Ode to the City An Ethnographic Drama

By (author) Dr. Adrian Blackledge, Dr. Angela Creese

Publication date:

16 March 2022

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

245x174mm
7x10"

ISBN-13: 9781800415171

This ethnographic drama script is adapted from observations conducted in a large city centre library in the UK. The action focuses on the staff room in the library, where the fictionalised characters of four customer experience assistants, threatened with redundancy, take their lunch and tea breaks. The ethnographic drama is a creative curation of field notes, transcripts, audio recordings, video recordings, conversations and observations. It tells a story of political tension in everyday life at a time of austerity.

If Brecht had done ethnography, it might well have turned out like this. Blackledge and Creese have always put the human centre-stage, here literally so: fieldwork becomes playscript to explore contexts personal and political in ways both inspired and inspirational for anyone seeking new ways to do research. I can’t wait for their next production!