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This volume analyzes the use of the term "rapport" within anthropology, sociolinguistics, and related fields. Rather than viewing the term as simply denoting a type of positive social relationship that needs to be formed between researcher and consultant before research can begin, the book invites us to reimagine rapport theoretically, methodologically, and meta-methodologically. In doing so it invites the reader to think about how rapport has been constructed within these disciplines, and ultimately to see rapport as an emergent, co-constructed social relationship that is built during situated multimodal encounters. This reconceptualization is essential to establishing a more sophisticated understanding of research context.
List of contents
- CHAPTER 1: Reimagining Rapport Zane Goebel
- CHAPTER 2: Rapport in the Anthropological Imagination Zane Goebel
- CHAPTER 3:Sociologinguists and Rapport: On Linguistic Ideology and Fieldwork Practice Ben Rampton
- CHAPTER 4: Rapport with God Joel Kuipers
- CHAPTER 5: Intimacy Through Time and Space in Fieldwork Interviews Sabina Perrino
- CHAPTER 6: Hardly Speaking: Ethnographic Rapport and the Ordinary Ethics of Host-Guest Interaction in Upland Sulawesi Aurora Donzelli
- CHAPTER 7: Not Speaking the Local Language: Cultural Struggle, Fieldwork, and Rapport on the Cocos (Keeling) Nicholas Herriman and Monika Winarnita
- CHAPTER 8: Alignment and Belonging in the Sociolinguistic Interview: Research Assistants and Negotiated Rapport Howard Manns
- CHAPTER 9: Rapport to Fit In--Rapport to Stand Out: The Dynamics of Role Alignment During Group Interaction Michael C. Ewing
- CHAPTER 10: Reimagining Rapport Theoretically, Meta-methodologically, and Methodologically Zane Goebel
About the author
Zane Goebel is Associate Professor of Indonesian and Applied Linguistics at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He works on language and social relations in Indonesia and has published three monographs: Global Leadership Talk (OUP 2020), Language, Migration and Identity (2010), and Language and Superdiversity (OUP 2015). His work in Indonesia has also led to international collaborations culminating in two other edited volumes: Rapport and the Discursive Co-Construction of Social Relations in Fieldwork Encounters (2019) and Contact Talk (2019).
Summary
To do ethnography, a researcher must have rapport with research subjects. But what is rapport? Ethnography and ethnographic methods have increasingly become a feature of social inquiry in general and sociolinguistics in particular, and rapport is generally considered a prerequisite for fieldwork. And yet, unlike related terms such as "communication" and "phatic communion," this concept has remained largely unexamined.
Reimagining Rapport turns a critical eye to the use of the term "rapport" across disciplines. The collection analyzes the very idea of rapport, both exploring how it has been shaped by historical forces and actors within sociocultural anthropology, and questioning its usefulness. Rather than viewing the term as simply denoting a type of positive social relationship that needs to be formed between researcher and consultant before research can begin, this book invites us to reimagine rapport theoretically, methodologically, and meta-methodologically. Zane Goebel and other leading sociolinguists challenge readers to think about how rapport has been constructed within these disciplines, and ultimately to see rapport as an emergent, co-constructed social relationship that is actively built during situated multimodal encounters. The contributors collectively examine the role of ideology and mediation in the construction of rapport, and argue that reconceptualizing research-subject relationships is essential for establishing more sophisticated ways of understanding, interpreting, and representing research context.
A valuable resource for scholars and students of sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology—as well as for others engaged in ethnographic fieldwork—Reimagining Rapport is the first collection to provide an in-depth investigation of this critically important but previously unexamined concept.
Additional text
It is highly recommended for scholars and researchers with interest in ethnography.
