Conspicuous Invisibility

Abstract

Shadowing entails a researcher closely following a subject over a period of time to investigate what people actually do in the course of their everyday lives, not what their roles dictate of them. Behaviors, opinions, actions, and explanations for those actions are reflected in the resulting thick, descriptive data. There is little written that describes the uses of shadowing as a data collection strategy; this article sets out to respond to this deficit. Based on shadowing experiences, the article explores the dimensions of conspicuous invisibility: being there but not being there, negotiating distance within the proximity to subjects, and maintaining an identity as a researcher while forming enduring friendships. It argues that shadowing is useful as a data collection technique for institutional ethnography.