Anecdotalizing talking about anecdotes

  

During the planned slot for the walking seminar on Anecdotes it was raining heavily, and thunderstorms were closing in on the UvA building. But that could not deter us from meeting anyway! A large group gathered in the common room of the fifth floor. After a plenary start, we wandered in pairs through the one-year-old building of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. We discussed the role of anecdotes in our research with the following questions:

What makes a ‘good’ anecdote? How can ‘mere anecdotes’ be turned into essential parts of our work? How much ‘data’ does it take to make ‘an anecdote’? How many ‘anecdotes’ does it take to for materials to become ‘data’?

It was an fruitful Friday afternoon in which many anecdotes were told, and many events were ‘anecdotalized’ (Mike Michael 2012). Unique to this edition was that after three rounds of pair-discussion, we could come back together and discuss some of our insights, along with the suggested reading – Michael, M. (2012). Anecdote. In C. Lury & N. Wakeford (Eds.), Inventive methods the happening of the social (pp. 25-35). London: Routledge.

Thank you all for participating and hope to see you all next time!