ABSTRACT

Writing fieldnotes is an important part of ethnographic research. However, there is a striking lack of discussions about how different ways of producing fieldnotes may influence ethnographic research and meaning-making. The use of shorthand notation is sometimes mentioned as a tool to increase the speed and efficiency of note-taking, but I have not been able to find any discussions about when and how shorthand may be useful and appropriate for ethnographic fieldwork. This paper addresses this gap by discussing possible effects of using shorthand notation in ethnographic fieldwork on confidentiality, rapport, and power relations; researchers’ well-being and career opportunities; the amount of data produced; reflexive meaning-making; and linguistic meaning-making. Drawing on fieldnotes from an ethnographic study in which I used shorthand notation and ethnographic literature on the writing of fieldnotes, I argue that shorthand notation may be more or less useful and appropriate for different types of ethnographic research projects.

摘要

写田野笔记是人种学研究的重要组成部分。但是，关于产生田野笔记的不同方式如何影响人种学研究和意义解释的讨论很少。速记符号的使用有时会提到速记是提高记笔记速度和效率的工具，但我无法找到有关速记何时以及如何对人种志田野调查有用和合适的讨论。本文通过讨论在民族志田野调查中使用速记符号对机密性，关系和权力关系的可能影响来解决这一差距。研究人员的福祉和职业机会；产生的数据量；反身意义的产生；和语言意义的创造。借鉴民族志研究中的田野笔记，我在田野笔记的写作中使用了速记符号和民族志文献，我认为速记符号可能或多或少有用且适合于不同类型的民族志研究项目。