‘Put that in your fucking research’: reflexivity, ethnography and disability sport coaching

• Published in: Qualitative research : QR Vol. 21; no. 2; pp. 251 - 267
• Main Authors: Townsend, Robert C, Cushion, Christopher J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.04.2021; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002); Disability; Ethnography; Reflexivity; Researcher subject relations; Sports; Subjectivity; Ethnography; disability sport; coaching; reflexivity; disability
• ISSN: 1468-7941; 1741-3109
• DOI: 10.1177/1468794120931349

Reflexivity is continually called for as a marker of quality ethnographic research. In this paper we put reflexivity to ‘work’, providing a critical commentary on data generated through ethnographic fieldwork in high-performance disability sport. Drawing on Bourdieu’s reflexive sociology, we situate the ethnographer in the field of disability sport, turning a reflexive lens onto the practices that are associated with occupying the role of coach and researcher simultaneously. We illustrate the centrality of researcher subjectivity – through the reflexive device of ‘crossing fields’ – as a productive resource for examining the social and intellectual unconscious embedded in the process of doing ethnographic research. In so doing, we provide a unique example of how reflexive practice can offer a rigorous, power-conscious reading of an ethnography of high-performance coaching in disability sport.