Ethnography

Ethnography is one of the most discussed research methods in the social sciences. This outstanding collection brings together some landmark contributions by key figures such as Geertz, Denzin, Whyte, Emerson and Atkinson and Delamont, and a wide variety of issues in the field. It provides a complete guide to the methods, significance and contribution of ethnography and will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students. Volume 1: The Nature of Ethnography This volume explores the roots of ethnography in Anthropology and Sociology. Contributions include: G W Stocking on the fieldwork tradition in British anthropology from Tyler to Malinowski; Edmund Leach on the roots and future of tribal ethnography; Boas on methods of ethnology; E E Evans Pritchard on the practice of fieldwork; Wax on Malinowski; James Urry on the contribution of field methods in anthropology; Lofland on the Chicago Legacy; Jennifer Platt on participant observation in sociology; W F Whyte on the application of participant observation; J M Champoulie on Everett Hughes's approach to fieldwork; Sara Delamont and Paul Atkinson on educational ethnography; S Porter on critical realist ethnography; Clifford Geertz on the native's point of view; R L Gold on the ethnographic method in sociology; K Narayan on `native' anthropology and Jack Katz on ethnography's warrants. Volume 2: Ethnographic Fieldwork Practice This volume explores the application and uses of ethnography. The material is organized into sections on the nature of ethnographic practice, access and entry, sampling, fieldwork roles, fieldwork relationships, informants, fieldnotes, interviewing and leaving the field. Included here are contributions from J M Heslin on studying deviance; R M Emerson on the craft of fieldwork; H F Wolcott on methods of ethnography; D Serber on ethnography and bureaucracy; Richard Giulianotti on the use of ethnographic research methods in researching football hooliganism; M Q Patton and M R Luborsky and R L Rubinstein on sampling in qualitative research; R L Gold on sociological roles in field observation; D A Snow, R D Benford and I L Anderson on fieldwork roles and informational yield; S M Miller on the participant observer; R B Everhart on long term fieldwork in schools; J Dubisch on sex and the female anthropologist; J Cassell on the relationship between the observer and observed; W Shaffir on doing ethnography; J Van Maanen on the informant's game; M Shokied on anthropologists and their informants; R Sanjek on vocabularies of fieldnotes; N Rapport on writing fieldnotes; J E Jackson on fieldnotes and liminality; J R Spradley on the ethnographic interview; C L Biggs on the role of the interview in fieldwork; D Snow on the disengagement process and C Gallmeier on leaving, revisiting and staying in touch. Volume 3: Issues in Ethnography This volume is devoted to research and theory issues in the field. The material is divided into sections on gender, feminist ethnography, validation questions, relating ethnography to quantitative research; team ethnography; documents; the visual image; ethical issues; replication and re-study. The contributions include: L Nader on emotions in fieldwork; C Warren and P Rasmussen on sex and gender in fieldwork research; N McKeganey and M Bloor on male gender and fieldwork relations; J Stacey on the possibility of feminist ethnography; B Skeggs on situating feminist ethnography; M LeCompte and J Goetz on problems of reliability and validity; R Emerson and M Pollner on quality criteria in qualitative interpretive research; W F Whyte on research methods for the study of conflict and co-operation; D Miller et al on the combination of quantitative and qualitative research in a study of shopping, place and identity; R C Rist on team ethnography; L Belgrave and K Smith on negotiated validity in collaborative ethnography; P Lemonnier on material culture and ethnography; P Atkinson and A Coffey on analyzing documentary data; D Harper on the visual ethnographic narrative; P Loizos on video, film and photographs in research documents; D M Fetterman on ethnographic educational evaluation; A M Johannsen on applied ethnography and postmodernist ethnography; J Cassell on ethical principles in fieldwork; G Fine on moral dilemmas in field research; A Hunter on the Gold Coast and Slum revisited; K G Heider on disagreements among ethnographers; and A Bryman on the Mead/Freeman controversy. Volume 4: Analysis and Writing in Ethnography The final volume contains sections on reflexivity in ethnography; auto-ethnography; interpreting ethnographic data; managing ethnographic data; analyzing ethnographic data; revisiting ethnographic data; ethnography as text; and the limits of ethnography. Contributions include: M Clarke on survival in the field; I Karp and M B Kendall on reflexivity in fieldwork; L Ellingson on empathy, identification and reflexivity in fieldwork; D M Hayano on auto-ethnography; C Ellis on auto-ethnographic stories; J D Brewer on the ethnographic critique of ethnography; J Ennew on facts in fieldwork; E R Bruner on ethnography as narrative; A Johnson and O R Johnson on the measurement potential of ethnography fieldnotes; D L Altheide on ethnographic content analysis; R M Lee and N G Fielding on users' experience of qualitative data analysis software; J Katz on the social system of analytic fieldwork; K Charmaz on using grounded theory; R M Emerson et al on processing fieldnotes; P Atkinson on reading writing and rhetoric in ethnography; M S Mauthner et al on archiving and revisiting qualitative data; C Geertz on anthropology and the science of writing; S Tyler on post-modern ethnography; M Hammersley on the rhetorical turn in ethnography; N Denzin on the facts of fictions in qualitative inquiry; F and I Ingersoll on oral history and grounded theory and M Punch on limitations and liabilities in fieldwork. This is an unparalleled resource for researchers and students interested in ethnography. Nothing compares with it in terms of ambition or content. It is the distillation of the key achievements and issues in the ethnographic tradition.