Ethnography as Cultural Theory

Abstract

In this chapter we take a closer look at the workings of ethnography in social science, in particular in anthropology, to understand better the work it has traditionally done as pointed to in Chap. 2. As an introduction to this matter we explore how the rise of ubiquitous computing in systems design has generated calls for ‘new’ ways of handling the social milieu. However, upon examination, it becomes apparent that these calls actually return ethnographers to an old and traditional role: that of acting as interpreters of and commentators on the organisation of society and culture at large. To understand what is being offered here it is necessary to understand the role ethnography has traditionally played in anthropology. We begin with ethnography’s ‘founding father’, Bronislaw Malinowski, and show that despite an apparent resonance between the early ethnographies done for systems design the only real overlap lies in an interest in fieldwork. At the heart of Malinowski’s approach, and ‘new’ forms of ethnography alike, is the grounding of what is observed through fieldwork in a theory of culture and society. This produces a visible disjuncture between society and culture as it is understood by its members, and society and culture as understood by anthropologists and other social scientists making use of fieldwork. The net result is that the everyday life of people studied through ethnography becomes a surplus phenomenon and disappears from view in social science accounts, a point we demonstrate in reviewing two ethnographic studies of the same social setting: Tepoztlan in Mexico.