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Applied utility and the auto-ethnographic short story: persuasions for, and illustrations of, writing critical social science

Gilbourne, David; Jones, Robyn; Jordan, Spencer

Applied utility and the auto-ethnographic short story: persuasions for, and illustrations of, writing critical social science Thumbnail


Authors

David Gilbourne

Robyn Jones



Abstract

In some quarters it is argued that, narrative researchers might be classified as being either storyanalysts or storytellers. They go on to suggest that one feature of storytellers is that they undertake a form of analysis as the process of writing unfolds. With these sentiments in mind, in the present paper, we consider how auto-ethnographical accounts of traumatic and challenging life events might, through the analysis contained within, demonstrate value within the realm of applied pedagogy. In making our case we embrace and adapt the literary genre of storytelling, more specifically, the short story. The story presented here, ‘Travel Writer’, offers an opaque, multicontextualised and lifelong view of career transition. The present paper, in more general terms, considers the capacity of auto-ethnography and, more specifically, the short storied version of it, to engender critical reader engagement, to encourage personal reflection in others, and to act as a point of stimulus for the enactment of applied debate through the lens of critical social science. With regards to the assumptions of critical social science, the final discussion also considers how the auto-ethnographic text, as a pedagogic tool, might help others to contest and challenge the meta-narratives that, we argue, risk stagnating established thinking.

Citation

Gilbourne, D., Jones, R., & Jordan, S. (2014). Applied utility and the auto-ethnographic short story: persuasions for, and illustrations of, writing critical social science. Sport, Education and Society, 19(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2011.632405

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 10, 2011
Online Publication Date Nov 21, 2011
Publication Date Mar 2, 2014
Deposit Date Aug 11, 2016
Publicly Available Date Aug 11, 2016
Journal Sport, Education and Society
Print ISSN 1357-3322
Electronic ISSN 1470-1243
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 19
Issue 1
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2011.632405
Keywords Short story, Critical social science, Pedagogy, Sport, Auto-ethnography
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/725923
Publisher URL http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13573322.2011.632405
Additional Information The Version of Record of this manuscript has been published and is available in Sport, Education and Society (2014) http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13573322.2011.632405
Contract Date Aug 11, 2016

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