Interrogating ethnography : why evidence matters / Steven Lubet.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lubet, Steven, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--Research.

Ethnology.

Ethnology--Methodology.

Ethnographic informants.

Evidence.

Physical Description:

xv, 195 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Pre-publication title: Evidence and ethnography

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]

Summary:

Urban Ethnography is one of the most vibrant areas of social science inquiry, and has produced scores of classic books over the decades. Yet when Steven Lubet delved deeper into the literature, he encountered a field that relies heavily on anonymous sources, often as reported by a single investigator whose underlying data remain unseen. Upon digging into the details, he discovered too many ethnographic assertions that were dubious, exaggerated, tendentious, or just plain wrong. Employing the tools and techniques of a trial lawyer, Lubet uses original sources and contemporaneous documentation to explore the stories behind ethnographic narratives. As he shows, many classic works in the field are accurate and indeed powerful works of scholarship. However, he also found many others that relied far too much on rumors, folklore, and unreliable hearsay. Interrogating Ethnography explains how qualitative social science would benefit from greater attention to the quality of evidence, and provides recommendations for bringing the field more closely in line with other fact-based disciplines such as law and journalism. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Testimony 9

2 Opinion and Documentation 15

3 Unreliability 29

4 Credulity 43

5 Selectivity 61

6 Rumors and Folklore 75

7 Anonymity 91

8 Criminality 109.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-185) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Lubet, Steven. Interrogating ethnography.

ISBN:

9780190655686

0190655682

OCLC:

993635695