As if we were not friends: from (de)objectifying and (re)positioning and back

ABSTRACT

Based on three vignettes taken from interviews with friends who were members of a social-ecological transition initiative of which I was both an active participant and a researcher, this paper explores ethnography in friendship. Breaking with the methodological proposals known as friendship as method, this text proposes to reflect on the ways friendship acts in ethnographic interviews. Through a ritual that unfolds during the interview, leading us to act ‘as if we were not friends’, this article seeks to ponder the types of knowledge produced and raises issues related to the researcher’s positioning within this kind of relationship. It turns out that the duo friendship-ethnography creates a particular space in which specific types of knowledges are produced and in which the researcher’s subjectivity is resolutely transformed.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnographic interview
• friendships
• knowledge
• positionality
• relationships

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Pseudonyms.

2 (De Toledo 2021).

3 Le fleuve qui voulait écrire tells the story of a constituent commission that is entrusted with the task of bringing the elements of nature (rivers, lakes, forests, valleys, oceans …) into political decision-making bodies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.