Approaches to Ethnography: Analysis and Representation in Participant Observation

by Colin Jerolmack (Editor), Colin Jerolmack (Editor), Shamus Khan (Editor)

New
Paperback
2017
$30.67

Approaches to Ethnography illustrates the various modes of representation and analysis that typify participant observation research. In contrast to the multitude of ethnographic textbooks, handbooks, and readers on the market, this book is neither a how-to guide nor a catalogue of substantive themes such as race, community, or space; it also avoids re-hashing epistemological debates, such as grounded theory versus the extended case method. Instead, this volume concisely lays out the predominant analytic lenses that ethnographers use to explain social action-for instance, whether they privilege micro-interaction or social structure, people and places or social processes, internal dispositions or situational contingencies. Each chapter features a prominent ethnographer delineating a distinct approach to the study of everyday life and reflecting on how their approach shapes the way they analyze and represent the field. Taken together, the collection is a practical guide that spells out how different styles of ethnography illuminate different dimensions of everyday social life. As such, Approaches to Ethnography complements and augments-but not duplicate-existing ethnographic methods and logic of inquiry texts for undergraduate and graduate courses on qualitative research methods.

Synopsis

Approaches to Ethnography illustrates the various modes of representation and analysis that typify participant observation research. In contrast to the multitude of ethnographic textbooks, handbooks, and readers on the market, this book is neither a how-to guide nor a catalogue of substantive themes such as race, community, or space; it also avoids re-hashing epistemological debates, such as grounded theory versus the extended case method. Instead, this volume concisely lays out the predominant analytic lenses that ethnographers use to explain social action-for instance, whether they privilege micro-interaction or social structure, people and places or social processes, internal dispositions or situational contingencies. Each chapter features a prominent ethnographer delineating a distinct approach to the study of everyday life and reflecting on how their approach shapes the way they analyze and represent the field. Taken together, the collection is a practical guide that spells out how different styles of ethnography illuminate different dimensions of everyday social life. As such, Approaches to Ethnography complements and augments-but not duplicate-existing ethnographic methods and logic of inquiry texts for undergraduate and graduate courses on qualitative research methods.

$30.67

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 20 Nov 2017
ISBN 10: 0190236051
ISBN 13: 9780190236052

Media Reviews

Approaches to Ethnography brings to light the backstage of the craft in fascinating first-person accounts. We see how and why ethnographers make the analytic choices they do, and the subtle yet powerful ways the frame chosen illuminates practice. For the first time, a book captures the analytic process in action.
--Diane Vaughan, Columbia University

Many volumes offer readers a step-by-step introduction to ethnography. Instead, Approaches to Ethnography offers models-a menu of options for ethnographers to emulate, think with, and build upon. The models range widely in focus, approach, and perspective, and thus give practitioners a broad and tremendously useful introduction to the actual practice of ethnography today.
--Mario Luis Small, Harvard University

In this collection of essays by practiced fieldworkers, the diversity of ethnography is on full display. Rather than claiming there is a single right way to do ethnography, the authors draw on their own experiences to show the strengths and limitations of multiple approaches. Students of the craft will carry this necessary and elegant manual into the field for years to come.
--Matthew Desmond, Princeton University

Featuring a wide variation in foci, scales, ways of seeing, analyzing, and representing, this impressive collection features the insightful and stimulating work of practicing ethnographers. The joint result not only illuminates diverse social universes but also clarifies key differences between analytic sensibilities. This volume rekindles the love for the craft of ethnography-and should persuade those new to it to enthusiastically join the trade.
--Javier Auyero, University of Texas - Austin

Author Bio

Colin Jerolmack is an assistant professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University. He is the author of The Global Pigeon (Chicago, 2013), a comparative ethnography of how our relationships with animals shape city life. Shamus Khan is an associate professor of sociology at Columbia University. He is the author of Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School (Princeton, 2011), an ethnographic study of an elite boarding school, and coeditor of The Practice of Research: How Social Scientists Answer their Questions (with Dana Fisher, Oxford, 2013).