Convenors
Ester Gallo (corresponding convenor), University of Trento
ester.gallo@unitn.it
Chiara Bassetti, University of Trento
chiara.bassetti@unitn.it
Among qualitative methods, ethnography is probably one with a longer history of theorisation, dating back to the 1920s Malinowskian realist/naturalist tradition and the 1930s Chicago School, rooted in pragmatism and symbolic interactionism. Rather than sticking to a single hermeneutic tradition, ethnography has since then been debated in relation to different positions on the knowledge it generates, its inferential logic, theory role and heuristic potentials, particularly – albeit not exclusively – within grounded theory, extended case methods and abductive traditions (Burawoy, 2003; Glaeser, 2005; Wilson, Chadda, 2009; Bloch, 2017; Tavory, Timmermans, 2009).
Once a landmark of anthropology and sociology, since the closing of the last century ethnography has entered other disciplinary domains, ranging from geography (Lees, 2023; St. Martin, Pavlovskaya, 2009), to politics and IR (Vrasti, 2008; Weeden, 2010; MacKay, Levin, 2015), from social work (Haight et al., 2014), to design and human-computer interaction (Anderson, 1994; to Randall, Rouncefield, 2014; to Pink et al., 2022), to mention some. This journey has often prompted founding disciplines like anthropology to adopt defensive stances, and to claim ownership towards an approach whose elusiveness seems to be at once its strength and weakness. Indeed, conceptions of ethnography can vary and overlap with other labels – qualitative inquiry, fieldwork, participant observation, in-depth research, case study – with often fuzzy semantic boundaries (Hammersley, Atkinson, 2019). Importantly, ethnography’s use beyond its traditional disciplinary domains combines with its renewed application within multi- and mixed-method strategies (Pelto, 2017; Berthod et al., 2017; Crede, Borrego, 2013), often including team research (vs. the traditional lone ethnographer).
Despite these developments, little debate exists on how ethnography is transformed when adopted in different scientific domains and the implications of such a translation/transition, this holds for both traditional and emerging research themes. Similarly, the role of ethnography within multi-method and mixed-method research design – and the extent to which these change across (sub)disciplines – remains largely unexplored.
The panel aims to engage with two main objectives. First, to foster our understanding of how ethnography is used/transformed in its epistemological, theoretical, thematic, and methodological foundations across different disciplines. Second, to explore to what extent, and in what forms, does ethnography’s journey across different disciplines results in its embeddedness within multi-method and mixed-method research.
Drawing from the received papers and conference debate, the panel organizers will develop a special issue proposal and/or an edited book (in English).
Open questions
- To what extent, and how, does the adoption of ethnography within/across specific disciplines and related sub-fields opens to novel research themes?
- What continuities and differences can be traced between shifting understandings –in terms of research epistemologies and approaches– of ethnography within anthropology and sociology, and other disciplines?
- How can ethnography be fruitfully embedded in a mixed-method strategy involving quantitative methods? What are the challenges, risks and potential outcomes?
- How can ethnography be fruitfully embedded in interdisciplinary research strategies involving diverse methods? What are the challenges, risks and potential outcomes? For instance:
- What is the use of ethnography in human-computer or human-robot interaction studies?
- To what extent, and how, can ethnography be combined with field experiments?
- What is the dialogue between ethnography and archeology?
- How to combine ethnography with archive research?
- …
- To what extent ethnography’s application in specific disciplines/fields is enacted by individual researchers vs. research teams –including multi- and inter-disciplinary ones– and with what implications for ethnographic praxis and theorisation?
Keywords
ethnography; multi-method; mixed-method; disciplinary traditions and epistemologies; knowledge generation processes; interdisciplinary research; multi-disciplinarity; team research/ethnography.
Sub-disciplines or cross-disciplinary areas of concern
geography; politics; international relations; law; economics; psychology; social work; sociology; anthropology; philosophy history; archaeology; linguistics; literature; HCI; robotics; participatory design; AI; computer vision; applied ontology.
References
Anderson, R. J.
1994 «Representations and requirements: The value of ethnography in system design», in Human-Computer Interaction, 9, 3, pp. 151–182. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327051hci0902_1
Berthod, O., Grothe-Hammer, M., Sydow, G.
2017 «Network ethnography: A mixed method approach for the study of practices in interorganizational settings», in Organizational Research Methods, 20, 2, pp. 299-323.
Bloch, M.
2017 «Anthropology is an odd subject: Studying from the outside and from the inside», in HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 7, 1.
Burawoy, M.
2003 «Revisits: An outline of a theory of reflexive ethnography», in American Sociological Review, 68, pp. 645–679.
Crede, E., Borrego, M.
2013 «From ethnography to items», in Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 7, 1.
Ferguson, J.
2011 «Novelty and method: Reflections on global fieldwork», in S. Coleman & P. von Hellerman (Eds.), Multi-sited ethnography: Problems and possibilities in the translocation of research methods, pp. 194-206, Routledge.
Glaeser, A.
2005 «Ontology of the ethnographic analysis of social processes», in Social Analysis, 49, 3, pp. 16–45.
Haight, W., Kayama, M., Korang-Okrah, R.
2014 «Ethnography in social work practice and policy», in Qualitative Social Work, 13, 1, pp. 127-143.
Hammersley, M., Atkinson, P.
2019 Ethnography. Routledge.
Lees, L.
2003 «Urban geography: New urban geography and the ethnographic void», in Progress in Human Geography, 27, 1, pp. 107-113.
MacKay, J., Levin, J.
2015 «Hanging out in international politics: Two kinds of explanatory political ethnography for IR», in International Studies Review, 17, 2, pp. 163-188. https://doi.org/10.1111/misr.12208
Pelto, J. P.
2017 Mixed methods in ethnographic research: Historical perspectives. Routledge.
Pink, S., Fors, V., Lanzeni, D., Duque, M., Sumartojo, S., Strengers, Y.
2022 Design ethnography: Research, responsibilities, and futures. Routledge.
Randall, D., Rouncefield, M.
2014 Ethnography. In The encyclopedia of human-computer interaction (2nd ed.). Interaction Design Foundation – IxDF. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/ethnography
Schatz, E. (Ed.)
2009 Political ethnography: What immersion contributes to the study of power. Chicago University Press.
St. Martin, K., Pavlovskaya, M.
2009 «Ethnography», in N. Castree, D. Demeritt, D. Liverman, B. Rhoads (Eds.), Companion to environmental geography. Wiley-Blackwell
Tavory, I., Timmermans, S.
2009 «Two cases for ethnography: Grounded theory and the extended case method», in Ethnography, 10, 3, pp. 243-263.
Vrasti, W.
2008 «The strange case of ethnography and international relations», in Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 37, 2, pp. 279-301.
Weeden, L.
2010 «Reflections on ethnography work in political science», in Annual Review of Political Science, 13, pp. 255-272.
Wilson, W. J., Chadda, A.
2009 «The role of theory in ethnographic research», in Ethnography, 10, 4, pp. 549-564.
Convenors’ bios
Ester Gallo is Associate Professor in Anthropology at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento. Her interests cut across migration, religion and gender, colonial history, kinship and memory, ethnography and qualitative methods. With reference to Southern Europe and South Asia, her long standing lines of research have respectively been, first, the interplay between class and gender in transnational migrant care labour and, second, contemporary memories of colonial past and their role in framing Indian middle-class families. She is currently conducting research on forced migration and displacement in higher education, with a focus on university students from post-2016 Turkey and on displaced scholars from the Global South in Europe. Ester is at present working on a special issue on gender and bordering in qualitative migration research for Qualitative Research and a collection on the socio-cultural life of migration categories for The Journal of Asian and African Studies.
Chiara Bassetti is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento, where she serves as Vice-Coordinator of the PhD programme. An ethnographer with particular expertise in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, her research focus rests on the performative, embodied, aesthetic and affective aspects of interaction, and the role of artefacts and technologies, particularly at the workplace and in learning. Empirically, her research ranges from creative practices and performing arts such as dance and music, to complex socio-technical systems such as medical emergency centres and airport security, to the home, mundane interaction and intimate relationships. She has led and works on projects exploring grassroots initiatives for socio-economic innovation and socio-environmental challenges. She often works in interdisciplinary teams, also contributing to technology design.