Rights statement: The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41285-019-00090-4
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Was it autoethnography? The classificatory, confessional and mad politics of lived experience in sociological research
AU - McWade, Brigit
N1 - The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41285-019-00090-4
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - This paper will consider the history and politics of autoethnography in relation to the activist scholarship of Mad Studies. As part of ethnographic research about ‘recovery in/from serious mental health problems’ in the UK, I accessed an NHS community “arts for mental health” service as a service-user would do, situating this data in broader socio-political debates concerning the meaning, management and lived experience of madness and distress. This paper examines the framing of this research as autoethnographic and the relationship of personal and/or lived experience to the knowledge produced. I explore the classificatory, confessional and Mad politics of experience, identity and identification, and embodiment for research subjectivities. Employing autoethnographic means, I consider the ways in which I situate myself, and am situated by others, in relation to my research; evaluating the methodological implications of the crisis of representation in anthropology, and the post-structuralist criticism of identity politics. Through an engagement Mad Studies, I seek to move beyond these two established responses to the use of personal experience and autobiography in research.
AB - This paper will consider the history and politics of autoethnography in relation to the activist scholarship of Mad Studies. As part of ethnographic research about ‘recovery in/from serious mental health problems’ in the UK, I accessed an NHS community “arts for mental health” service as a service-user would do, situating this data in broader socio-political debates concerning the meaning, management and lived experience of madness and distress. This paper examines the framing of this research as autoethnographic and the relationship of personal and/or lived experience to the knowledge produced. I explore the classificatory, confessional and Mad politics of experience, identity and identification, and embodiment for research subjectivities. Employing autoethnographic means, I consider the ways in which I situate myself, and am situated by others, in relation to my research; evaluating the methodological implications of the crisis of representation in anthropology, and the post-structuralist criticism of identity politics. Through an engagement Mad Studies, I seek to move beyond these two established responses to the use of personal experience and autobiography in research.
KW - Autoethnography
KW - Mad Studies
KW - Disability Studies
KW - Mental Health
KW - Anthropology
KW - Representation
KW - Black Sociology
KW - Stigma
KW - Sociology
KW - Social Inequalities
U2 - 10.1057/s41285-019-00090-4
DO - 10.1057/s41285-019-00090-4
M3 - Journal article
VL - 18
SP - 123
EP - 137
JO - Social Theory and Health
JF - Social Theory and Health
SN - 1477-8211
IS - 2
ER -