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Doing Ethnography
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Doing Ethnography

Second Edition


March 2017 | 352 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

Doing Ethnography is invaluable reading for anyone collecting data through observation. Innovative and thought provoking, it is a refreshing take on ethnography stressing both academic rigor and practical necessity. It combines theoretical perspective with tangible action plans and walks you step-by-step through designing, conducting, and evaluating ethnographic research.

The book skilfully introduces the varied tasks and decisions you need to consider before entering the fieldhelping you to avoid common mistakes and to conduct safe, ethical research.

The redesigned Second Edition has cutting edge case studies and examples from across the social sciences and has an embedded awareness of the importance of digital research tools and social media. It also includes a detailed discussion of:

  • Autoethnography
  • Digital Ethnography
  • Visual Ethnography
  • Feminist Ethnography
  • Managing and Analysing data

This is an ideal companion for every novice researcher.


 
Part One: The Methodology
 
What is Ethnography?
 
Method or Methodology? Locating Ethnography in the Methodological Continuum
 
Ethnography: Approaches, Methods and Personalities
 
Key Ethnographic Approaches
 
Research Design
 
Ethnographic Sample Design
 
Part Two: Working the Field
 
Entering the Field
 
Ethical Dilemmas
 
How to Observe
 
What to Observe: Social Structures, Talk-in-Interactions and Contexts
 
Ethnographic Interview
 
Ethnography as a Craft
 
Part Three: Analyzing Ethnographic Data and Theory Building
 
Coding and Analyzing Ethnographic Data
 
Politics of Accountability
 
Part Four: Audiences
 
Communicating Findings, Writing Ethnographies
 
Leaving the Field
 
The ‘Visual Society’: A Chance for Applied Ethnography

In this elegant how-to book, the authors expand and deepen our understanding of ethnography and provide novices with a set of exercises and hands-on ways for getting the seat of their pants dirty in the social world. It explores emerging methodological approaches and challenges in ethnography, like studying people for whom life often happens more online than off it. Like a good cookbook, what it does best is simple: it makes you want to get into the kitchen. 

 

Iddo Tavory
Department of Sociology, New York University

This excellent, informative second edition extensively revises the text with a range of contemporary examples and case studies, more diverse readings for each chapter and an expanded section on visual and online ethnographies. An accessible and comprehensive introduction to ethnography and the key authors and ideas in the field, this is highly suitable for post graduates and established qualitative researchers.

Amanda Bingley
Health Research, Lancaster University

The book is very well-written and I might use it for a later course. This particular course however is for beginner students. Hence I am not adopting it at the moment.

Dr Lakshmi Balachandran Nair
School of Management, Luiss Guido Carli University
April 20, 2021

Sample Materials & Chapters

Gobo - Doing Ethnography - Chapter 1


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ISBN: 9781473994379

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ISBN: 9781412962254
$190.00

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ISBN: 9781412962261
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This title is also available on SAGE Research Methods, the ultimate digital methods library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial.