Ethnography (UK Higher Education OUP Humanities & Social Sciences Sociology)

by John Brewer (Author)

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  Paperback
  2000

  $4.41

  * What is ethnography in social research?
  * To what use can ethnographic data be put?
  * Who are its fiercest critics?
  * Does ethnography have a future?
  
  Ethnography is one of the principal methods of qualitative research and has a long-established tradition of use in the social sciences. However, the literature on ethnography has become a battleground as ethnography is attacked from within and without the qualitative tradition. Post-modern critics attack the methodological status of ethnography and challenge the importance of its representations of reality, and others argue that globalization narrows its application as localism disappears.
  
  Ethnography provides a robust defence of this research method and establishes its continued relevance in the social sciences. It sets out the competing methodological bases of ethnography and details its different uses as a research method. The author offers guidelines for good practice in the research process, as well as advice on the analysis, interpretation and presentation of ethnographic data. Although written as a textbook, the contents are research led, informed by the author's own extensive experience of undertaking ethnographic research in dangerous and sensitive locations in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. The result is a lively and engaging read on an essential topic for both students and researchers.