Abstract
This paper investigates the process of constructing the self and the other in a field-work experience. In analysing some storified excerpts from the author's ethno-graphic notes, the concepts of narratives, small culture formation and the intercul-tural are applied. Narratives and small cultures can be used to rethink the role of the researcher, as they permit focusing on the observation as a process of narrative construction. Additionally, it is based on small cultures involving both the re-searcher and the participants that this process takes shape. The concept of the in-tercultural, as applied to this work, aims to challenge the essentialist, established view of culture in its association with national belonging to focus on the negotia-tion of meanings that construct culture. What the author finds is that in these ne-gotiations, each social actor engages with a set of personal narratives that come into play according to contextual needs and their resonances with other participants.
Subject
General Materials Science
Reference31 articles.
1. Amadasi S. (2019). Transnational Mobility and Education Continuity in Italian Compulsory Schools Teachers’ Narratives on Children’s Transnational Experiences. In: Maier-Höfer C., ed., Die Vielfalt der Kindheit(en) und die Rechte der Kinder in der Gegenwart, Praxisfragen und Forschung im Kontext gesellschaftlicher Herausforderungen. Heidelberg: Springer.
2. Amadasi S. (2018). Children Playing with Narratives. The Relevance of Interaction and Positioning in the Study of children’s transnational journeys. In: Markowska-Manista U., ed., Refugee and migrant children’s adaptation. Theory, research, praxis, under the UNESCO patronage series: “Development and Social Adaptation of Children and Youth”.
3. Amadasi S. (2014). Beyond belonging. How migrant children actively construct their cultural identities in the interaction. Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies, IXX, 1/2014; -- https://ijfs.padovauniversitypress.it/system/files/papers/19_1_09.pdf
4. Amadasi S. and Iervese V. (2018). The right to be transnational. Narratives and Positionings of children with migration background in Italy. In: Baraldi C. and Cockburn T., eds., Theorizing Childhood: Citizenship, Rights and Participation. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Amadasi S. and Holliday A. (2018). ‘I already have a culture’. Negotiating competing grand and personal narratives in interview conversations with new study abroad arrivals. Language and Intercultural Communication, 18, 2: 241-256;