Real Fiction as a Research Format

Designing Risks in Experimental Ethnography

Abstract

Experiment and knowledge production are closely, though ambiguously, linked to notions of risk: Great openness in experimentation can be perceived as (too) risky, while control may be seen as (insufficiently innovative) risk minimization. The research format of „real fiction“, which performatively shapes society by bringing about improbable assemblies (Peters 2016), makes these connections between experiment and risk particularly graspable for ethnographic research. At the center of this contribution is the research project „Real Fiction Climate Court of Audit: A Preenactment of Climate Change Knowledge“ (PECCK, 2022–2024), in which we tested this anticipatory approach. From a knowledge-anthropological and praxeological perspective, we examine the role of risk and demonstrate which risks the real fiction approach as an experimental method generated, and how these risks were made manageable and generative through collaborative ethnographic practices. To do so, we draw on moments and materials—from the project proposal to field notes—and analyse how the everyday articulation work (Strauss u. a. 1985) addressed and shaped risks. Furthermore, we illustrate how the multimodal dimension of the project, in particular, contributed to the emergence of an affectively charged „community of practice“ (Lave/Wenger 1991) through processes of gathering and collaboration. This community increased commitment and made risks collectively negotiable.