Abstract
‘Rapport’ in fieldwork involves the temporary interactional suspension of stranger-hood and distance, and
in traditional ethnography, it has positive value as a fieldwork ideal sketched in advisory rules of thumb.
But in reflexive contemporary sociolinguistics, ‘rapport’ looks like a craft term concealing a great deal of
ideological work, covering ethnocentricity in gate-keeping encounters and ‘synthetic personalisation’ in
consumer culture. Can these two traditions be reconciled and if so, how? The paper proposes playback –
retrospective participant commentary on recordings of interaction – as a productive reconfiguration of
rapport which avoids the bad faith with which rapport is so easily identified.
in traditional ethnography, it has positive value as a fieldwork ideal sketched in advisory rules of thumb.
But in reflexive contemporary sociolinguistics, ‘rapport’ looks like a craft term concealing a great deal of
ideological work, covering ethnocentricity in gate-keeping encounters and ‘synthetic personalisation’ in
consumer culture. Can these two traditions be reconciled and if so, how? The paper proposes playback –
retrospective participant commentary on recordings of interaction – as a productive reconfiguration of
rapport which avoids the bad faith with which rapport is so easily identified.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Publication series
| Name | Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies |
|---|---|
| No. | 195 |