Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
| Autor: | Geraint B. Osborne |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Canadian Journal of Sociology. 37:197-199 |
| ISSN: | 1710-1123 0318-6431 |
| DOI: | 10.29173/cjs17467 |
| Popis: | Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, Linda L. Shaw, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2011, 289 pp. $19.00 paper (978-0-226-20683-7). Since its first publication in 1995, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes has become one of the seminal texts for those teaching social science students the intricacies of creating, developing, organizing, and processing fieldnotes and writing ethnographies. Written during the surge of interest in ethnographic writing during the 1980s and 90s, the authors made a valuable contribution by filling a long-standing gap in the literature of ethnographic methods training and providing beginners with an intimate understanding of how to take, organize, and develop fieldnotes. While ethnographic research itself has since receded somewhat, nonetheless, the authors were motivated to write a second edition for two fundamental reasons. First, there has been a significant increase in the publication of articles and chapters concerned with the process of writing fieldnotes which consider and incorporate reflexive insights. Second, and, more importantly, the experience of teaching another generation of students made the limitations of their original work more obvious to the authors. As such, to aid comprehension, the authors have substantially reorganized the contents of some chapters and have provided a more detailed discussion of the issues of race, class, and gender. Despite these changes, the authors' central focus remains the same: how to effectively take and maintain rigorous fieldnotes so as to turn fieldwork experiences and observations into a finished ethnography. As such, they explain how to balance observing with writing and effectively demonstrate that the recording of fieldnotes is equally as important as what is written in the text. Throughout, the authors stress that the ethnographic researcher is not just observing and recording some objective reality but, rather, is always subjectively implicated in the observations and interpretations. It comes to no surprise that the authors draw heavily from an interactionist, interpretive perspective that borrows much from the traditions of symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, and interpretive anthropology. Taking the position that writing fieldnotes is not an innate ability but rather a skill that can be learned, honed, and sharpened through study and practice, the authors demystify the process, making it very explicit by relying on numerous examples drawn from their students' actual fieldnotes, as well as their own. Following a comprehensive introductory discussion of the pivotal role of fieldnotes in conducting ethnographic research, the authors examine the complementary process of participating and observing the lived experiences of real people in natural settings and how one decides what events and interactions are deserving of attention. Here, the authors provide a detailed explanation of how these observations are transformed from mere "headnotes" into "jottings" that will serve to jog the researcher's memory when it comes to constructing more vivid descriptions of events and interactions. It is here where the how, where, and when of jottings are discussed, including the benefits and risks associated with overt and covert procedures. This discussion is followed by two chapters on strategies and tactics for writing fieldnotes that have been substantially reorganized to more closely follow the stages through which novice ethnographers pass as they learn to write their own fieldnotes. Chapter three explores the relations between an ethnographer's attention to people's interactions, processes for recalling these encounters, and writing options for presenting and analyzing them. As such, attention is given to how ethnographers remember, elaborate, and comment upon fieldnotes so as to produce a detailed written account of what they have observed in their social setting. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|