Ethno-Graphic Short Stories as Mode of (Re-)Presentation

Reflexivity, Violence, and Critique in Addressing Criminalisation as Strategy of Governance

Abstract

The research team CrimScapes: Navigating Citizenship through European Landscapes of Criminalisation has created a collection of ethno-graphic short stories based on vignettes from team members’ original research. The seven stories in total explore strategies for navigating uncertainties as encountered during ethnographic research in fields of criminalisation, including of hate speech, sex work, migration, prisons, imprisonment for unpaid fines, and drug use. The translation of our research into comics has the potential to reach a wider audience and – through the dense interplay of words and images – offers a unique perspective on complex fieldwork dynamics, such as regarding questions of subjectivity, affect, and violence. Moreover, the inevitable blending of documentation and fiction enables a creative and productive engagement with research fields that are particularly morally charged. Nonetheless, it is difficult to fully appreciate the political and ethical implications of visual storytelling. In this text, we hence explore certain possibilities and limitations of ethno-graphic short stories. Because we see these visualisations as not only representations, but also as dynamic constructions of social experiences, we consider here certain topics that concerned us during this process, and the ways in which those elements were ultimately treated. To this end, we analyse the portrayal of drug use by content moderators who are confronted with overwhelming amounts of online hate and violence in their daily work. What does the translation of ethnographic fieldwork into ethno-graphic storytelling do to ethnographic knowledge? What opportunities does the genre offer? What limitations does it impose? And how can political and ethical reflections that emerged during fieldwork be made visible?