Norman Denzin and autoethnography

This article reflects on the influence of Norman Denzin in qualitative social work. In 1992, I travelled from west coast Australia to mid-west USA to complete doctoral studies in social work with Denzin as a thesis advisor. Mystory, an autoethnography, was a class assignment in his sociology unit, Methods of Field Research . Struggling to understand what was meant by the task proved useful in exploring what it is we do when we do social work. This method enables a holding in tension the theoretical, value-based and practice elements involved in the grit of doing humanitarian, public-spirited social work. Such research can be traced in both sociology/social work to the time of Jane Addams and her cohort. Denzin’s naturalistic inquiry for social justice both affirms and updates for our discipline the strength of this heritage. Using mystory, I narrate my lived experience of becoming a practitioner through detailing three pieces of qualitative research informing my development: a library-based study (1969), a community study (1976) and an autoethnography (1994). Denzin argues that we are always positioned practitioners of social work. Gender, race, class, geography, age and other factors inscribe our lived experience. Awareness of the particulars of these dynamics is always partial. Pinch points help raise consciousness. Denzin’s work clarifies the medley of moral, political, intellectual, emotional and practical aspects of change. For a contemporary world similar to the market-driven chaos that Addams addressed, Denzin shows through scholarship and action how research for change usefully draws on critical thinking, the humanities and social theory.