Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner's Guide

by Jan Blommaert, Dong Jie

Ethnographic fieldwork is something which is often presented as mysterious and inexplicable. How do we know certain things after having done fieldwork? Are we sure we know? And what exactly do we know? This book describes ethnographic fieldwork as the gradual accumulation of knowledge about something you don’t know much about. We start from ignorance and gradually move towards knowledge, on the basis of practices for which we have theoretical and methodological motivations. Jan Blommaert and Dong Jie draw on their own experiences as fieldworkers in explaining the complexities of ethnographic fieldwork as a knowledge trajectory. They do so in an easily accessible way that makes these complexities easier to understand and to handle before, during and after fieldwork. The 2nd edition of this bestselling book updates the 1st edition and includes a new postscript on ethnography in an online world.

Genres: Anthropology

120 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

Reviews

[Shae]

This book reads more like a qualitative beginner than an ethnographic fieldwork guide. The points stressed are not enough to give a glimpse of the insider/outsider conundrum or the complex nature of getting into a community we wish to research. It's a beginner guide to fieldwork on a broad scale. These are great tools and techniques for newcomers learning fieldwork for the first time yet lacking the ethnographic niche and complexity that might allude to simple work and are easy to get into.

[Diana180]

#overdrive #research