Limits Of Ethnography Research Articles

Shevchenko in perception of ‘little russian’ environment of the 19th century

The paper deals with the perception of Shevchenko’s works in the ‘Little Russian’ environment of the 19th century. The interpretations within this social group may be defined as profane because its representatives treated Shevchenko exclusively in the limits of ethnography and as a poet of the common people, while his artistic, national, and political significance was obscured. The author refers to private, public, and secret documents. These are P. Seletskyi’s memoirs; P. Galagan’s journal; the correspondence of K. Kersten with her cousin, member of Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood O. Markovych; M. Rigelman’s polemical paper on Ukrainophilism; T. Florynskyi’s work on Ukrainian language and Ukrainian literary separatism; the notes on the Ukrainophile movement by M. Yuzefovych. The following spectrum of ‘Little Russian’ discourse regarding Shevchenko has been defined: ambivalent attitude (P. Seletskyi); an attempt to combine respect for Shevchenko with loyalty to the Russian emperor and empire (H. Galagan); strictly negative and arrogant attitude (K. Kersten); attempts to separate Shevchenko from Ukrainophilism, Ukrainian language and literature (M. Rigelman and T. Florynskyi), understanding of Shevchenko as a creator of Ukrainophilism (M. Yuzefovych). The presence of the poet’s name in reports to the 3rd Department indicates that apprehending Ukrainian separatism, the Russian imperial structures traditionally treated Shevchenko at the political level, just like issues of the Ukrainian language, culture or education. In the context of prohibitions concerning Ukrainian language and culture, the ‘Little Russian’ discourse of interpreting Shevchenko was inevitably politicized and became identified with the imperial one.

Epistemological Values and Limitations of Ethnography as an Interpretive Research Approach

The research method in humanities and social sciences shares a certain theoretical frame and research design with the interpretive approach. The “interpretive approach” of ethnographic research brings humanities and social sciences together in the realms of naturalistic inquiry as well as knowledge production. This article discusses how ethnographers would tend to address these epistemological fronts in scholarship and research design in humanities and social sciences. It also raises some of the pragmatics and methodological utilities of the ethnographic approach, followed by a short description of ethical and practical issues involved in the research process. Both the humanities and social science research adopt the interpretive approach to explore the subject of investigation in the specific theoretical frame and from multiple perspectives. The article concludes that the strengths that it offers, particularly concerning unravelling complexities of people’s daily lives in their “meaning perspectives,” are unique and appealing even though ethnography never remains immune to some of the limitations of qualitative research.

The politics of expressive forms, ethnographic practice, and indigenous–state relations

This review examines four recently published ethnographies of North American Indian communities in both the United States and Canada, each reflecting the ways in which sovereignty and self-determination are realized and compromised. The evolving indigenous polities discussed in these works each articulate with the nation-state that encompasses them in different ways, in large part by virtue of the kinds of resources the communities are perceived to manage by salient institutions in the dominant society. These works are also insightful concerning the possibilities and limitations of ethnography in highly politicized settings.

Animals and the Limits of Ethnography

ABSTRACTIs ethnography (as constituted in the social sciences) a reliable method with which to understand interspecies intersubjectivity? Can a method that has become a cornerstone approach to a qualitative understanding of humans for more than a century interrogate the social ties between humans and animals? Will it illuminate the similarities and differences between humans and their animal familiars? Using a programmatic approach to ethnography, and drawing on lessons from cyber ethnography, this article examines the challenges facing an ethnography that takes animals seriously as social beings and ethnographic subjects. The ability of ethnography to deliver a faithful portrait of being relies in large part on the communicative trust developed between ethnographers and their participants and interlocutors; it lies in the quality of the intersubjective exchange. Communicative intersubjective trust is both the paragon quality one wants in ethnographic social exchange and the most ill-defined and difficult to ascertain. So much ethnographic authority is underpinned by the hope that ethnographers have understood the people they work with in their terms and can faithfully re-present and interpret that world view. This article argues that the tricky and ambiguous business of intersubjective exchange poses important methodological questions for anthrozoology.

Therapeutic misconception and the limits of ethnography. A commentary on Timmermans and McKay

Therapeutic misconception and the limits of ethnography. A commentary on Timmermans and McKay

Ethnography in a Time of Blurred Genres

Drawing from Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer (2006), this article offers suggestions for reading ethnographies in a new way: with an eye toward learning how they were written and what literary feats they accomplished. In a time of blurred genres, the line between fiction and nonfiction has become increasingly indistinct and it is no longer so clear where ethnography is to be positioned. It is therefore important to reassess the possibilities and limits of ethnography as a literary genre if we are to understand the idiosyncrasies of its “art.”

On the Edge of Diversity: Bringing African Americans and Latinos Together in a Neighborhood Group

This article describes challenges we encountered when organizing a group of African Americans and Latinos in a community where ethnic tensions had been normative. We relate how the first author, a Caucasian with a university affiliation, entered this diverse community and employed ethnographic methods in an attempt to understand it. The ethnography provides a context for the principal challenge we encountered: ensuring that the group had ethnic balance. Focusing on the group's first meeting, we describe the uncertainty of whether our work would be helpful or harmful to the community. We conclude with reflections on the gaps between science and practice in diverse communities; the utility and limits of ethnography; the multiple ecological levels of influence on the community; dilemmas around a White male taking proactive stances while trying to empower a group consisting mostly of women of color; and the influence of values we brought to the community.

Beyond Writing: Feminist Practice and the Limitations of Ethnography

I want to say that you came to Nepal for two years, you wrote a book about the women's movement, you did a Ph.D. But your work seems like nothing. Your book has no importance. After all, what is writing? You looked, you saw, you wrote a book. But that book won't do anything if not accompanied by work, by practice. Right?

Francis LaFlesche's "The Song of Flying Crow" and the Limits of Ethnography

Reprenant le recit d'un anthropologue indigene americain, Francis LaFlesche de la tribu des Omaha, « la chanson de flying crow », l'A. montre les limites de l'ethnologie. F. LaFlesche enregistrait les chansons de sa tribu afin de les etudier mais un jour il en decouvrit une nouvelle qu'il n'avait jusqu'alors jamais entendue et qui aurait ete ecrite par un de ses anciens camarades de classe « Flying crow ». L'A. s'interroge sur ce soit-disant compositeur.

Leisure Activities After a Stroke: An Ethnographic Approach

Ethnography is a qualitative research design that has relevance for clinical research in occupational therapy. The ethnographic approach is illustrated in the present paper through a description of how it could be used to investigate the effectiveness of an occupational therapy leisure intervention with stroke survivors. This paper contrasts ethnography with a randomized clinical trial design addressing the same question. Background information about ethnography, its relationship to other qualitative approaches, and its relevance to occupational therapy is addressed. Additionally, specific aspects of the research process are described, including triangulation of data-gathering strategies, sampling, and analysis. The limitations of ethnography are then described. The paper concludes with some examples of ethnographic work with persons with disabilities.

Ethnographic inquiry in clinical settings.

Physical therapy combines art and science. Both aspects of our practice require systematic investigation. Clinical researchers are confronted with managing the unpredictable variables introduced by multiple human behaviors inherent in the therapeutic process. Ethnography is a qualitative approach to scientific inquiry that is suitable for addressing the human behaviors inherent in practice as they unfold in the clinical setting. An overview of the purpose, methodology, strengths, and limitations of ethnography is presented. Suggestions for applying ethnographic inquiry to physical therapy are provided. The strengths of ethnography include 1) its systematic and rigorous process for collecting and analyzing data that ensures attention to the issues of validity and reliability and 2) the potential relevance of its outcomes to physical therapy practitioners.