The Politics of "Being and Becoming" a Researcher: Identity, Power, and Negotiating the Field

This article explores the methodological turning points in conducting a critical ethnography on the discursive practices of Italian Canadian youth identities across their multiple worlds in Toronto (cf. Giampapa, 2004a). Specifically, I aim to problematize the construction of the "researcher,"researcher identities, and the conceptualization of "insider/outsider" in relation to "being in the field." I hope to move beyond a prescriptive view of the researcher in the field and to critically reveal the ways in which researcher identities are constructed through the social practices and discourses in which we are embedded as we conduct critical ethnographic research. In my research I became implicated in the debates and social constructions of being and becoming Italian Canadian in Toronto. My shifting identities and positionalities became part of a delicate dance across the research sites where participants exercised their power in ways that would open or close doors in the field.