ABSTRACT
Ethnographic research in social worlds where the researcher is not fully proficient in the languages that are used is by no means a new phenomenon. Anthropologists have since the birth of the discipline carried out research among people whose language they did not share. However, limited attention has previously been paid to the impact of language discordance on the process and usefulness of ethnographic research. Based on my fieldwork in Norwegian social welfare offices, I explore these issues, focusing on contemporary ethnographic research of bureaucratic systems in practice. From participant observation of meetings between social workers and service users who did not have a shared language, I reflect on issues of linguistic domination and subordination. From my subsequent language-discordant ethnographic interviews with service users, I explore and discuss how language discordance challenges us as researchers, and whether interpreter mediation can effectively alleviate these issues.
