A Different Kind of Ethnography: Imaginative Practices and Creative Methodologies

by Dara Culhane (Editor), Denielle Elliott (Editor)

Overview

Building on the sensory ethnographic trend in contemporary sociocultural anthropology, this collection introduces the idea of a different kind of ethnography: an imaginative and creative approach to anthropological inquiry that is collaborative, open-ended, embodied, affective, and experimental. The authors treat ethnography as a methodology that includes the whole process of ethnography, from being fully present while engaging with the experience to analyzing representing, and communicating the results, with the hope of capturing different kinds of knowledge and experiences

The book is structured around various methodologies–sensing, walking, writing, performing, and recording—and includes innovative exercises that allow both seasoned and aspiring ethnographers to develop a practice that can deepen and extend ethnographic inquiry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442636644
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	11/08/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Dara Culhane is Professor of Anthropology at Simon Fraser University.
Denielle Elliott is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science at York University.

Table of Contents

List of Images
Preface

1. Imagining: An Introduction
Dara Culhane

2. Writing
Denielle Elliott

3. Sensing
Dara Culhane

4. Recording and Editing
Alexandrine Bourdreault-Fournier

5. Walking
Cristina Moretti

6. Performing
Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston

Appendix: Resources for Instructors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Andrew Irving

A bold new approach to, and reimagining of, ethnography and ethnographic practice. By considering how creativity and the imagination infuse social relationships, the book explores new ways of working alongside people as subjects of co-creative research rather than as objects of study. A readable and fascinating collection that speaks across disciplines.

Paul Stoller

This book offers the human sciences a breath of fresh air, providing examples of creative approaches to twenty-first-century anthropological method and representation. More importantly, the authors in this collection underscore the importance of the imagination in doing anthropology. Such a tack encourages practitioners to act imaginatively and to take representational risks. Following this sage advice, future scholars might reap the intellectual and existential rewards of opening themselves to the world.

Kate Hennessy

A Different Kind of Ethnography charts a creative path for the ever-shifting discipline of anthropology, which is increasingly forging space for sensory, performative, and experimental forms and technologies. This volume is a tremendous resource for the classroom and for a new generation of imaginative ethnographers.