Autoethnography in human-computer interaction

Theory and practice

Amon Rapp

pp. 25-42

in: Michael Filimowicz, Veronika Tzankova (eds), New directions in third wave human-computer interaction 2, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

Autoethnography is an ethnographic method in which a fieldworker's experience is investigated together with the experience of other observed social actors. Over the years, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research almost exclusively produced "objective ethnographies", attempting to generate accurate descriptions of the "world" and the individuals inhabiting it. However, recently HCI community started exploring different forms of observing and describing reality, making the ethnographer regain visibility, and produce reflexive first-person recounts of her work. Autoethnography might be precisely inscribed in this movement, whereby it explicitly attempts to recount the fieldwork from the fieldworker's point of view, situating the ethnographer as the protagonist of the ethnographic narration. In this chapter, I will outline the anthropological roots of the autoethnographic method, and describe its potential implications for HCI research.