My fundamental (and fairly constant) methodological stance is to start with close observations of activity, only venturing into (extended) contextualisation from there, committing to rigour for political as well as academic reasons (“artisanal rather than architectural work, work of committed witnessing rather than clairvoyant leadership” (Santos 2012:51)).  

 

But the arenas in which I have developed this stance have shifted over 40 years:  

• in the late 1970s & early 80s: six years of practical experience teaching ESL in schools fed a number of quite compelling contrastive insights, as well as an impatience with benevolent education expertise (though this was tempered by the Language & Inner City Schools Network (Harold Rosen et al);

• 1990s- : team-work and then doctoral supervision took over from first-hand fieldwork and from the pressing sense of personal mission.  Instead, I started following people into fields where they were often seasoned participants, lending them an extra analytical eye/ear;

• 2000- : research training, teaching, methodologising, often with stimulation a more important goal than analysis.  Fighting for institutional space, with lots of rigorous bureaucratic text production.

• 2019- : freed from bureaucracy, I’m now trying out the dual identity of sociolinguist and adult ESOL practitioner, exploring bridging concepts like sociolinguistic citizenship and the ‘Total Linguistic Fact’, also upgrading and broadening Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies as a digital publication space.