Okay serious question: Do we think there's a place for autoethnographic research in #SEresearch ?
From "Toward a Moderate Autoethnography" by Sarah Stahlke Wall:
"Autoethnography is an avant-garde method of qualitative inquiry that has captured the attention of an ever-increasing number of scholars from a variety of disciplines."
"Grounded in postmodern philosophy that makes room for diverse and nontraditional ways of knowing, autoethnographic work produces 'highly personalized accounts that draw upon the experience of the author/researcher for the purposes of extending sociological understanding'”
I've read some excellent autoethnographies that deepened my understanding of social and psychological phenomena, and engendered in me a level of empathy for varying human experiences.
@KFosterMarks I’m not entirely sure if software engineers on the whole have enough reflexivity about their daily experiences to produce autoethnography vs. say, just talking about themselves l, which most are certainly capable of 😭. Though I think of someone like @marick as doing something that feels pretty close!
@sasha It would definitely take a unique individual with a blend of both software engineering experience, qualitative research literacy, and some level of academic background in the theories being examined in the autoethnography. Most software engineers wouldn't have the requisite professional and academic background to produce this sort of research, I think.
But there are folks out there with this blend of experience...
@KFosterMarks as someone who spent a lot of time in grad school deep in the science studies literature thinking a lot about the work it takes to produce knowledge and the effects that work produces, I was quite (pleasantly) surprised how prepared I was for the modern workplace when I transitioned to software. Oh look, there is some theory playing out over there is an almost everyday occurrence.
@sasha I imagine you were quite OVER-prepared for the modern workplace, based on the wholesale (and alarming!) lack of epistemological awareness we see demonstrated in the corporate realm 😆
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