Trying Lubet's ethnography: On methodology, writing, and ethics
By the early 2000s, immersed in fieldwork methods literatures (participant-observer ethnography, interviewing, and document-based research), I increasingly saw that “evidence” meant something different in different research and professional practices. Its operational meanings in law and journalism e...
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| Vydáno v: | Politics, groups & identities Ročník 9; číslo 4; s. 858 - 865 |
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| Médium: | Journal Article |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
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Abingdon
Routledge
08.08.2021
Taylor & Francis Ltd |
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| ISSN: | 2156-5503, 2156-5511 |
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| Abstract | By the early 2000s, immersed in fieldwork methods literatures (participant-observer ethnography, interviewing, and document-based research), I increasingly saw that “evidence” meant something different in different research and professional practices. Its operational meanings in law and journalism especially interested me. During a sabbatical at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society, I audited the Law School’s evidence course. The terrain was familiar, then, as I read Steven Lubet’s Interrogating Ethnography (2018).Lubet zeroes in on a single tranche of ethnographic research: “primarily” (1) urban ethnographies (2) in US settings (3) by sociologists (2018, xiii). Crucially, however, the book’s language does not contain the critique within these parameters, generalizing to ethnography entire, holding it to the requirements of a courtroom’s evidentiary practices, and extending prior criticisms of another book and its reception. Consider the title. It is not Interrogating US Urban Ethnography – Seeing like a Sociologist. “Ethnography” remains unmarked throughout, enabling the generalization. Many of its criticisms concern ethnographers’ claims advanced – it is argued – in the absence of (clear) evidence (of the sort admissible in a court of law). Ironically, the book often advances its own claims through the strategic use of rhetorical devices rather than empirical evidence. Indeed, while critiquing certain scholars for engaging topics without possessing requisite knowledge, Lubet does the same, especially concerning methodology and research ethics.No scholar would reasonably be expected to cover ethnography’s entire range. But a scholar should be held to account for generalizing beyond stipulated parameters – especially when a reader might not remember the domain established on page xiii and think the attributed faults characterize all ethnographies. Moreover, the inconsistencies between the expectations of others’ research and the actualities of the book’s own writing undermine the critique. I explore two aspects of the domain-setting before turning to the writing. |
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| AbstractList | By the early 2000s, immersed in fieldwork methods literatures (participant-observer ethnography, interviewing, and document-based research), I increasingly saw that “evidence” meant something different in different research and professional practices. Its operational meanings in law and journalism especially interested me. During a sabbatical at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society, I audited the Law School’s evidence course. The terrain was familiar, then, as I read Steven Lubet’s Interrogating Ethnography (2018).Lubet zeroes in on a single tranche of ethnographic research: “primarily” (1) urban ethnographies (2) in US settings (3) by sociologists (2018, xiii). Crucially, however, the book’s language does not contain the critique within these parameters, generalizing to ethnography entire, holding it to the requirements of a courtroom’s evidentiary practices, and extending prior criticisms of another book and its reception. Consider the title. It is not Interrogating US Urban Ethnography – Seeing like a Sociologist. “Ethnography” remains unmarked throughout, enabling the generalization. Many of its criticisms concern ethnographers’ claims advanced – it is argued – in the absence of (clear) evidence (of the sort admissible in a court of law). Ironically, the book often advances its own claims through the strategic use of rhetorical devices rather than empirical evidence. Indeed, while critiquing certain scholars for engaging topics without possessing requisite knowledge, Lubet does the same, especially concerning methodology and research ethics.No scholar would reasonably be expected to cover ethnography’s entire range. But a scholar should be held to account for generalizing beyond stipulated parameters – especially when a reader might not remember the domain established on page xiii and think the attributed faults characterize all ethnographies. Moreover, the inconsistencies between the expectations of others’ research and the actualities of the book’s own writing undermine the critique. I explore two aspects of the domain-setting before turning to the writing. |
| Author | Yanow, Dvora |
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| Cites_doi | 10.1007/BF02766777 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198245537.001.0001 10.2307/2094370 10.1177/105649269654012 10.1177/106591290205500209 10.1177/089124194023002001 10.1007/BF00161676 10.1108/01443330410790858 10.1111/j.1747-4469.1994.tb00770.x 10.1525/9780520946286 10.7208/chicago/9780226136851.001.0001 10.1007/s11186-017-9294-2 10.2307/1340787 10.1177/00953990022019470 10.1002/jhbs.21630 |
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| References | Bourdieu Pierre. (CIT0003) 1987; 38 Panel Discussion: Author Meets Critics. (CIT0025) 2018; 13 Simon Jonathan. (CIT0031) 2002; 67 CIT0030 CIT0010 Constable Marianne. (CIT0009) 1994; 19 Van Maanen John. (CIT0034) 1996; 5 McCloskey Donald N. (CIT0021) 1994 Lubet Steven. (CIT0020) 2018 Scarce Rik. (CIT0028) 1994; 23 CIT0013 CIT0035 CIT0016 CIT0015 CIT0018 Valverde Mariana. (CIT0032) 2007 Brandwein Pamela. (CIT0004) 2000; 10 Mertz Elizabeth. (CIT0023) 2000; 34 Golden-Biddle Karen (CIT0014) 1997 CIT0019 Galliher John F. (CIT0012) 2004 Yanow Dvora (CIT0037) 2018; 19 Desmond Matthew. (CIT0011) 2016 CIT0022 CIT0017a Schwartz-Shea Peregrine. (CIT0029) 2014 Yanow Dvora (CIT0036) 2012 Gusfield Joseph R. (CIT0017) 1981 Andersson Oscar. (CIT0001) 2014; 50 CIT0002 CIT0024 CIT0005 CIT0027 CIT0026 CIT0007 CIT0006 Van Maanen John. (CIT0033) 1988 CIT0008 |
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| Title | Trying Lubet's ethnography: On methodology, writing, and ethics |
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