Peripheral Methodologies

Unlearning, Not-knowing and Ethnographic Limits

Francisco Martínez, Lili Di Puppo, Martin Demant Frederiksen, Francisco Martínez, Lili Di Puppo, Martin Demant Frederiksen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000213584
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Computer Science

How does peripherality challenge methodology and theory-making? This book examines how the peripheral can be incorporated into ethnographic research, and reflects on what it means to be on the periphery – ontologically and epistemologically. Starting from the premise that clarity and fixity as ideals of modernity prevent us from approaching that which cannot be easily captured and framed into scientific boundaries, the book argues for remaining on the boundary between the known and the unknown in order to surpass this ethnographic limit. Peripheral Methodologies shows that peripherality is not only to be seen as a marginal condition, but rather as a form of theory-making and practice that incorporates reflexivity and experimentation. Instead of domesticating the peripheral, the authors engage in (and insist on) practicing expertise in reverse, unlearning their tools in order to integrate the empirical and analytical otherwise.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Foreword: Between village and bush
• Introduction: Welcome to the corners of the peripheral
• Part I: Suspension of clarity
• Part II: Unlearning
• Part III: Absence of knowledge
• Conclusion: Catching a glimpse of peripheral wisdom
• Afterthought: Notes on the peripheral, in a plague year
• (Un-)Index