Interpretations – An Ethnographic Drama

In this brilliant and fascinating piece of ‘ethnographic theatre’, Adrian Blackledge and Angela Creese illustrate, in a kaleidoscope of characters and scenes, the complexity of the social, linguistic and, more generally, human problems that migrants and people who try to help them face every day. In the process, they make us rethink what it means to do qualitative research. * Anna De Fina, Georgetown University, USA *

This ground-breaking volume transforms outcomes of an ethnographic study into a drama about Chinese migrants’ lives in the UK. It is minimalist, just people talking and telling their stories. Yet, the seemingly mundane conversations bring out rich imageries and emotions. It is a new genre in the making.

* Zhu Hua, University of Birmingham, UK *

Interpretations is an ethnographic drama, an inspiring and thought-provoking arts-based intervention to ethnographic writing. The text brings to life the multiple layers of interpretation that happen in the everyday as people try to make sense of the world, producing interpretations of interpretations, using multiple languages and semiotic resources. Reimagining ethnography as drama challenges conceived ideas about ‘how academics should write’ and opens up new horizons for scholarship in the social sciences.

* Ana Deumert, University of Cape Town, South Africa *

After reading this play, I grew a fondness of the characters and being a foreigner in the United Kingdom myself, I developed a clearer understanding of how the social system works [...] the play is very effective at showing that the problems of language we normally associate with migrants, namely, that they do not speak English, are really about navigating the amount of paperwork and following fixed procedures and assessments that work to sustain the Hostile Environment policies.

-- Rommy Anabalon Schaaf, IOE, UCL, UK * Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2022 *