what counts as ethnography

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what counts as ethnography?

• Lynne Pettinger
• Office hours Monday 11-12 and 3-4
• Lmpett_at_essex.ac.uk

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A long definition

• the ethnographic impulse is to be so moved with
  curiosity about a social puzzle that you are
  seized to go and look for yourself, to see
  'what's going on' as bound up with 'how they go
  on'. Physical and sensuous presence then allows
  observation and witness and the use of five-sense
  channels for recording data relating to social
  atmosphere, emotional colour and unspoken
  assumptions.

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The definition, continued.

• what are their agendas, their de-codings,
  their stories, their uses of objects and
  artefacts." (Willis, 2000 xiii)
• Willis, P (2000) The Ethnographic Imagination.
  Polity, Cambridge, Oxford and Maldon MA.

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More straightforwardly

• Ethnography is a methodology which involves
  immersion in the social world watching,
  listening, talking and participating.
• The researchers observations and experiences
  form the data.
• Thick description (Geertz)

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An example cultural categories

• What is for breakfast?
• http//www.flickr.com/photos/pigletmikan/561971254
  /
• http//www.flickr.com/photos/pigletmikan/533945495
  /

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Another example whats going on here?

• The work of performance what forms of labour go
  into performance? How are these embodied?
• These pictures were taken at the PRS unsigned
  bands show in Feb 2008. Last Harbour are a
  Manchester 7 piece band.
• Ethnographer as audience member, friend,
  documenter, author

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What counts as ethnographic data?

• fill in the blank

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Malinowski and the origin of ethnography

• Stepping down from the Verandah
• to grasp the native's point of view, his
  relation to life, to realise his vision of his
  world. (Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western
  Pacific, Dutton 1922 1961 ed.

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Mead Ethnography as comparison

• "I have tried to answer the question which sent
  me to Samoa Are the disturbances which vex our
  adolescents due to the nature of adolescence
  itself or to the civilization? Under different
  conditions does adolescence present a different
  picture?" (Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa, 1928)
• "Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with
  which one must look and listen, record in
  astonishment and wonder that which one would not
  have been able to guess." -Margaret Mead

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From anthropology of the other to ethnography of
the familiar current ethnographic practice

• the adoption of ethnography by other social
  sciences, such as sociology, and similar
  disciplines.
• 'orientalist' critique of western science going
  in search of the truth about exotic 'other'
  places.
• Postmodern and post-structuralist influences on
  the questioning of truth, representaton and
  writing.
• Feminist critiques of claims to objectivity and a
  shift towards reflexivity.

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1 Ethnography in sociology

• Overcoming resistance to ethnography as not a
  proper research method (too subjective)
• Chicago School studying the local

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2 Whats wrong with looking at the natives?

• Edward Said and Orientalism
• The essentialisation of difference and the
  exoticisation of the other
• The purity of being an insider

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3 what to do when theres no truth anymore

• Postmodernism and post structuralism challenging
  the idea of self
• The reader matters more than the author
• Ethnographic texts are just one story amongst
  many there can be no true account
• Crisis in representation

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4 feminism and power

• Beyond hit and run
• Who has power in research encounters?
• Judith Stacey giving power back to respondents
• reflexivity

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What is reflexivity?

• maintaining a sense of the investigators
  history, subjectivity and theoretical positioning
  as a vital resource for the understanding of, and
  respect for, those under study (Willis, 2000
  113)
• Hence can address the critiques of feminism, post
  structuralism and post colonialism by recognising
  own power and bias.

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Ethnographic research questions

• First place where reflexivity matters
• what are you interested in?
• Silverman jump right in
• Pettinger think it through a bit
• Research questions emerge. Questions change
  through immersion in field

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To be continued

• Getting access as a process
• How many gatekeepers?
• A defence of covert methods
• More on reflexivity
• Writing, writing and writing