28. Ethnography – the costs of success? (Invited Workshop)
Convenors:
Marit Melhuus,
University of Oslo
Jon P Mitchell,
University of Sussex
J.P.Mitchell@sussex.ac.uk
The term
‘ethnography’ has achieved considerable currency across the social
and human sciences. This workshop focuses on ethnography as a method and seeks
to examine the consequences of this ‘exportation’ of ethnography to
other disciplines – the costs of its success.
On the one hand
it seeks to explore “where we’re at” in methodological terms.
How has ethnography developed as a practice within anthropology? It is received
wisdom that the older mode of village or community study has become outmoded as
anthropology seeks to engage with new ethnographic objects. Where does this
leave the ethnographic method? What kinds of new orthodoxies are emerging in
ethnographic practice? What is distinctive about an anthropological – as
opposed to sociological, ethnological, geographical or cultural studies –
approach?
On the other
hand, it seeks to examine the ways ‘ethnography’ is done in
disciplines other than anthropology. A range of research practices across the
disciplines are being described as ethnography – from classroom ethnographies
to various forms of life history research, focus groups and unstructured
interviews. Are they recognisably the same activity? Is there something
distinctive about a specifically ethnographic approach, or has
‘ethnography’ simply become a new synonym for ‘qualitative
research’? Have other disciplines stolen anthropology’s thunder
– using the terminology of ethnography to describe other kinds of
practices?
Finally, the
workshop asks whether anthropologists need to find a new way of describing what
it is they do that they call ethnography. Do we need to find a new language of
methodology?
The inflation of
ethnographic methods: A critical account
Eduardo P.
Archetti, University of Oslo
The importance of
time - between ethnography by appointment and deep hanging out
Inger Sjørslev, University of Copenhagen
inger.sjoerslev@anthro.ku.dk
Anthropological
encounters: describing the past
Elizabeth
Tonkin, Queen’s University Belfast
elizabeth.tonkin1@btinternet.com
Current
Ethnography: Cases in Lithuania
Vida Savoniakaite, Lithuania Institute of History
svida@ktl.mii.lt
Ethnography: method or technology?
Jeanette Edwards, University of Manchester
Jeanette.Edwards@man.ac.uk
Bringing ethnography
home? Some benefits of having ethnography venture into neighbouring disciplines
Thomas Widlok,
University of Heidelberg and Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics,
Nijmegen
Thomas.Widlok@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
An Ethnography of
Associations? – Transethnic research in the Cross River region
Ute
Röschenthaler, University of Frankfurt/Main
Roeschenthaler@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Getting the
ethnography ‘right’: On female circumcision in exile
Aud Talle,
University of Oslo
aud.talle@sai.uio.no