Centering Urban Autoethnographies on the Margins

Autoethnography is a modality of research and writing. It centers the self (auto) in the process and product of writing (graphy) in a way that speaks to overarching structures of and experiences with culture (ethno). In this chapter, I provide a review of the geographical literature and discuss how autoethnography is an ideal methodological approach for continuing the ongoing and unfinished project of humanizing the discipline of geography by bringing “self-centered” scholarship from the margins into the mainstream where personal experience is often obscured by empirical accounts and abstract theorization alike. I focus on how urban autoethnography, in particular, is well suited for research on marginal spaces and marginalized people in the areas of carceral geographies, the study of displacement and homelessness, research on gangs and graffiti, and on subcultural place-making.