Full Description
Communities of Practice and Ethnographic Fieldwork offers a new perspective on how ethnography might be learned in real time through participation in a supportive community of practice.
It draws on the experiences, knowledge, and training of an interdisciplinary group of scholars who have studied legal topics ethnographically alongside and with the support of fellow ethnographers at varying stages of their careers. Contributors address topics that are of interest to those who teach ethnography as well as to those who are learning this approach. Such topics include ethics, positionality in the field, the combination of personal and professional circumstances, and the process and pain of changing research topics. Each chapter emphasizes the role of mentoring and collective problem-solving through a lab model of fieldwork practice, particularly when carrying out research with subjects and interlocutors who may have undergone trauma.
Written by a diverse group of scholars, this volume will appeal especially to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and female-identifying ethnographers in a range of fields. It provides a framework for how fieldwork can continue moving forward even in the most challenging of times and will be of particular interest to scholars in anthropology, sociology, law, urban planning/studies, geography, political science, ethnic studies, public policy, sociolegal studies, and education.
Contents
Introduction: Learning and Teaching Ethnography in Real Time through Supportive Communities of Practice; Part I: Is it Even Possible? 1. Is it Possible to Train Ethnographers in Programs Where Most Faculty and Students Use Other Methods? 2. Is it Possible to Conduct Ethnographic Research on Intimate Partner Violence as a Survivor of Intimate Partner Violence? 3. Is it Possible to be a Parent and Ethnographer? 4. Is it Possible to Foster Equitable Urban Planning Through Ethnography?; Part II: How Can We Survive these Times? 5. How and Why Should I Continue Ethnographic Fieldwork when Challenges Abound? 6. How Can Dissertation Research Survive a Global Pandemic? Reimagining Ethnography through Remote Data Collection 7. How Can We Survive the Challenges of Accessing Fieldsites and Harnessing Emotion as a Tool for Worldmaking? 8. How Can Ethnographers Survive Methodological, Ethical, and Practical Challenges in the Field? Adaption Through Deepening and Expanding Connections 9. How Can We Survive These Times by Centering Care? Archival Research on Anti-Blackness and Black Resistance in the United States; Part III: What Do We Do Now? 10. What Do We Do as Activists Practicing Ethnography and Law? 11. What Do We Do to Build Collaborative Learning Environments and Practices as Diasporic Indigenous Researchers? 12. What Do We Do to Learn Collaborative Visual Analysis for Ethnographic Practice? 13. What Do We Do When Ethnography Becomes a Political Project?
