Product Description: First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This volume brings together personal accounts by a group of noted ethnographic researchers. An ideal supplemental text for methods courses, In the Field is designed to give students a sense of what it is actually like to conduct ethnographic research, especially participant observation. As the selections show, field researchers often become deeply involved in the lives of the people they study and are at times forced into a reexamination of their own values. By learning how social scientists conduct research under field conditions and how they feel while they are doing it, students will be better prepared to carry out successful field research projects of their own.Divided into four parts, the book begins with several readings that explore the confusing and frustrating period every field researcher goes through while trying to gain the acceptance of the people under study. In the second section, Building Relationships, the contributors show how ethnographic researchers often develop subtle, complex relationships with their informants. These selections also illustrate the impact of differences in race, gender, and class between the researcher and his or her subject. The next group of readings deal with a problem often encountered in the field: How can ethnographic researchers maintain objectivity in the face of deepening involvement in their subjects' lives? In the final section, the researchers ask some searching questions about the role of the observer. Taken together, these readings offer a new window onto the field research experience that will be invaluable not only for those just beginning their careers but also for professional researchers who seek inspiration and encouragement from others with similar experiences.

Product Description: Fifteen years ago, the Mayor of the Education City was presented with an unwelcome surprise by his superiors: twin six-month-old boys. As the Mayor reluctantly accepted the two babies, he had no way of knowing that they would change the city forever…...read more

First published in 1985, this Routledge Revival is a lively and colourful account of life in the Japanese countryside, as seen through the eyes of an anthropologist who did fieldwork there for four years. Part journal, part ethnographic observation, part social and moral commentary, this very personal and sensitive book depicts not only the intricate relationships among the valley people, but also those between them and the anthropologist who has come from the outside world to study them. The book has a dual purpose: to portray the intimate, day-to-day lives of people living in a remote part of Japan, and to describe how one anthropologist tries – and eventually fails – to "become at one" with his informants. Throughout, the book questions the premises of participant observation, which has become a mainstay of modern anthropology.

Harry Wolcott, one of anthropology's leading writers on ethnographic methods, here addresses the nature of the ethnographic enterprise itself. Tracing its development from its disciplinary origins in sociology and anthropology, he helps the reader understand what is distinctive about ethnography and what it means to conduct research in the ethnographic tradition. In this engaging, thought-provoking book, he distinguishes ethnography as more than just a set of field methods and practices, separating it from many related qualitative research traditions as 'a way of seeing' through the lens of culture. For both beginning and experienced ethnographers in a wide range of disciplines, Wolcott's book will provide important ideas for improving research practice.

Product Description: Now in its third edition, this leading introduction to ethnography has been thoroughly updated and substantially rewritten. It offers a systematic introduction to ethnographic principles and practice. New material covers the use of visual and virtual research methods, hypermedia software and the issue of ethical regulation...read more

In this book distinguished anthropologist June Nash demonstrates how ethnography can illuminate a wide array of global problems. She describes encounters with an urban U.S. community undergoing de-industrialization, with Mandalay rice cultivators accommodating to post-World War II independence through animistic pratices, with Mayans mobilizing for autonomy, and with Andean peasants and miners confronting the International Monetary Fund. Havin worked in a great variety of cultural settings around the world, Nash challenges us to expand our anthropological horizons and to think about local problems in a global manner.

Product Description: This volume contains an account, written by well-known scholars, of the research methods used in social anthropology and sociology. Divided into four parts, the first section touches on the nature of social research; the second discusses fieldwork; the third reviews different survey methods; and the final section grapples with issues of ethics in research...read more

Collaboration between ethnographers and subjects has long been a product of the close, intimate relationships that define ethnographic research. But increasingly, collaboration is no longer viewed as merely a consequence of fieldwork; instead collaboration now preconditions and shapes research design as well as its dissemination. As a result, ethnographic subjects are shifting from being informants to being consultants. The emergence of collaborative ethnography highlights this relationship between consultant and ethnographer, moving it to center stage as a calculated part not only of fieldwork but also of the writing process itself.The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethnography presents a historical, theoretical, and practice-oriented road map for this shift from incidental collaboration to a more conscious and explicit collaborative strategy. Luke Eric Lassiter charts the history of collaborative ethnography from its earliest implementation to its contemporary emergence in fields such as feminism, humanistic anthropology, and critical ethnography. On this historical and theoretical base, Lassiter outlines concrete steps for achieving a more deliberate and overt collaborative practice throughout the processes of fieldwork and writing. As a participatory action situated in the ethical commitments between ethnographers and consultants and focused on the co-construction of texts, collaborative ethnography, argues Lassiter, is among the most powerful ways to press ethnographic fieldwork and writing into the service of an applied and public scholarship.A comprehensive and highly accessible handbook for ethnographers of all stripes, The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethnography will become a fixture in the development of a critical practice of anthropology, invaluable to both undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty alike.

Product Description: Making use of his own research experiences in Papua New Guinea, Southern Ontario, and Newfoundland, Wayne Fife teaches students and new researchers how to prepare for research, conduct a study, analyze the material (e.g. create new social and cultural theory), and write academic or policy oriented books, articles, or reports...read more

Product Description: Critical Ethnography presents a fresh new look at critical ethnography by emphasizing the significance of ethics and performance in the art and politics of fieldwork. The book explores an ethics of ethnography while illustrating the relevance of performance ethnography across disciplinary boundaries...read more

Product Description: All too often anthropologists and other social scientists go into the field with unrealistic expectations. Different cultural milieus are prime ground for misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and interrelational problems. This book is an excellent introduction to real-world ethnography, using familiar and not-so-familiar cultures as cases...read more

Product Description: In this long-anticipated second edition of The Art of Fieldwork, prominent anthropologist Harry F. Wolcott updates his original groundbreaking text, which both challenges and petitions anthropology and its practitioners to draw not only on the traditional precepts of science, but also on the richness of artistry in the collection, interpretation, and expression of fieldwork data...read more

Product Description: The Cultural Experience has helped generations of undergraduates discover the excitement of ethnographic research through participation in relatively familiar cultures in North American society. Grounded in the interviewing-based ethnographic technique known as ethnosemantics, the latest edition continues to treat ethnography as a discovery process...read more

Product Description: Anthropology is by definition about "others," but in this volume the phrase refers not to members of observed cultures, but to "significant others"—spouses, lovers, and others with whom anthropologists have deep relationships that are both personal and professional...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This reader offers 31 original articles, each of which centers on the encounters between an anthropologist and a person from whom the anthropologist has learned something about another culture. In telling the stories of specific individuals, the anthropologist can address a current topic in anthropology by situating it vividly within the lives and worlds of people in a variety of cultural settings...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Who owns ethnographic information? The anthropologist who collects data hoping for an advanced degree, a book, scholarly articles, and/or tenure? Or the indigenous people studied, who recognize not only the value of the material to their own culture, but to the researcher’s career? Handle with Care presents a broad exploration of a wide array of problems and pitfalls inherent in the practice of anthropology, with particular focus on the question of repatriation of ethnographic materials...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)