Going against the grain in writing ethnography

Some institutional and disciplinary pressures placed on early career ethnographers conflict with authoring ethically and politically committed works. Drawing on the author’s personal experience in writing an ethnographic dissertation, the chapter illustrates the tension between pondering the ethics and politics of ethnographic representation and neoliberal and objectivist expectations. It then explains how these unfitting structural demands impact ethnographic writing and describes a number of alternative writing practices. They include ethical and critical self-reflexivity, personally and politically engaged writing, representation of complexity of social worlds and formation of supportive writing communities. These strategies not only generates ethically and politically responsible representation but also inspires critical analysis.