Critical Ethnography

Just reading Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics and Performance by D Soyini Madison from the University of North Carolina (published by Sage, 2005). She is an anthropologist ethnographer interested in human rights, traditional religious practices, myth, and performance She has done fieldwork in Ghana and Italy. Former Fulbright Scholar, and Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. All of the above themes feature in my various blogs and publications.

First thing to say, this is an excellent book, a must-read for anyone involved in qualitative research. This blog will summarise some main points which interest me. It was written with postgraduate students in mind so is clearly written and well structured. I am reviewing as I read so this post will evolve until finished over the next few days.

What is critical ethnography?
Basically it is ethnography with political intent. It combines the process of observation and data collection (anthropological ethnography) with critical studies, a process of asking questions critical of the status quo and society in general, therefore having an interest in transformational politics, human rights, equity and so on. It begins, she says, with researchers recognising their social responsibilities to address injustice. The researcher takes a position within the research. Some attempt to be 'objective' observers: whether anyone can be objective about anything is hugely problematic, so to resolve this post-positivist research focuses on understandings and human interactions instead. The critical researcher takes an ethical position on abuse of power in the status quo, exposing abuses, seeking out the voices of the oppressed, and working with all sides to propose new ways of political and social working.

Ethnography has had a long history in social anthropology and sociology, a researcher patiently observing and recording, interviewing participants to unravel different points of view. Ethnography is thus focused on 'The Other' and is non-self-centred. There should be no theory-practice divide. Critical ethnography is the performance of critical theory, or critical theory in action.

Research methods.
Chapter 2 emphasises the importance of research methods, as contrasted with "deep hanging out". She describes how critical theory involves her line of questioning (interview schedules), different kinds of questions to be asked, and how to code the transcripts. This is extremely useful for anyone learning how to research-interview well. The types of questions suggested will provide much richer data for the researcher. Chapter three illustrates using examples.

Chapter 4 deals with ethics. After a survey of the usual philosophers, she tries to get to grips with an interesting facet, based around the notion of Other. Ethnography, she holds, consists of a research studying 'Other' - other people's customs, points of view, ways of thinking. Any researcher engaging with qualitative research must take the 'other' very seriously indeed. It is too easy to impose one's own ideas on to the data and make the line of questioning too narrow. Madison emphasises the importance of voices of the researched, and the importance of asking the right questions, about rights, propriety, equity, power distribution and abuses and so on. She uses the work of Maria Lugones, on 'Loving Perception'. Lugones uses the metaphor of 'world traveller' as we travel through difference, unfamiliarity and alienation, taking us out of our comfort zone. This takes skill and understanding which is accumulated gradually. In the same way a researcher has to tune into other people's ideas and points of view and get over their unfamiliarity. We may approach these with stereotypes, even caricatures, in mind. One seeks to feel at ease, 'humanly bonded', finding some link that sparks a new relationship. We should, she says, be enough at ease to be playful, experimental, creative. Lugones contrasts arrogant perception (feeling we are superior) to 'loving perception (feeling we are bonded with the interviewees). In this love and caring should lie ethics, not a code to be followed, but a principle to honour.

Chapter 5 is about merging methods with ethics, encouraging openness, dialogue and conceptual accuracy. Chapter 6 has 3 case studies involving marginalised groups. Chapter 7, Performance Ethnography deals with performance (e.g. theatre) as experience, social behaviour, language and identity. Following Victor Turner she deals with performativity, process and cultural politics. Then a section deals with staging ethnography - the possibilities of theatre.

Chapter 8 gives examples of how to write it up. Four useful terms are writing as... relational, evocative, embodied and consequential. Relational means recognizing a relationship between writer and reader, the writer communicating with the reader and trying to enrich them. The opposite is writing to impress, egotistical writing. Evocative means that the writing evokes strong feelings, memories and associations that are powerful to readers as well as writers. Embodied recognizes that the whole body writes, and critical writing interconnects the body with others, the reader engaging with the text with all their senses feeling a sense of engagement and (non-sexual) arousal. Consequential means that writing should break through comfort zones and engage with political struggle, and thus have personal and social consequences.

Finally, chapter 9 gives 3 more case studies, one on cultural performance as fieldwork, one on oral history as performance, and the last on communitas, breach and redressive action (after Victor Turner).

A very thought-provoking book.

Post under construction. To be continued