Jeanine Pfahlert

The Sociological Hitch: an Authoethnographic Adventure in Hifi Jeanine Pfahlert

This study offers a socially poignant testimony through the utilization of the auto-ethnographic method. The major method I employ is auto- ethnography. Self-disclosure of direct experience, coupled with extended narration and reflection achieve a detailed account of a specific subjectivity. Through my subjectivity emerges an intrinsic social critique. In addition to the major method of auto-ethnography, this study likewise employs open-ended interviews with thirteen interviewees. The interviews reinforce my subjectivity and provide context for the social milieu under consideration. Analysis of the interviews in light of the auto-ethnography generate the findings that: 1) Biography confirms socio- structural reality, 2) Police, family, school, and work reproduce Society, and 3) Social problems translate into material problems. The major underlying conclusion resonates the work of C. Wright Mills by indicating that assumed personal problems ought to prompt consequential social action.