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This article presents the authors’ collaboration with a former gang leader, referred to as X, as part of a research project exploring identity transformation and mo(ve)ments beyond gang engagement. The project is based on a multilayered transmethodological approach that involves different embodied researcher positionalities and theoretical engagements, and a merging of diverse research fields. The exploration of the different movements and changes in X’s life is based on transmethodological mo(ve)ment ethnography, exploring mo(ve)ments of transformation of identity, engagement and community in the everyday life of X, who is striving to become a good, practicing Muslim. Transmethodological mo(ve)ment ethnography makes it possible to go into depth with key moments of change in a subject’s life and pursue them from different theoretical perspectives by integrating and transgressing concepts, analytical gazes and positionalities. To analyze and understand the former gang leader’s life and process of transformation, we utilize poststructuralist and decolonial theory and integrate these approaches with those of social practice theory and critical psychology. Through an exploration of key mo(ve)ments in X’s life story and our collaboration, we examine how we as researchers are able to transverse different theoretical and embodied positionings, analyzing transmethodology as closely linked to the positioning of the researcher. By exploring our different and overlapping theoretical, analytical and embodied positionings, we demonstrate how a transmethodological approach can enrich analytical processes, pointing towards an emancipatory form of research. This article presents the authors’ collaboration with a former gang leader, referred to as X, as part of a research project exploring identity transformation and mo(ve)ments beyond gang engagement. The project is based on a multilayered transmethodological approach that involves different embodied researcher positionalities and theoretical engagements, and a merging of diverse research fields. The exploration of the different movements and changes in X’s life is based on transmethodological mo(ve)ment ethnography, exploring mo(ve)ments of transformation of identity, engagement and community in the everyday life of X, who is striving to become a good, practicing Muslim. Transmethodological mo(ve)ment ethnography makes it possible to go into depth with key moments of change in a subject’s life and pursue them from different theoretical perspectives by integrating and transgressing concepts, analytical gazes and positionalities. To analyze and understand the former gang leader’s life and process of transformation, we utilize poststructuralist and decolonial theory and integrate these approaches with those of social practice theory and critical psychology. Through an exploration of key mo(ve)ments in X’s life story and our collaboration, we examine how we as researchers are able to transverse different theoretical and embodied positionings, analyzing transmethodology as closely linked to the positioning of the researcher. By exploring our different and overlapping theoretical, analytical and embodied positionings, we demonstrate how a transmethodological approach can enrich analytical processes, pointing towards an emancipatory form of research.

The paper discusses the results of a larger study carried out with 40 semiotics scholars in 12 countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, the United States and Mexico) in 3 languages (French, English and Spanish) conducted in the framework of the ERC DISCONEX project. In this research, we focused on the under-researched area of semiotics scholars’ identity construction, and examined it by focusing on their narratives, produced in a particular setting. We addressed this topic by using research interviews and a linguistic analysis of unfolding interactions. The analysis, rather than using a semiotics-oriented approach, is at the junction point between discourse analysis and semiotics since it is informed by a toolkit that consists of different strands of narrative positioning theory (Bamberg, 1997; Wortham, 2000; Søreide, 2006; De Fina, 2013; and Deppermann, 2015). The findings reveal that respondents do not adhere to a single identity, but rather represent themselves by choosing from among an inventory of identity affordances that either intersect or contradict with one another according to the moment of the interaction. In addition, we also account for the existence of a prevailing macro-discursive context that intends to convey the scholars’ own subjective experiences of working in a marginalised field. This study, therefore, helps in our understanding of how a group of semioticians interact and negotiate their academic identities and how they struggle to achieve recognition for their field, despite the institutional constraints of their domestic academic systems. Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude plus large menée avec 40 chercheurs en sémiotique dans 12 pays (l’Allemagne, la France, le Royaume Uni, la Bulgarie, l’Estonie, la Belgique, l’Italie, le Danemark, le Luxembourg, les États-Unis et le Mexique) en trois langues (français, anglais et espagnol), dans le cadre du projet ERC DISCONEX. Dans cette recherche nous nous sommes concentrés sur le domaine sous-étudié de la construction identitaire des sémioticiens, et l’avons examiné en nous concentrant sur leurs récits, produits dans un contexte particulier. Nous avons traité ce sujet en utilisant des entretiens de recherche et une analyse linguistique des interactions qui se déroulent. L’analyse, plutôt que de faire l’application d’un modèle sémiotique, constitue un point de jonction entre l’analyse du discours et la sémiotique puisqu’elle est influencée par une boîte à outils qui se compose de différents éléments de la théorie narrative du positionnement (Bamberg, 1997; Wortham, 2000, Søreide, 2006; De Fina, 2013; and Deppermann, 2015). Les résultats révèlent que les interviewés n’adhèrent pas à une seule identité, mais qu’ils se représentent eux-mêmes choisissant dans un inventaire de possibilités identitaires qui se croisent ou se contredisent selon le moment de l’interaction. Nous expliquons aussi l’existence d’un contexte macro-discursif prédominant qui tend à transmettre les expériences subjectives des sémioticiens, de travail dans un domaine marginalisé. Cette étude nous aide donc à comprendre comment un groupe d’experts en sémiotique interagit et négocie leurs identités académiques et comment ils s’efforcent d’accomplir la reconnaissance de leur domaine, malgré les restrictions institutionnelles de leurs systèmes académiques nationaux.

abstract This article focuses on the complex and multi-layered process of researcher positioning, specifically in relation to the politically sensitive study of marginalised and ‘othered' groups such as Muslims living in Denmark. We discuss the impact of different ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds, of membership in a minoritised[i] or majoritised group, and the influence of different theoretical and methodological outlooks on our common goal of trying to transcend existing othering and objectifying representations of Muslims in Western societies. This process sometimes entails a direct political and personal involvement by the researcher, which challenges traditional perspectives on research and researcher positioning. A key point in this regard is the importance of constant awareness of and reflection on the multiple ways in which one's positioning as a researcher influences the research process. Studying the other calls for close reflections on one's own position, theoretically, personally, and politically, taking into account one's complicity in either overcoming or reproducing processes of othering and marginalisation.[i] We use the term (ethnic) minoritised, not as a distinction with numerical proportions, but rather related to societal power relations (Phoenix 2001, p. 128).

WEAVER-ZERCHER stellt in Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler die wesentlichen ethnographischen Arbeiten zusammen, die sich mit der Rolle von HOSTETLER als Altamischer und als Verbindungsglied zwischen der Kultur der Amischen und der Wissenschaftswelt beschäftigen. Hervorgegangen ist dieses Projekt aus einem unabgeschlossen gebliebenen Buch des späten HOSTETLER mit teilweise autobiographischem, teilweise wissenschaftlichem Charakter. Mithilfe von Essays und Kommentaren werden HOSTETLERs Originalbeiträge zu Amischen-Kultur und Sozialwissenschaften nachvollzogen und erweitert, die helfen den Weg zu verstehen, den HOSTETLER über Jahrzehnte von einem Advokaten der Amischen zu einem Anthropologen haben werden lassen. Die Anfänge dieser Reise fallen in eine Zeit, in der HOSTETLERs Familie von der "Peachy Amish"-Gemeinde verbannt wurde und er selbst als junger Erwachsener nicht Mitglied der Gemeinde wurde, sonst eine universitäre Laufbahn begann. Ausgehend von WEAVER-ZERCHERs Band entwerfe ich eine Re-Konzeptualisierung der Insider-Outsider-Positionierung, und zwar nicht als fixe und binäre Konstruktion, sondern als flüssige Positionierung innerhalb eines Kontinuums. Denn Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler ist ein einzigartiges Beispiel für die problematische Konzeptualisierung der Forschungsposition als Insider oder als Outsider. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0603161, In Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. Hostetler, WEAVER-ZERCHER compiles key ethnographic works which reflect HOSTETLER's role as a Pennsylvania Old Order Amish and a scholar-mediator of Amish culture. This project originated from the late HOSTETLER's unfinished book, part auto-biography, part scholarly review. Essays and commentaries contextualize and expand HOSTETLER's original discussions of Amish culture and social science, showing HOSTETLER's development from advocate to anthropologist across decades of publications. HOSTETLER describes the origins of this journey as he describes his family's shunning from the Peachy Amish church and his own calling, not to join the Amish church as a young adult, but to pursue academic learning instead. Using WEAVER-ZERCHER's text as an example, I offer a re-conceptualization of insider/outsider positioning, not as a fixed and binary positioning, but an unsettled, tenuous positionality situated within a continuum. The book offers a unique example of the problematic conceptualization of researcher positioning as either insider or outsider. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0603161, En Writing the Amish: The Worlds of John A. HOSTETLER, WEAVER-ZERCHER recopila trabajos etnográficos clave que reflejan el papel de HOSTETLER en la orden de los Amish en Pennsylvania y como mediador escolar de la cultura Amish. Este proyecto, procedente del último libro inconcluso de HOSTETLER, es en parte autobiográfico, y en parte una revisión erudita. Los trabajos y comentarios contextualizan y expanden los debates originales de HOSTETLER sobre la cultura Amish y la ciencia social, mostrando la evolución de HOSTETLER desde sus planteamientos antropologistas a través de décadas de publicaciones. HOSTETLER describe los orígenes de ese viaje y, también, el rechazo de su familia hacia la iglesia Amish así como que le solicitan, no entrar en la iglesia Amish como un joven, sino promover el aprendizaje académico. Tomando como ejemplo el texto de WEAVER-ZERCHER, ofrezco una reconceptualización del posicionamiento desde una perspectiva interna y externa, no como una posición fija y binaria, sino como un tenue posicionamiento no establecido situado dentro de un continuo. El libro es un ejemplo único de la problemática conceptualización del posicionamiento del investigador que no se sitúa ni desde dentro ni desde fuera. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0603161