Relational Distance and Epistemic Generosity
The Power of Detachment in Skeptical Ethnography
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2330854 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gary Alan Fine (0000-0002-2431-1562, Northwestern University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 828-849 |
| Publication date | 2019-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Methods & Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0049-1241 • E-ISSN: 1552-8294 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0049124117701481 |
| OpenAlex | W2602304093 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 66 |
Much contemporary ethnography hopes to engage with a community to justify social critique. Whether from problem selection, interpersonal rewards, or a desire for exchange, researchers often take the 'side' of informants. Such an approach, linked to 'public ethnography,' marginalizes a once-traditional approach to fieldwork, that of the ethnographic stranger. I present a model of scholarly detachment and questioning of group interests. Drawing on my own experiences and those of members of the Second Chicago School, I argue for an approach in which an unaffiliated observer questions community interests, arguing that skepticism of local explanations can discover processes shared by other scenes and can develop transsituational concepts. While the ethnographer can be seduced into sharing a group's perspective, observational distancing can mitigate this. In an approach I label skeptical ethnography, the ethnographic stranger avoids partisan allegiance in the field and at the desk. Skepticism of local interests must be combined with an epistemic generosity that recognizes that all action, whether seemingly righteous or repellent, responds to an interaction order
Agency (philosophy · Epistemology · Ethnography · Generosity · Humility · Political science · Power (physics · Skepticism · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Social Psychology
An Inappropriate Insider in the Field
Distance as care
Erotic Ethnography
Trust-building vs. “just trust me”
The Problem with Rapport in Interview-Based Studies
State Actors as Hard-to-Reach Populations
Morality, Affect, and Reputation in the Making of a Motivated Social Self
Adopting a Cloak of Incompetence
Beyond the Calculus of Power and Position
The Ethical Dilemmas and Social Scientific Trade-offs of Masking in Ethnography
Entanglements of experience
Mountain Experience
A Second Chicago School?
Telling About Society
Abductive Analysis
What About Mozart? What About Murder?
With the Boys
Authors of the Storm
Flammable
The Global Pigeon
Studies in ethnomethodology
Frame analysis
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Stranger and friend
On the Run
The Discovery of Grounded Theory
Mundane Reason
Wounded City
Illicit Flirtations
Avoiding Politics
Dealing in Desire
Outsiders
Punished
For Public Sociology
For Public Sociology
Protagonist–Driven Urban Ethnography
De–Exoticizing Ghetto Poverty
Tiny Publics
Evicted. Poverty and profit in the American city
The Sociological Imagination
Membership Roles in Field Research
The Sociology of Georg Simmel
Simmel at a Distance
Small Groups and Culture Creation
Asylums
Sociological Work
Whose Side Are We On
Agency, Structure, and Com parat ive Con texts
If Simmel Were A Fieldworker
From How to Why
Dirty Data and Investigative Methods
Ten Lies of Ethnography
A Partisan View
On Fieldwork
Street Corner Society
Generic Social Processes
The Martian and the Convert
The Social Construction of Style
Stranger and stranger
The Culture of Production
The Stranger
The Limitations of a "Dirty" World
Relational ethnography
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,57 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |