Performing Research or Researching Performance?: The View from the Martial Arts

In: International review of qualitative research: IRQR, Band 6, Heft 1, S. 1-17

Abstract

Drawing on what Gary Alan Fine has called a peopled ethnography of two martial arts, one French ( savate), one African-Brazilian ( capoeira), strategies for studying embodied performativity are outlined. The relevance of classic ethnography for the illumination of global social and political issues is explored. The virtues of traditional, "peopled" (re)presentation are vigorously defended as a counter narrative to the vogue for presenting qualitative research results as performance pieces, which has produced monologues, poems, short stories, dialogues, plays, and dance events. Central to the analysis of the latter is a discussion of the academic performance of authenticity, sensitivity, empathy, and sincerity.