Description
The social sciences have seen a substantial increase in comparative and multi-sited ethnographic projects over the last three decades. Yet, at present, researchers seeking to design comparative field projects have few scholarly works detailing how comparison is conducted in divergent ethnographic approaches. In Beyond the Case, Corey M. Abramson and Neil Gong have gathered together several experts in field research to address these issues by showing how practitioners employing contemporary iterations of ethnographic traditions such as phenomenology, grounded theory, positivism, and interpretivism, use comparison in their works. The contributors connect the long history of comparative (and anti-comparative) ethnographic approaches to their contemporary uses. By honing in on how ethnographers render sites, groups, or cases analytically commensurable and comparable, Beyond the Case offers a new lens for examining the assumptions, payoffs, and potential drawbacks of different forms of comparative ethnography.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Promise, Pitfalls, and Practicalities of Comparative EthnographyCorey M. Abramson and Neil GongSection I: The Evolution of Classic Approaches to ComparisonChapter 1: Foundations of the Behavioralist Approach to Comparative Participant ObservationMartín Sánchez-Jankowski and Corey M. AbramsonChapter 2: Conducting Comparative Participant Observation: Behavioralist Procedures and TechniquesCorey M. Abramson and Martín Sánchez-JankowskiChapter 3: The Thematic Lens: A Formal and Cultural Framework for Comparative Ethnographic AnalysisThomas DeGloma and Max PapadantonakisChapter 4: Comparative Ethnographic Views of Social Structure: The Challenge of Linking Micro and Macro Levels of AnalysisAaron V. Cicourel Section II: New and Existing Critical Approaches to ComparisonChapter 5: An Ethnography of Comparative Ethnography: Pathways to Three Logics of ComparisonChing Kwan LeeChapter 6: Critical Realism and Contrastive Ethnography: The Curious Case of Autism in Somali Refugee CommunitiesClaire Laurier DecoteauChapter 7: Sequential Comparisons and the Comparative ImaginationIddo Tavory and Stefan TimmermansSection III: Contextualizing ComparisonChapter 8: Using Computational Tools to Enhance Comparative Ethnography: Lessons from Scaling Ethnography for BiomedicineDaniel Dohan and Alissa BernsteinChapter 9: Elite Ethnography: Studying Up Or Down In US And French SociologyLynn S. ChancerChapter 10: A Dialog With Aaron Cicourel On Comparative EthnographyAaron V. Cicourel with Corey M. AbramsonConclusion: A Comparative Analysis of Comparative EthnographiesNeil Gong and Corey M. Abramson
