ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the micro and macro in linguistic ethnography and focuses on the potential of reflexivity to bridge the domains. It discusses how in linguistic ethnography, reflexivity is an uncomfortable process, causing us to question our own assumptions, feel uneasy with our ethical decisions, and remains unsure about our representations. Linguistic ethnographers rely greatly on learning from those with whom they are closely involved. The chapter identifies the three issues in the micro and macro relationship with regard to ethics. The first is the seeming disconnect between the academy's (macro) ethical procedures and the reality of conducting (micro) ethics in the field. The second is that macro ethical procedures have generated a culture of detachment between boards and researchers so that an unhealthy indifference to the procedures themselves has sprung up. The third is that the macro procedures of ethics boards are themselves part of super-macro processes of institutional and political discourses.
