Critical ethnography

Critical ethnography applies a critical theory based approach to ethnography. It focuses on the implicit values expressed within ethnographic studies and, therefore, on the unacknowledged biases that may result from such implicit values.[1] It has been called critical theory in practice.[2] In the spirit of critical theory, this approach seeks to determine symbolic mechanisms, to extract ideology from action, and to understand the cognition and behaviour of research subjects within historical, cultural, and social frameworks.

Critical ethnography incorporates reflexive inquiry into its methodology. Researchers employing this approach position themselves as being intrinsically linked to those being studied and thus inseparable from their context.[3] In addition to speaking on behalf of subjects, critical ethnographers will also attempt to recognize and articulate their own perspective as a means of acknowledging the biases that their own limitations, histories, and institutional standpoints bear on their work.[1] Further, critical ethnography is inherently political as well as pedagogical in its approach.[3] There is no attempt to be purely detached and scientifically objective in reporting and analysis. In contrast to conventional ethnography which describes what is, critical ethnography also asks what could be in order to disrupt tacit power relationships and perceived social inequalities.[2]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Critical Ethnographic Respect
* 3 Notable contributors to critical ethnography
* 4 See also
* 5 References
* 6 Further reading
* 7 External links

## History

Critical ethnography stems from both anthropology and the Chicago school of sociology.[4] Following the movements for civil rights of the 1960s and 1970s some ethnographers became more politically active and experimented in various ways to incorporate emancipatory political projects into their research.[5] For example, some ethnographers with political agendas for change chose to conduct fieldwork in unconventional environments such as modern workplaces that were not necessarily considered exotic, as previous anthropologists had typically done.[1] Other ethnographers consciously attempted to conduct research on so-called deviant or suppressed groups from outside the paradigm of hegemonic cultural positionings to provide new avenues for dissent and dialogue on societal transformation.[3]

## Critical Ethnographic Respect

‘Critical ethnographic respect’ is proposed by Appleton[6] as a way to talk about how we can approach our ethnographic data and conversations - with respect for the narratives of interlocutors, without abdicating critical analysis of the spaces and materialities from wherein these narratives emerge. The concept draws on and builds on the term ‘critical respect’ as articulated by Rosalind C. Gill, which “involves attentive, respectful listening, to be sure, but it does not abdicate the right to question or interrogate”.[7] For Gill, respectful listening is the start of the work of feminist scholars, when we layer the context alongside the narratives of women's lives and experiences. Appleton writes, "Listening respectfully and then creating space for those narratives to be heard alongside a nuanced structural analysis, is the work done by critical ethnographic respect."[8]

## Notable contributors to critical ethnography

* Phil Carspecken
* D. Soyini Madison
* Geoffrey Walford

## See also

* Anthropology
* Chicago School (sociology)
* Ethnomethodology
* Qualitative research
* Sociology

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Soyini Madison, D. (2005). Critical ethnography: method, ethics, and performance. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/4957_Madison_I_Proof_Chapter_1.pdf
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thomas, J. (1993). Doing critical ethnography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Simon, R. I., & Dippo, D. (1986). On critical ethnographic work. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 17(4), 195-202.
4. ↑ Thomas, J. (2003). Musings on critical ethnography, meanings, and symbolic violence. In R.P. Clair (Ed.), Expressions of Ethnography. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, pp. 45-54.
5. ↑ Noblit, G. W., Flores, S. Y., & Murillo, E. G. (2004). Postcritical ethnography: An introduction. Cress, NJ: Hampton Press.
6. ↑ Appleton, N. S. (2022). "Critical ethnographic respect: Womens' [sic] narratives, material conditions, and emergency contraception in India". Anthropology & Medicine 29 (2): 141–159. doi:10.1080/13648470.2020.1778427. PMID 32838541.
7. ↑ Gill (2007), 78 Critical Respect: The Difficulties and Dilemmas of Agency and ‘Choice’ for Feminism: A Reply to Duits and van Zoonen. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 14(1), 69–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506807072318
8. ↑ Appleton, (2020) 146

## Further reading

* Appleton, N. S. (2022). "Critical ethnographic respect: Womens' [sic] narratives, material conditions, and emergency contraception in India". Anthropology & Medicine 29 (2): 141–159. doi:10.1080/13648470.2020.1778427. PMID 32838541.
* Brown, S. G., & Dobrin, S. I. (2004). Ethnography unbound: From theory shock to critical praxis. Albany: State University of New York Press.
* Carspecken, P. F. (1996). Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and practical guide. New York: Routledge.
* Carucci, Laurence M. & Michèle D. Dominy (2005). Anthropology in the ‘Savage Slot’: Reflections on the Epistemology of Knowledge. Anthropological Forum: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology, 15 (3).
* Gill, Rosalind C. (2007). "Critical Respect: The Difficulties and Dilemmas of Agency and 'Choice' for Feminism". European Journal of Women's Studies 14: 69–80. doi:10.1177/1350506807072318. http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/22534.
* Lederman, Rena (2005). Challenging Audiences: Critical Ethnography in/for Oceania. Anthropological Forum 15 (3), November 2005, pages 319-328
* Noblit, G. W., Flores, S. Y., & Murillo, E. G. (2004). Postcritical ethnography: Reinscribing critique. Cress, NJ: Hampton Press.
* Simon, R. I., & Dippo, D. (1986). On critical ethnographic work. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 17(4), 195–202.
* Leslie, Heather Young (2005). "Tongan Doctors and a Critical Medical Ethnography". Anthropological Forum 15 (3): 277–286. doi:10.1080/00664670500282097. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00664670500282097?scroll=top&needAccess=true.
* Soyini Madison, D. (2005). Critical ethnography: method, ethics, and performance. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
* Thomas, J. (1993). Doing critical ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
* Walford, G. (2009). In Carspecken P. F. (Ed.), Critical ethnography and education. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing.

## External links

* Special Issue of Anthropological Forum, A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology: Critical Ethnography In The Pacific: Transformations In Pacific Moral Orders [1]
* Professor Phil Carspecken's academic homepage at Indiana University.
* Professor D. Soyini Madison's academic homepage at Northwestern University.
* Professor Geoffrey Walford's academic homepage at the University of Oxford
* Example of a critical ethnographic approach to modern media using longitudinal TV/media appropriation and remixes to ethnographically explicate contemporary North American culture - by Cultural Farming.

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Critical theory

Origins|

* Frankfurt School
* Freudo-Marxism

Concepts|

* Critical vocabulary
* Binary opposition
* Dominant privilege
* Phallogocentrism
* Reconstructivism

Derivatives|

* Archetypal literary criticism
* New historicism
* Technocriticism

| Critical ...|

* applied linguistics
* cartography
* criminology
* design
* discourse analysis
* ethnography
* geography
* geopolitics
* historiography
* international relations theory
* language awareness
* legal studies
* management studies
* medical anthropology
* pedagogy
* practice
* psychiatry
* psychology
* race theory
* security studies
* social thought
* technical practice
* terrorism studies

|

Theorists|

* Herbert Marcuse
* Theodor W. Adorno
* Max Horkheimer
* Walter Benjamin
* Erich Fromm
* Friedrich Pollock
* Leo Löwenthal
* Jürgen Habermas
* Alfred Schmidt
* Axel Honneth
* Siegfried Kracauer
* Otto Kirchheimer

* v
* t
* e

Ethnicity

Related concepts|

* Clan
* Ethnic group
* Ethnographic group
* Ethnolinguistic group
* Ethnoreligious group
* Ethnographic realism
* Hyphenated ethnicity
* Indigenous peoples
* Ingroups and outgroups
* Meta-ethnicity
* Metroethnicity
* Minority group
* Monoethnicity
* Nation
* Nationality
* Panethnicity
* Polyethnicity
* Population
* Race
* Symbolic ethnicity
* Tribe

Ethnology|

* Anthropology
* Ethnic studies
* Ethnoarchaeology
* Ethnobiology
* Ethnobotany
* Ethnomycology
* Ethnozoology
* Ethnoecology
* Ethnocinema
* Ethnogeology
* Ethnography
* Autoethnography
* Clinical
* Critical
* Cyber-
* Institutional
* Netnography
* Online
* Person-centered
* Salvage
* Transidioethnography
* Video
* Ethnohistory
* Ethnolinguistics
* Ethnology
* Ethnomathematics
* Ethnostatistics
* Ethnomedicine
* Ethnomethodology
* Ethnomuseology
* Ethnomusicology
* Ethnophilosophy
* Ethnopsychopharmacology
* Ethnopoetics
* Ethnoscience
* Ethnosemiotics
* Ethnotaxonomy

Groups by region|

* Africa
* Americas
* Indigenous
* Canada
* Mexico
* United States
* Central America
* South America
* Asia
* Central Asia
* East Asia
* Northern Asia
* South Asia
* Southeast Asia
* West Asia
* Australia
* Indigenous
* Europe
* Oceania
* Indigenous
* European

Identity and
ethnogenesis

* Cross-race effect
* Cultural assimilation
* Cultural identity
* Demonym
* Development
* Endonym
* Ethnic flag
* Ethnic option
* Ethnic origin
* Ethnic religion
* Ethnicity in census
* Ethnofiction
* Ethnonym
* Folk religion
* Historical
* Imagined community
* Kinship
* Legendary progenitor
* Lineage-bonded society
* Mythomoteur
* Mores
* Nation-building
* Nation state
* National language
* National myth
* Origin myth
* Pantribal sodality
* Tribal name
* Tribalism
* Urheimat

Multiethnic society|

* Consociationalism
* Diaspora politics
* Dominant minority
* Ethnic democracy
* Ethnic enclave
* Ethnic interest group
* Ethnic majority
* Ethnic media
* Ethnic pornography
* Ethnic theme park
* Ethnoburb
* Ethnocracy
* Ethnographic film
* Ethnographic village
* Indigenous rights
* Middleman minority
* Minority rights
* Model minority
* Multinational state

Ideology and
ethnic conflict

* Ethnic bioweapon
* Ethnic cleansing
* Ethnic hatred
* Ethnic joke
* Ethnic nationalism
* Ethnic nepotism
* Ethnic penalty
* Ethnic slur
* Ethnic stereotype
* Ethnic violence
* Ethnocentrism
* Ethnocide
* Ethnosymbolism
* Indigenism
* Separatist movements
* Xenophobia

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