A Different Kind of Ethnography: Imaginative Practices and Creative Methodologies - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1442636610 ISBN 13: 9781442636613

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2016

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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

Review

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.

(Paul Stoller, West Chester University)

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.

(Andrew Irving, Granada Centre of Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester)

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.

(Kate Hennessy, Simon Fraser University)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1442636610
• ISBN 13: 9781442636613
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160
• Editor: Elliott Denielle, Culhane Dara