Rhiannon Bury <welshwitch75@rogers.com>

As Deborah Britzman say, ethnographic accounts are "overinvested in second hand memories."

seriously, what isn't? One thing I found about doing internet ethnography, was that i didn't have to rely solely on my memories or other people's memories and retellings. I could go to the archives and re-read. It was often interesting to observe how my memories of what happened often did not match the re-reading. And it became at least partially possible to start to see how memories, or narratives of things, were constructed. Not surprisingly, these narratives of group events had a lot to do with the narratives common offline. Political narratives seemed particularly important, in making sense of others and events. Which suggests that politics is where 'myth' resides in the contemporary world.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I use Foucault's conceptualization of the heterotopia. It was my data that led to me to work with this notion, not the other way around. Yet, the participants would not necessarily describe their "spaces" as heterotopic and might think it's just a bunch of academic whooey for all I know (but just be too polite to say so.)

I agree (for what that's worth :), we can't always expect people to use the same terms as analysts do. Indeed analysis should *add* something. The problem, I guess, is that if it doesn't seem relevant (because of the terms employed) then the ethnography can seem exploitative, and if it does seem relevant it may do nothing more than summarise local common sense - or even worse lead to attempts to exert power over (as opposed to with) others. jon UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER ======================================================================== This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. ========================================================================