Ethnography

* What is ethnography in social research? * To what use can ethnographic data be put? * Who are its fiercest critics? * Does ethnography have a future? Ethnography is one of the principal methods of qualitative research and has a long-established tradition of use in the social sciences. However, the literature on ethnography has become a battleground as ethnography is attacked from within and without the qualitative tradition. Post-modern critics attack the methodological status of ethnography and challenge the importance of its representations of reality, and others argue that globalization narrows its application as localism disappears. Ethnography provides a robust defence of this research method and establishes its continued relevance in the social sciences. It sets out the competing methodological bases of ethnography and details its different uses as a research method. The author offers guidelines for good practice in the research process, as well as advice on the analysis, interpretation and presentation of ethnographic data. Although written as a textbook, the contents are research led, informed by the author's own extensive experience of undertaking ethnographic research in dangerous and sensitive locations in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. The result is a lively and engaging read on an essential topic for both students and researchers.

John D. Brewer is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen's University, Belfast. He is the author of eleven books and over a hundred articles and papers. In addition, he was Visiting Fellow at Yale University and Visiting Scholar at St John's College, Oxford, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.