Autoethnography, or when your hobby is your work

You might know that I enjoy sports and in particular Crossfit; I wrote about it in a post in 2014 where I explained what it was I why I liked it. This was during my PhD and I was up to my eyeballs with my research. At the time Crossfit was really just for fun.

Recently, I put on my marketing goggles and started thinking about Crossfit as a consumer. I also thought about the brand and what it represents – trying to debunk the massive craze around it, which has now also spread to France, thank you very much.

So here I am now, annoying every body at my Crossfit gym (which by the way is amazing, check it out if you live in or visit Bordeaux). I’m interviewing the owners, coaches and members, taking pictures and hanging around with my computer, taking notes…basically pretending to work out between two interviews (or maybe the other way around).

Another great aspect of mixing work with fun is to be able to use yourself as a case for investigation. Indeed, I am discovering how to do an auto-ethnography (analysing my own practice as a Crossfit consumer) and it is really fun…and confusing! I guess as an every-day life consumer and researcher I kind of always analyse my own consumption patterns, but doing it consciously and with a purpose is different.

I do not have yet firm results to present but I will share them here when I do. In the meantime, I’m already thanking all my masochistic participants and great colleagues who are with me on this journey. I welcome all feedback and questions on the topic, especially if you know about extreme sports or auto-ethnographies 😉

And to finish off, a true statement by my favourite vilain #thejokerisalwayright