Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance

"Critical Ethnography represents the best of Professor Madison′s work. As a fan of her written scholarship for a long time, I am pleased to see both this book and Madison′s unique voice in it. Thanks to this text, our students will be better prepared for engaging others."

--John T. Warren, Bowling Green State University

"Critical Ethnography is a rare and beautiful synthesis of deft theorizing and principled pragmatics. The complexities of ethnography demand a grasp of both theory and practice, but rarely have they come together so clearly and completely as in this passionately written text. I especially appreciate the thoughtful attention to the intellectual roots of the critical tradition in ethnography, and to the way students are rigorously led through the methodological consequences of critical epistemology."

--Judith Hamera, California State University, Los Angeles

What is critical ethnography? How do we use theory to interpret research data? What is performance ethnography? Readers can find answers to these fundamental questions in D. Soyini Madison′s engaging and highly multidisciplinary new book, Critical Ethnography: Methods, Ethics, and Performance.

Critical Ethnography presents a fresh new look at critical ethnography by emphasizing the significance of ethics and performance in the art and politics of fieldwork. The book explores an ethics of ethnography while illustrating the relevance of performance ethnography across disciplinary boundaries. The productive links between theory and method are celebrated in this text. Theoretical concepts range from queer theory, feminist theory, and critical race theory to Marxism and phenomenology. The methodological techniques range from designing and asking in-depth interview questions and developing rapport to coding and interpreting data. The various theories and methods culminate in three fictional ethnographic case studies that "enact" the interdependence between theory and method and the significance of social theory, ethics, and performance.

Key Features:

• Cutting-edge approach and perspective: It is the first book to explore and focus on the intersections between theory, fieldwork methods, performance, and praxis.
• Global examples and material: Theories, methods, and examples are drawn from scholarship that extends beyond the West to include developing world and post-colonial thinkers and practitioners.
• Effective pedagogy: Examples of ethnographic projects illustrate more abstract or complex discussions and concepts.

Critical Ethnography reaches out to any student conducting field research. In particular, upper-division undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in ethnography, qualitative research methods, critical/cultural research methods, or advanced research methods will find this book to be of great value.

D. Soyini Madison is professor of Performance Studies and Anthropology, and served as Interim Director of the Program in African Studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of Acts of Activism: Human Rights as Radical Performance (2010, Cambridge UP) and the co-editor with Judith Hamera of the SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies (2006, SAGE). Madison lived in West Africa as a Senior Fulbright Scholar and has conducted field research over the past ten years on the performance tactics of local human rights activists in Ghana.