Leaving the Private World of Wives of Professional Athletes

A Male Sociologist’s Reflections

Bibliographic Data

ID2365151
AuthorsSteven M Ortiz (Oregon State University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume33
Issue4
Pages466-487
Publication date2004-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241604265980
OpenAlexW2003577847
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited52

The same skills, techniques, and strategies that make fieldwork go well can keep the fieldworker in the field far longer than necessary. Interest in this irony and the exit process was prompted by dilemmas encountered by a male ethnographer in terminating his long-term fieldwork with wives of professional athletes. This reflexive account examines collaborative relationships and compulsive data collection-which proved to be essential in gathering and analyzing data-for their consequences in the leaving process. It is proposed that having a greater awareness of such methodological issues may result in constructing more realistic and less stressful exit strategies, and coping more effectively with the disruptive, emotional, or problematic nature of the disengagement process

Art · Athletes · Coping (psychology · Data collection · Disengagement theory · Ethnography · Irony · Political science · Psychotherapist · Public relations · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Emotional Labor in Professions · Medicine · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social Psychology · Sports, Gender, and Society