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Representing shop work: a dual ethnography

University of Essex, Lynnepettinger{at}yahoo.co.uk

The post-structuralist focus on text and the production of text has recently produced a ‘crisis of representation’ for ethnography. This article argues that questions of representation are best engaged with while the researcher is in the field, gathering data. The argument is explored with reference to a dual ethnography of customer service work whereby the competing roles of worker and customer are acknowledged and incorporated into the research design through period spent observing as a worker and as a shopper. Researching customer service work as a worker and as a shopper reflects how claims to representation are contingent on the social role taken by the researcher. The implications of this for discussions of insider and outsider status and reflexivity are considered.

Key Words: customer service work • ethnography • reflexivity • representation

Qualitative Research, Vol. 5, No. 3, 347-364 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1468794105054459


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