Abstract

How can ethnographic research be taught? What kinds of ethnographic environments are involved in the study of contemporary socio-cultural issues? How / where can socio-cultural change be spotted? Where do ethnographic reflexivity and engaged ethnography stand with regard to comprehending and furthering socio-cultural change? Can/should ethnographic work fully conflate with critical activism? Can the teaching of engaged ethnographic research instigate critical awareness of the researcher’s positionality-ies? Considerations of the above questions will be endeavored via the participation of the author in an urban movement in Thessaloniki, Greece. Her double engagement as resident and academic teacher will expose the interrelatedness of these issues and the methodological, epistemological, and political implications that engaged ethnography raises.