ER DER NOGEN NYHEDER? Sladder som etnografisk metode

Resumé

Tao Kongsbak: Is There Any News?

- Gossip as an Ethnographic Method

Ethnographers have always used gossip in

fieldwork. Malinowski was one of the first to

point to the central importance of gossip in

ethnographic data-collection. However, not

many ethnographers have showed how they

have actually and systematically used gossip

as a method. The purpose of the article is to

introduce gossip as an ethnographic method.

Gossip is thus treated as a communicative

genre, and some of the insights that can be

generated through gossip are described: the

social taste of the group, participants’ experience

of intimate relations, core values of

the group underlying the world view. This is

followed by examples that show how to get

involved in gossip. The article also

comments on the widely discussed crisis of

ethnographic authority and suggests that this

crisis should be overcome, not by taking refuge

in abstract theoretical concepts like „resonance"

and „prophecy" but practically: the

ethnographer must do more to involve himself

with the locals and be more observant

while he is involved. A systematic use of

gossip in the field is one solution.