Ethnography controversy
What are the academic, methodological and ethical boundaries of ethnography?
An interesting discussion has developed in regard to ethnographic research by Alice Goffman, an American scholar and daughter of Erving Goffman.
Alice Goffman. (2014). On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City.
Article in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/article/Conflict-Over-Sociologists/230883/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Author’s accuracy, reliability and ethical stance questioned:
http://newramblerreview.com/book-reviews/law/ethics-on-the-run
http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/black-life-annotated/
Magda
Interesting article, thank, Richard. As an ethnographically-inclined researcher, I particularly liked this paragraph:
“The great power of ethnography lies in its capacity to describe places and people such that readers come to know something about life in Philadelphia’s African American neighborhoods or to learn something about about the struggles of rural Songhay people living on the desiccated steppes of the West African Sahel, or to discover Eveny nomads who herd reindeer in the frozen expanses of Siberia. Description of these places and peoples leads not to eternal truth, but to what late philosopher Richard Rorty called, “edifying conversations,” conversations that increase cross-cultural awareness in an increasingly integrated world.”
Magda
I’ve not read the above yet, so not sure what the debate is about. I did use her TED Talk in class yesterday with my students though! We all found it very thought-provoking.
http://www.ted.com/talks/alice_goffman_college_or_prison_two_destinies_one_blatant_injustice?language=en
Some writing in defence of ethnography:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-stoller/alice-goffman-and-the-future-of-ethnography-_b_7585614.html