The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography

Michael H. Agar

ISBN 10: 0120444704 / ISBN 13: 9780120444700

Editore: Emerald Publishing (edition 2), 1996

Riguardo questo articolo

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Codice articolo 0120444704-7-1-13

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography
• Editore: Emerald Publishing (edition 2)
• Data di pubblicazione: 1996
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0120444704
• ISBN 13: 9780120444700
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Edizione: 2.
• Condizione: Fair

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

This new edition of a classic introductory text opens with an extensive chapter that brings ethnography up-to-date and aims it toward the next century. At a time when numerous disciplines, organizations, and communities are discovering ethnography, Agar shows how the fundamentals endure even as they adapt to a world unimagined when the research perspective developed more than 100 years ago. Contemporary discussions of ethnography are loaded with choices, primarily "either-or" options. Just as the first edition crossed the qualitative-quantitative divide, the new edition integrates classical scientific notions with new concepts such as narrative and interpretation. Agar updates the contrast between the researcher's apprenticeship to knowledgeable informants and the hypothesis-testing mode that still dominates social science, while demonstrating the complementarity of the two. Drawing extensively from his own research experience, he illustrates the stages of the ethnographic process from inception through the emergence of a focus, and toward a subsequent formalization of methods and analysis. In the process, he illustrates several approaches designed to reconcile the contradictory demands of the scientific process and human behavior. It analyses the changes in ethnographic studies during the last fifteen years. It outlines the conflict between science and interpretation. It presents the politics of ethnography, both personal and global. It describes the 'new' participant observation. It sheds light on ethno-logic. It includes methods for the non-positive.

Recensione

"Agar's writing is lively and informal. He conveys the excitement of his subject while candidly sketching some of the ambiguities and problems that will challenge future ethnographers."
--CHOICE
"An intriguing and exciting little book... The range of methodological issues covered by Agar is impressive and thorough. Moreover, although he writes primarily for students in anthropology, Agar weaves into his discussion important methodological texts and articles from many social science disciplines, thus making his volume a concise reference for guiding students to further reading on particular issues. The excitement of the book is enhanced also by the diversity of research projects in which Agar has been involved as an ethnographer.... There are points of contention that could be raised about the book, and Agar frequently acknowledges that his position on certain issues is debatable. He also intended the book to set up issues 'clearly enough so that other enthographers can agree or argue. In this, he succeeds. As an 'informal introduction, the book covers more ground than the subtitle suggests, ground enough to serve as an important stimulus and guide for students of ethnography both in sociology and in other social disciplines."
--CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY
"This book is one of the strongest in the field... The book appeals to an audience that grown considerably beyond anthropologists."
--JOHN GUMPERTS, University of California, Berkeley