Doing ethnography at the intersection of grassroots and research labour: new fieldwork imageries for critical sociolinguistic engagements

Paloma Elvira; Laura Menna

doi:10.1515/ijsl-2024-0009

Article

Doing ethnography at the intersection of grassroots and research labour: new fieldwork imageries for critical sociolinguistic engagements

Paloma Elvira and Laura Menna

Published/Copyright: April 23, 2025

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From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2025 Issue 293

Abstract

In this article, we propose to rethink some of the ethnographic images widely used in critical sociolinguistic studies to refer to and make sense of the fieldwork pace. We do so by bringing into dialogue our two ethnographic research experiences within grassroots initiatives, arguing that the nature of these research sites and the political interweaving that ethnographers might experience there call for a re-consideration of the epistemology that underlies the more usual understanding of fieldwork within critical sociolinguistics. In this vein, we revisit key moments of our research processes (field entrance and exit, data gathering and the dissemination of results), and suggest alternative re-readings of them. In doing so, we wish to engage and contribute to a discussion on the possibilities of re-situating the ethnographic sociolinguistic gaze towards less investigated sites, and ultimately to suggest a broader critical horizon.

Keywords: critical sociolinguistics; fieldwork; ethnography; grassroots; data production; dissemination

Corresponding author: Paloma Elvira, Centre of Discourse Studies, Barcelona, Spain, E-mail: paloma.elvira.ruiz@gmail.com

Funding source: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Award Identifier / Grant number: Contrato Predoctoral FPI-UAM

Funding source: Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Award Identifier / Grant number: Contrato Predoctoral - DTCL

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the colleagues who, throughout the production of this work, have read, commented on, and enriched the ideas it contains. We offer special thanks to Adil Moustaoui for his valuable contributions to the debate on resistance, provided during his carefull reading of the first and now distant draft of this paper. We are deelpy grateful to our esteemed mentors, Eva Codó and Teun van Dijk, for engaging in long discussions with us, constantly pushing us to sharpen our critical thinking --even when that meant challenging their own positions. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our colleague and friend, Lucia de la Presa, for accompanying us over the years and for carefully proofreading the English in the various versions that underwent revision. Likewise, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of IJSL for the care and respect shown during the review process, as well as for their valuable observations and the enriching exchange they promoted. Finally, we wish to thank our communities of struggle, with whom we have (re)produced the political projects that, ultimately, give meaning to our way of understanding research labor.

Research funding: The funding sources are “Universidad Autónoma de Madrid” (Contrato Predoctoral FPI-UAM) and “Universitat Pompeu Fabra” (Contrato Predoctoral - DTCL).

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Received: 2024-01-19

Accepted: 2024-10-28

Published Online: 2025-04-23

Published in Print: 2025-05-26

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2024-0009

Keywords for this article

critical sociolinguistics; fieldwork; ethnography; grassroots; data production; dissemination