Issues with ethnographic research

In conversation with the existing critiques of 'urban ethnography’, this chapter provides details about the methodology used for the research on which Surplused Lives is based. It unpacks the analytical process of linking direct ethnographic observations and narratives, which capture how people think and feel about the reality that surrounds them, with the structural forces at play – that of the relationship of labour and capital. The chapter also captures the critiques of ethnographic research of urban marginality, pointing to asymmetric power dynamics, extractivism and the risk of harms caused by unreflected reproduction of stigma

Conversation · Ethnography · Qualitative research · Reproduction · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Water Governance and Infrastructure