In this article I argue for the importance of ethnography and the efficacy of reflexive autobiography within sociological work in understanding the complexities of racial identity formation. I offer a rereading of some of my earlier research as a way to draw out some of the elisions embedded within that work. I suggest that understanding such moments of "silence," those passages where the ethnographic narrator disappears from view, are central and not marginal to any theorization of "race," culture, and identity. This is because such literary and symbolic suppressions point to both the ontological gaps within identity formation and subjectivity and the continuing shortfalls within our theorizing of those concepts. The article thus develops both an epistemological framework for a reflexive cultural studies/critical sociology of sport methodology that is sensitive to questions of racialization and an analysis of the conceptual problematics in thinking through the contingent nature and embodied performance of race. The article concludes by noting the limitations to the autobiographical turn and the use of reflexivity within ethnographic accounts such as those found within autoethnography. It is argued that although critical interpretive perspectives offer a needed correction to positivistic approaches founded on a naive objectivism, the production of subjectivity and the use of autobiography always need to be located within broader frameworks that map the historical forces and social formations that make (racial) identity possible.
Adkins, L. (2004). Reflexivity: Freedom or habit of gender? Theory , Culture and Society, 20(6), 21-42.
2.
Alasuutari, P. (1995). Researching culture: Qualitative method and cultural studies. London: Sage.
3.
Alexander, C. (1996). The art of being black. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
4.
Alexander, C. (2004). Writing race: Ethnography and the imagination of The Asian Gang. In M. Bulmer & J. Solomos (Eds.), Researching race and racism (pp. 134-149). London: Routledge .
5.
Alexander, C. (2006). Introduction: Mapping the issues. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 29(3), 397-410.
6.
Anderson, E. (2002). The ideologically driven critique. American Journal of Sociology, 107(6), 1533-1550.
7.
Anderson, L. (2006). Analytic autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 373-395.
8.
Back, L. (1996). New ethnicities and urban culture: Racisms and multiculture in young lives. London: UCL Press.
9.
Back, L. (1998). Reading and writing research. In C. Seale (Ed.), Researching society and culture (pp. 284-296). London: Sage.
10.
Back, L. , Crabbe, T., & Solomos, J. (2001a). "Lions and black skins": Race, nation and local patriotism in football. In B. Carrington & I. McDonald (Eds.), "Race," sport and British society (pp. 83-102). London: Routledge.
11.
Back, L. , Crabbe, T., & Solomos, J. (2001b). The changing face of football: Racism, identity and multiculture in the English game. Oxford: Berg.
12.
Best, A. (2003). Doing race in the context of feminist interviewing: Constructing whiteness through talk. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(6), 895-910.
13.
Bourdieu, P. , & Wacqant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. University of Chicago Press: Chicago .
14.
Burawoy, M. (2003). Revisits: An outline of a theory of reflexive ethnography. American Sociological Review, 68, 645-679.
15.
Burdsey, D. (2007). British Asians and football: Culture, identity, exclusion. London: Routledge.
16.
Carrington, B. (1999). Cricket, culture and identity: An exploration of the role of sport in the construction of black masculinities. In S. Roseneil & J. Seymour (Eds.), Practising identities: Power and resistance (pp. 11-32). Basingstoke, England, UK: Palgrave.
17.
Carrington, B. (2002). Sport, masculinity and black cultural resistance . In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Power games: A critical sociology of sport (pp. 267-291). London: Routledge.
18.
Carrington, B. (2004). Black skin, white flannels: A study of the role of sport in the construction of black identity. Unpublished doctoral thesis , Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK.
19.
Carrington, B. (2007). Merely identity: Cultural identity and the politics of sport. Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(1), 49-66.
20.
Cashmore, E. (1982). Black sportsmen. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
21.
Cashmore, E. (1983). Rastaman: The Rastafarian movement in England (2nd ed.). London: Unwin.
22.
Conn, D. (2006, March 22, Wednesday). "Headingley gropes its way toward colour blindness," The Guardian. Retrieved October 27, 2007, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/mar/22/cricket.sport
23.
Cosslett, T. , Lury, C., & Summerfield, P. (2000). Introduction. In T. Cosslett, C. Lury , & P. Summerfield (Eds.), Feminism and autobiography: Texts, theories, methods (pp. 1-21). London : Routledge.
24.
Crabbe, T. (2004). England fans-a new club for a new England? Social inclusion, authenticity and the performance of Englishness at "home" and "away ." Leisure Studies, 23(1), 63-78.
25.
Davies, B. , Browne, J., Gannon, S., Honan, E., Laws, C., Muller-Rockstroh, B., et al. (2004). The ambivalent practices of reflexivity . Qualitative Inquiry, 10(3), 360-389.
26.
Davies, C. (1999). Reflexive ethnography: A guide to researching selves and others. London: Routledge .
27.
Denzin, N. (1994). The art and politics of interpretation. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research. London: Sage. PAGE RANGE?
28.
Duneier, M. (1992). Slim's table: Race, respectability, and masculinity . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
29.
Duneier, M. (2004). Three rules I go by in my ethnographic research on race and racism. In M. Bulmer & J. Solomos (Eds.), Researching race and racism (pp. 92-103). London: Routledge .
30.
Duster, T. (2000). Foreword. In F. Twine & J. Warren (Eds.), Racing research, researching race (pp. xi-xiv). New York: New York University Press.
31.
Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
32.
Farred, G. (1996). The maple man: How cricket made a postcolonial intellectual. In G. Farred (Ed.), Rethinking C.L.R. James (pp. 165-186). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
33.
Farrar, M. (2002). The struggle for "community" in a British multi-ethnic inner-city area: Paradise in the making. Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.
34.
Fine, G. (1993) Ten lies of ethnography: Moral dilemmas of field research. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 22(3), 267-294.
35.
Fleming, S. (1995). "Home and away": Sport and south Asian male youth . Aldershot, England, UK: Avebury .
36.
Foley, D. (2002). Critical ethnography: The reflexive turn. Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(5), 469-490.
37.
Frankenberg, R. (2004). On unsteady ground: Crafting and engaging in the critical study of whiteness. In M. Bulmer & J. Solomos (Eds.), Researching race and racism (pp. 104-118). London: Routledge.
38.
Free, M. , & Hughson, J. (2003). Settling accounts with hooligans: Gender blindness in football supporter subculture research. Men and Masculinities , 6(2), 136-155.
39.
Gallagher, C. (2000). White like me? Methods, meaning, and manipulation in the field of white studies. In F. Twine & J. Warren (Eds.), Racing research, researching race (pp. 67-92). New York: New York University Press.
40.
Gallagher, C. (in press). "The end of racism" as the new doxa: New strategies for researching race. In T. Zuberi & E. Bonilla-Silva (Eds.), White logic, white methods: Racism and methodology. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
41.
Gannon, S. (2006). The (im)possibilities of writing the self-writing: French poststructural theory and autoethnography. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 6(4), 474-495.
42.
Gatson, S. (2003). On being amorphous: Autoethnography, genealogy, and a multiracial identity. Qualitative Inquiry, 9(1), 20-48.
43.
Giardina, M. (2005). Sporting pedagogies: Performing culture and identity in the global arena. New York: Peter Lang.
44.
Giddens, A. (1986). Sociology: A brief but critical introduction (2nd ed.). Basingstoke, England, UK: Macmillan.
45.
Gilroy, P. (1993). Small acts: Thoughts on the politics of black cultures. London: Serpent's Tail .
46.
Gilroy, P. (1999). A London sumting dis. . . . Critical Quarterly, 41(3), 57-69.
47.
Giulianotti, R. (1995). Participant observation and research into football hooliganism: Reflections on the problem of entrée and everyday risks. Sociology of Sport Journal, 12(1), 1-20.
48.
Gray, A. (2003). Research practice for cultural studies. London: Sage.
49.
Gunaratnam, Y. (2003). Researching "race" and ethnicity: Methods, knowledge and power. London: Sage.
50.
Hammersley, M. , & Atkinson, P. (1992). Ethnography: Principles in practice. London: Routledge.
51.
Hanchard, M. (2000). Racism, eroticism, and the paradoxes of a U.S. black researcher in Brazil. In F. Twine & J. Warren (Eds.), Racing research, researching race (pp. 165-185). New York: New York University Press.
52.
Hartigan, J., Jr. (2005). Odd tribes: Toward a cultural analysis of white people. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
53.
Hartmann, D. (1996). The politics of race and sport: Resistance and domination in the 1968 African American Olympic protest movement. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 19, 548-66.
54.
Hesse, B. (2000). Diasporicity: Black Britain's post-colonial formations . In B. Hesse (Ed.), Un/settled multiculturalisms: Diasporas, entanglements, transruptions (pp. 96-120). London: Zed Books.
55.
Holt, N.L. (2003). Representation, legitimation, and autoethnography: An autoethnographic writing story. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2(1), 1-22.
56.
Ismond, P. (2003). Black and Asian athletes in British sport and society: A sporting chance?Basingstoke, England, UK: Palgrave.
57.
James, C.L.R. (1963/1994). Beyond a boundary. London: Serpent's Tail.
58.
Johnson, R. , Chambers, D., Raghuram, R., & Tincknell, E. (2004). The practice of cultural studies. London: Sage.
59.
King, C. (2004). Offside racism: Playing the white man. Oxford: Berg.
60.
King, R. , Leonard, D., & Kusz, K. (2007). White power and sport: An introduction. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 31(1), 3-10.
61.
Law, I. , Phillips, D. , & Turney, L. (Eds.). ( 2004). Institutional racism in higher education. Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK: Trentham Books.
62.
Lawrence, E. (1982). In the abundance of water the fool is thirsty: Sociology and black "pathology." In Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (1982). The empire strikes back: Race and racism in 70s Britain (pp. 95-142). London: Hutchinson.
63.
Long, J. , & Hylton, K. (2002). Shades of white: An examination of whiteness in sport. Leisure Studies, 21(2), 87-103.
64.
Lynch, M. (2000). Against reflexivity as an academic virtue and source of privileged knowledge. Theory, Culture and Society , 17(3), 26-54.
65.
Macbeth, D. (2001). On "reflexivity" in qualitative research: Two readings, and a third. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(1), 35-68.
66.
Marcus, G.E. (1998). Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
67.
Markula, P. , & Denison, J. (2005). Sport and the personal narrative. In D. Andrews, D. Mason , & M. Silk (Eds.), Qualitative methods in sports studies (pp. 165-184). Oxford: Berg.
68.
Marqusee, M. (1994). Anyone but England: Cricket and the national malaise . London: Verso.
69.
May, R. , & Pattillo-McCoy, M. (2000). Do you see what I see? Examining a collaborative ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry , 6(1), 65-87.
70.
McDonald, M. (2005). Mapping whiteness and sport: Introduction to the special issue. Sociology of Sport Journal, 22(3), 245-255.
71.
McElroy, R. (2000). Bringing it home: Autobiography and contradiction . In T. Cosslett, C. Lury, & P. Summerfield (Eds.), Feminism and autobiography: Texts, theories, methods (pp. 252-256). London: Routledge.
72.
Miller, T. (in press). Michel Foucault and the critique of sport. In B. Carrington & I. McDonald (Eds.), Marxism, cultural studies and sport. London: Routledge.
73.
Murji, K. , & Solomos, J. (Eds.). (2004). Racialization: Studies in theory and practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
74.
Nayak, A. (2006). After race: Ethnography, race and post-race theory . Ethnic and Racial Studies, 29(3), 411-430.
75.
Pattillo, M. (2003). Negotiating blackness, for richer or for poorer . Ethnography, 4(1), 1-33.
76.
Pels, D. (2000). Reflexivity: One step up. Theory, Culture and Society, 17(3), 1-25.
77.
Pryce, K. (1986). Endless pressure: A study of West Indian lifestyles in Bristol (2nd ed.). London : Bristol Classical Press.
78.
Rhodes, P. (1994). Race of interviewer effects in qualitative research: A brief comment. Sociology, 28(2), 547-558.
79.
Richardson, L. (2000). New writing practices in qualitative research . Sociology of Sport Journal, 17(1), 5-20.
80.
Roberts, M. , & Sanders, T. (2005). Before, during and after: Realism, reflexivity and ethnography. Sociological Review, 53(2), 294-313.
81.
Searle, C. (1990). Race before wicket: Cricket, empire and the white rose. Race and Class, 31(1), 31-48.
82.
Silk, M. (2005). Sporting ethnography: Philosophy, methodology and reflection. In D. Andrews, D. Mason, & M. Silk (Eds.), Qualitative methods in sports studies (pp. 65-103). Oxford: Berg.
83.
Silk, M. , Andrews, D., & Mason, D. (2005). Encountering the field: Sports studies and qualitative research. In D. Andrews, D. Mason, & M. Silk (Eds.), Qualitative methods in sports studies (pp. 1-20). Oxford: Berg.
84.
Simmonds, F. (1997). My body, myself: How does a black woman do sociology? In H. Mirza (Ed.), Black British feminism (pp. 226-239). London: Routledge.
85.
Sivanandan, A. (1990). Communities of resistance: Writings on black struggles for socialism. London: Verso.
86.
Small, M. (2008). Lost in translation: How not to make qualitative research more scientific. In M. Lamont & P. White (Eds.), Report from workshop on interdisciplinary standards for systematic qualitative research . Washington, DC: National Science Foundation.
87.
Song, M. , & Parker, D. (1995). Commonality, difference and the dynamics of discourse in in-depth interviewing. Sociology, 29(2), 241-256.
88.
Suleri, S. (1992). Women skin deep: Feminism and the postcolonial condition. Critical Inquiry, 18(4), 756-769.
89.
Twine, F., & Warren, J. (Eds.). (2000). Racing research, researching race. New York: New York University Press.
90.
Twine, F. (2000). Racial ideologies and racial methodologies. In F. Twine & J. Warren (Eds.), Racing research, researching race (pp. 1-34). New York: New York University Press.
91.
Wacquant, L. (2004). Body and soul: Notebooks of an apprentice boxer . Oxford: Oxford University Press .
92.
Wagg, S. (2003-2004). Muck or nettles: Men, masculinity and myth in Yorkshire Cricket. Sport in History, 23(2), 68-93.
93.
Walsh, D. (1998). Doing ethnography. In C. Seale (Ed.), Researching society and culture (pp. 217-232). London: Sage.
94.
Ware, V. , & Back, L. (2002). Out of whiteness: Color, politics, and culture . London: University of Chicago Press.
95.
Watson, B. , & Scraton, S. (2001). Confronting whiteness? Researching the leisure lives of South Asian mothers. Journal of Gender Studies, 10(3), 265-277.
96.
Wheaton, B. (2002). Babes on the beach, women in the surf: Researching gender, power and difference in the windsurfing culture. In J. Sugden & A. Tomlinson (Eds.), Power games: A critical sociology of sport (pp. 240-266). London: Routledge.
97.
Woodward, K. (2007). Boxing, masculinity and identity: The "I" of the tiger. London: Routledge.
98.
Wray, M. (2006). Not quite white: White trash and the boundaries of whiteness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
99.
Yin, R. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods. London: Sage.
100.
Young, A., Jr. (2004). Experiences in ethnographic interviewing about on race. In M. Bulmer & J. Solomos (Eds.), Researching race and racism (pp. 187-202). London: Routledge.
101.
Young, A., Jr. (in press). White ethnographers on the experiences of African American men: Then and now. In T. Zuberi & E. Bonilla-Silva (Eds.), White logic, white methods: Racism and methodology. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
102.
Zuberi, T. , & Bonilla-Silva, E. (in press). Towards a definition of white logic and white methods. In T. Zuberi & E. Bonilla-Silva (Eds.), White logic, white methods: Racism and methodology. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
