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This book is both research report and performance piece. Here is a team of researchers as they study communication on the volleyball court. And here are the voices and actions of the volleyball coach and his players as they practise and play. Research in process and research findings are represented in a play script which brings vividly to life both ethnographic research methods and communication in the world of sport. This highly original book adds innovation and imagination to the representation of language in social life.
This book pushes for alternative representations of research in a refreshing and entertaining way. By highlighting 'difference within repetition', the authors address aspects of research data that usually get lost in traditional ethnographies. The play script culminates in an increasing overlap between participants' and researchers' voices, showing how a well-oiled team ethnography becomes an act of coordination.
Wonderfully critical and creative, this ethnographic drama on volleyball puts in the limelight the conditions and consequences of scientific knowledge production. At the same time, it is a compelling example of how to do it differently. This book gets a standing ovation.
I applaud the innovative method used by Blackledge and Creese to write a theatrical play where the coaches and players of a volleyball team are the stars [...] What makes this a good read for those interested in ethnography, is how the sport examples are recorded, analyzed, and then the accurate communicative and sociocultural rituals and patterns of volleyball players are presented as conclusions. I can’t wait for the curtain to open on the stage
version of this book.
— Frederick L. Battenfield, North Greenville University, USA
...the authors make an interesting point about the use of the body as means of communication...to play the game in the case of volleyball players and the coach, in particular when people have different linguistic backgrounds...These practices, the authors show us, have a particular rhythm, they occur under certain circumstances, and even though they are not entirely the same, we notice they go through a process of ritualisation as they are produced and circulated in specific times and places.
— Rommy Anabalon Schaaf, IOE, UCL, UK
Adopting the principles of ethnographic research in combination with those of drama (for instance, dancing, rhythmic discourse, or simultaneous talk and movement), the authors allegorically illustrate mundane issues of social life in their attempt to move away from the traditional ways of conducting ethnographic research. Hence, their perspective opens new avenues for the future of ethnography.
Adrian Blackledge is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Stirling, UK. He has published widely on both multilingualism and sociolinguistics. He was Birmingham Poet Laureate from 2014-2016.
Angela Creese is Professor of Linguistic Ethnography at the University of Stirling, UK. She has published widely on multilingualism and ethnographic methods. Together with Adrian Blackledge she is the author of Voices of a City Market: An Ethnography (Multilingual Matters, 2019) and Interpretations – An Ethnographic Drama (Multilingual Matters, 2021).
Preface
Acknowledgements
Characters
Settings
Text Conventions
Volleyball – An Ethnographic Drama
Act I
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Act II
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5
Act III
Scene 1
Act IV
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Scene 4
Scene 5