Elizabeth Campbell & Luke Eric Lassiter 
Doing Ethnography Today [PDF ebook] 
Theories, Methods, Exercises

Preface x
1 Introduction: Conceptualizing Ethnography 1
Ethnography is as Personal as it Gets 4
Ethnography is Collaborative 5
Ethnography is Hermeneutic 6
Ethnography is Creative and Constitutive 7
Ethnography Grapples with the Idea of Culture, however Deeply
Compromised 8
Ethnography is Mostly Art 8
Exercise – Taking Stock: Exploring your Limits and
Possibilities 10
Suggested Readings 13
Suggested Websites 14
2 Fields of Collaboration 15
The Field Today 19
On the Actual Complexities of Collaboration 21
Exercise – Engaging Collaborators and Creating Research
Questions 24
Suggested Readings 26
Suggested Websites 27
3 Emergent Design 30
Exercise – Intentional Reciprocity 32
Uncertainty and the Collaborative Process 34
Ethics and Ethical Commitments 36
Exercise – Developing Project Codes of Ethics 39
Recognition or Anonymity? 40
Exercise – Ethics, IRBs, and Other Subjects 41
Issues of Authority: Ethnographer as Facilitator, Research
Participant as Counterpart 44
Exercise – Revisiting Project Limits and Possibilities
46
Suggested Readings 47
Suggested Websites 48
4 Engagement: Participant Observation and Observant
Participation 50
Exercise – One Scene, Many Positions 54
Participation 56
Interlude: Equipment Check 61
From Participant Observation to Observant Participation 64
Fieldnotes: From Definitions, Meanings, and Practices to Storied
Observations 66
Exercise – Developing Your Own (Fieldnotes) Style 69
On Fieldnote Forms 72
Exercise – Writing With 75
By Way of Conclusion . . . 77
Suggested Readings 80
Suggested Websites 80
5 Interviews and Conversations 84
Living with Interviews 87
Exercise – Issues for Interviews 89
The Changing Nature of Interviews 94
Exercise – Interviews as Conversations 97
Interviews (and Conversations) in Ethnographic Research 98
Exercise – Talking about Transcripts 104
Suggested Readings 108
Suggested Websites 109
6 Inscriptions: On Writing Ethnography 113
Exercise – Making Sense of Materials 116
‘What is Ethnography?’ Redux: On the Emergence of
Contemporary Ethnographic Forms 120
Exercise – Writing Ethnography 126
Toward Collaborative Writing and Transformation 129
Exercise – Collaborative Writing 131
Suggested Readings 134
Suggested Websites 135
Index 138

Elizabeth Campbell is Assistant Professor of Curriculum
and Instruction at Marshall University’s College of Education
and Professional Development, USA. Before moving to academe,
she worked in community development as a folklorist, writer, and
museum curator.
Luke Eric Lassiter is Professor of Humanities and
Anthropology and Director of Marshall University’s Graduate
Humanities Program, USA. His books include The Chicago Guide to
Collaborative Ethnography (2005) and Invitation to
Anthropology (4th edition, 2014). In 2007, he
founded the journal Collaborative Anthropologies and served
as its editor or co-editor until 2013.