Autoethnography and Its Application to Urban Studies to Understanding Urban Culture

Autoethnography is an emerging approach in ethnography which falls under the qualitative methodology and interpretive paradigm. Although this approach has been used in various fields of study in recent years and is expanding to other disciplines, it has been very limited in urban studies. Today's cities are diverse subcultures mosaic of which researchers in this field can use to understand the deep layers through their lived experience. This study mainly aims to describe the major features of this approach and subsequently to link it with the field of urban studies to culturally understand the urban contexts. Accordingly, to understand the philosophical, epistemological and methodological principles of auto ethnography library research and documentary analysis has been used and for the application of auto ethnography in urban studies a field study has been conducted and urban auto ethnography is then explained at the intersection of four main turn ("cultural" turn, "narrative" turn, "spatial" turn and "auto" turn). Cultural diversity in Iranian cities and the need for a deep and indigenous understanding of its inherent characteristics among actors who experience it directly adds further importance to the application of urban autoethnography in research in this area.