Self and Assemblage in Autoethnography

Self and Assemblage in Autoethnography offers a bold methodological provocation within qualitative research methods, advancing current debates in autoethnography by troubling the 'auto' and arguing that the field must confront the sovereign, Enlightenment-derived self that it has inherited. Drawing on assemblage theory, feminist new materialism, and critical tourism geographies, the book proposes deep entanglements with place, memory, and materiality.

Set in the landscapes of Australia and Scotland, and grounded in solo hiking and wild camping, the book also contributes to cultural and tourism geographies by examining how settler narratives, contested land, and the politics of memory shape who gets to go outside, and how. Blending narrative, theory, and critique, it explores what it means to walk, remember, and write from within complex social and ecological assemblages, and what this all means for the practice and politics of autoethnographic research and writing.

Phiona Stanley is a sociologist, educator, and qualitative methodologist based in Leith, Scotland. Writing in education, tourism, gender studies, and intercultural communication, she examines how institutional systems shape identity, belonging, and knowledge production in local and transnational contexts, with particular expertise in autoethnography and qualitative inquiry.