Ethnography and the City (eBook, ePUB)

Readings on Doing Urban Fieldwork
Redaktion: Ocejo, Richard E.

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

The only collection of its kind on the market, this reader gathers the work of some of the most esteemed urban ethnographers in sociology and anthropology. Broken down into sections that cover key aspects of ethnographic research, Ethnography and the City will expose readers to important works in the field, while also guiding students to the study of method as they embark on their own work.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Taylor & Francis
• Seitenzahl: 272
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. November 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781135766276
• Artikelnr.: 38266326

Autorenporträt

Richard E. Ocejo is Assistant Professor of Sociology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York (CUNY), where he teaches research methods and urban sociology. His research uses ethnographic methods to analyze urban and community issues, culture, public space, and work in the contemporary city.

Inhaltsangabe

Table of Contents
Introduction: Sociology's Urban Explorers
Richard E. Ocejo
Part I: Data Collection Strategies
Section I: Being There, Up Close
Introduction- Richard E. Ocejo
1. Gans, H.J. 1962. "Redevelopment of the West End," The Urban
Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans. NY: The
Free Press: 281; 288 - 98.
From his classic work The Urban Villagers, in this selection Herbert
Gans analyzes how an Italian-American community reacts to impending
displacement. By living in their Boston neighborhood Gans discovers
how the primacy of the family and peer group in the lives of these
working-class and the "urban village" community that they constructed
influences their inaction against their displacement and the
destruction of their neighborhood.
2. Bourgois, P. 1995. "Families and Children in Pain," In Search of
Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge, UK: University of
Cambridge Press: 259 - 267; 272 - 276.
This piece showcases how Philippe Bourgois immerses himself in East
Harlem ("El Barrio") to understand the daily struggles and hardships
of families and children in this dangerous and unstable
environment. From living in the neighborhood and having a young son,
Bourgois learns both the important role that children play among
residents, as well as the harsh realities that they and their mothers
face.
3. Lloyd, R. 2006. "The Celebrity Neighborhood," Neo-Bohemia: Art and
Commerce in the Postindustrial City. NY: Routledge: 123 - 143.
In this selection Richard Lloyd takes us inside the gentrifying
Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park to show how a bohemian aesthetic
and work ethic gets contested within and integrated into a commercial
nightlife scene. By living in Wicker Park and participating in its
arts scene, Lloyd discovers the importance of leisure spaces in its
construction and in transforming it into a postindustrial
neighborhood of cultural production.
4. Pattillo, M. 2008. "The Black Bourgeoisie Meets the Truly
Disadvantaged," Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in
the City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 87 - 100.
Seeing herself as a gentrifier in North Kenwood-Oakland, Mary
Pattillo examines the intra-racial conflicts between newcomers and
existing residents that emerge in a neighborhood experiencing "black
gentrification." As one of the newcomers against whom working-class
residents demonstrated wariness and hostility, her work demonstrates
the difficulties ethnographers face in immersing themselves in their
field sites.
5. Perez, G. 2004. "Los de Afuera, Transnationalism, and the Cultural
Politics of Identity," in The Near Northwest Side Story. Berkeley:
University of California Press: 92 - 94; 96 - 110.
This piece pushes the community study beyond the boundaries of the
urban neighborhood as Gina Perez goes to Humboldt Park in Chicago as
well as San Sebastian in Puerto Rico to examine the transnational
lives and identities of Puerto Rican migrants. An example of
"multi-sited ethnography," Perez's study highlights the importance of
immersion across spatial boundaries to experience and understand the
impact of social contexts and spatial and cultural distance on
people's lives.
Section II: Being on the Job
Introduction- Richard E. Ocejo
6. Duneier, M. 1999. "A Christmas on Sixth Avenue," Sidewalk. NY:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 253 - 256; 260 - 279.
Along with his extensive observations of vendors, Mitchell Duneier
also gets behind the table to see the sidewalk from their
perspective. In this selection he demonstrates the complex
relationship between the police and the vendors when he creates a
situation through which an officer confronts him.
7. Moskos, P. 2008. "The Corner: Life on the Streets," Cop in the Hood:
My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District. Princeton: Princeton
University Press: 64-6; 77-80; 83-8.
Peter Moskos in this study goes through the Baltimore police academy
and becomes an officer for a year. He provides a firsthand account of
the varying perspectives and interpretations of their duties and
decisions that officers make while policing in the inner city.
8. Grazian, D. 2003. "Like Therapy: The Blues Club as a Haven," Blue
Chicago: The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press: 87 - 90; 105 - 116.
In this study David Grazian discovers the multiple interpretations
that different actors have of "authenticity" in blues clubs. This
piece shows how he uses his own musical abilities on the saxophone to
reveal how a community of blues club regulars construct notions of
authenticity and socialize people into the group.
9. Wynn, J.R. 2005. "Guiding Practices: Storytelling Tricks for
Reproducing the Urban Landscape," Qualitative Sociology, 28, 4: 399 -
400; 404 - 413.
As Jonathan Wynn shows, walking tour guides use storytelling tricks
to weave imaginative urban narratives for their participants that
parallel some of the tricks that sociologists use in their own work.
By becoming a tour guide, Wynn also demonstrates the value of taking
the role of the other in terms of validating claims.
10. Trimbur, L. 2011. "'Tough Love': Mediation and Articulation in the
Urban Boxing Gym," Ethnography, 12, 3: 334 - 6; 339 - 43; 346 - 50.
The boxing gym is often seen as a male domain, but Lucia Trimbur does
not just enter it as a female ethnographer, she also enters the ring
and to experience the rigors behind the craft of boxing as well as
the duties of trainers. This piece focuses on the conflicting
discourses that trainers use to coach their amateur fighters inside
and outside of the ring.
11. Bender, C. 2003. "What We Talk about When We Talk about Religion,"
Heaven's Kitchen: Living Religion at God's Love We Deliver. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press: 92 - 103.
By exploring a unique field site, Courtney Bender examines how people
talk about religion and act religiously outside of typical settings
like places of worship and the home. When she becomes a volunteer and
working in the kitchen at the charity God's Love We Deliver, Bender
enters into an ongoing conversation filled with subtle but meaningful
religious themes, which allows her to both collect and generate data
on the role of religion in everyday talk.
Part II: Relationships with Participants
Section I: Crossing Boundaries
Introduction- Richard E. Ocejo
12. Whyte, W.F. 1943. "Doc and His Boys," Street Corner Society: The
Social Structure of an Italian Slum. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press: 14 - 25.
In the selection from this classic example of participant observation
research, William Foote Whyte discusses the importance of bowling
scores for social prestige within the Italian gang, including what
happens when he out-bowls its members. Whyte's account reveals both
the importance of overcoming social boundaries as well as their
abiding salience.
13. Liebow, E. 1967. "Men and Jobs," Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro
Streetcorner Men. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company: 61 - 71.
In Tally's Corner, Elliot Liebow navigates numerous social boundaries
to provide an in-depth analysis of the social world of black
streetcorner men. In this selection he discovers the meanings the men
construct for their work opportunities and the importance of peer
groups in their lives. His "chain-link fence" metaphor for the
ethnographer-participant relationship endures as a characterization
of the limits of immersion.
14. Stack, Carol. 1974. "The Flats" and "Swapping: What Goes Around Comes
Around," All Our Kin. NY: Basic Books: 11 - 16; 32 - 43.
Race is a significant social barrier for ethnographers to navigate,
and in this study Carol Stack, a white anthropologist, enters into
and contributes to an inner city African-American kinship network to
reveal the importance of non-blood kin relations for impoverished
families. Her identity as a mother with a young son aids her in
overcoming social distance and forming a close relationship with her
main informant.
15. Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2002. "'Doin' the Hustle': Constructing the
Ethnographer in the American Ghetto," Ethnography, 3, 1: 91 - 92; 96
- 103.
Ethnographers are trained to analyze the thoughts and perceptions
that their participants have about their own lives, but rarely do
they consider the thoughts and perceptions their participants have
about them. In this piece Sudhir Venkatesh discovers that the
"hustle" principle that permeates life in the Chicago housing project
he studies is also applied to him and his fieldwork by its residents.
Such reflection casts a critical lens on the ethnographer's role in
the field at the same time as it aids him in his own analysis.
16. Cavan, S. 1966. "The Marketplace Bar," Liquor License: An Ethnography
of Bar Behavior. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company: 171 - 177; 193 -
200.
Along with race, gender is often another important social boundary
between ethnographers and their participants. In this study from the
1960s, Sherri Cavan examines gender relations in pickup nightspots.
She often uses her gender to position herself in the world of
male-dominated bars and analyze how social interaction between men
and women works in them.
17. Auyero, J. & Swistun, A. 2009. "The Compound and the Neighborhood,"
Flammable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown.
Oxford: Oxford University Press: 28 - 31; 32 - 44.
In this co-authored study on the people in an impoverished and highly
contaminated shantytown and their reactions to their hazardous
surrounding conditions, Javier Auyero and Debora Swistun use the
"photo-elicitation" method with the town's children to learn how they
understand their environment. Through this method they overcome the
age gap that exists between them while remaining sensitive to the
vulnerability of their population.
Section II: Doing the Right Thing
Introduction- Richard E. Ocejo
18. Humphreys, L. 1975. "The People Next Door," Tearoom Trade: Impersonal
Sex in Public Places. Piscataway, NJ: Aldine Transactions: 106 - 11;
114 - 22.
This controversial work by Laud Humphreys is among the most mentioned
works in courses and textbooks that discuss ethics in sociological
research. This selection showcases the actual data that Humphreys
gathered and the analysis he conducted on impersonal homosexual sex
in public places.
19. Ferrell, J. 1993. "Denver Graffiti and the Syndicate Scene," Crimes
of Style: Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality. Boston, MA:
Northeastern University Press: 21 - 26; 49 - 53.
It is not uncommon for ethnographers to engage in illegal activities
with their participants, and in this piece Jeff Ferrell joins a group
of graffiti writers in Denver as they reveal the importance of style
in constructing their subcultural community. Ferrell argues that he
engaged in illegal activities with his participants to experience
their world and validate their claims, but places limits on doing so
for all activities.
20. Contreras, R. 2009. "'Damn, Yo-Who's That Girl?' An Ethnographic
Analysis of Masculinity in Drug Robberies," Journal of Contemporary
Ethnography, 38, 4: 465 - 466; 474 - 483.
In this work, Randol Contreras deals with a number of ethical issues from
studying drug robbers who regularly engage in violent acts. In this piece
he focuses on their mistreatment and exploitation of women in their
robberies. Contreras's work exemplifies situations when participants engage
in behaviors that fieldworkers are morally against.