Ethnographic Action Research Articles

Fieldwork in a furnace: anarchists, anti-authoritarians and militant ethnography

Militant ethnography is a burgeoning, deliberately politicised approach to qualitative research, that helps activist-researchers engage with the cultural logic and practices underpinning contemporary anti-authoritarian social movements. Despite its ascendancy amongst researchers investigating contemporary anarchist and anti-authoritarian social movements, militant ethnographic approaches have had limited broader exposure amongst qualitative researchers. With this in mind, my article serves three purposes. First, it acquaints a wider audience of qualitative researchers with militant ethnography. Second, and with reference to insights collaboratively produced during my own militant ethnographic research alongside Greek anarchists and anti-authoritarians, it shares some of the cultural logic and practices underpinning anarchist and anti-authoritarian activity in this space. Third, I make a novel case for the extended application of militant ethnography, so that it accommodates the dissemination of field-constructed knowledge and insights amongst kindred political networks in other locations.

La colaboración como condición: la etnografía participativa como oportunidad para la acción

Drawing on previous experiences of collaborative research carried out in Seville (Spain) by social activists and scholars, this paper presents contexts where collaboration emerges as a sine qua non condition for any research activity. In doing so, we analyse several notions of ‘collaborative research’ and the contexts for which they were designed and implemented, looking for similarities and differences with participatory action research methods. We propose the participatory action ethnography approach in order to make use of the analytic potential of ethnographic methods, creating a context for mutual, critic and horizontal dialogue with those who have traditionally been regarded as «research objects». This, at the same time, stimulates the co-development of situated knowledges, and incorporates the process-based approach and transforming action in collaborative research, overcoming the ‘technocratic drift’ which reduces participatory action research to the use of techniques, devices or procedures considered participatory.

Community Practice and Urban Youth: Social Justice, Service-Learning and Civic Engagement

Book Reviews 149 Community Practice and Urban Youth: Social Justice, ServiceLearning and Civic Engagement Melvin Delgado (2015) Routledge, 248 pages. $44.95 (paperback); ISBN 978-1-13892-598-4 Melvin Delgado is a Professor of Social Work at Boston University and Co-Director of the Center for Addictions Research and Services. Through this work, he brings together important issues about Latino and other marginalized urban populations, youth development, and enhancement of community capacity. Delgado is a prolific writer with more than 20 books, including recent publications on Urban Youth and Photovoice: Visual Ethnography in Action; Asset Assessment and Community Social Work Practice; and Social Justice and the Urban Obesity Crisis: Implications for Social Work. His most recent work provides both a theoretical foundation for social justice and service-learning with a series of case studies and vignettes that exemplify these ideas. Case material is focused on civic engagement for food justice, immigrant rights, and environmental issues, with a focus on youth from low-income/lowwealth communities and youth of color. The book is extensively referenced, requiring more the 60 pages for its bibliography alone. Such a thorough yet practical guide will be useful to academics and practitioners engaged in servicelearning , community engagement, and social change. Initial chapters are organized to support a broad and deep understanding of youth in the context of shifting demographics in cities; social justice and rights; and community practice, service-learning, and civic engagement. As a practitioner and scholar of community engagement myself, I found the histories and frameworks of each of these subjects helpful and refreshingly clear in their purpose and raison d’etre. I can already see that the pages of this early matter will become well-worn, with foldings and jottings to enrich my own research and practice. The integration of social justice and a youth rights focus are particularly helpful in providing both an historic and contemporary context to the fields of service learning and community practice. Delgado then moves into “Reflections from the Field,” highlighting diverse ways youth activism and engagement has enhanced immigrant rights, environmental justice, and food justice. These case examples are expertly developed, both because of their critical contemporary importance and theoretical framing, and because of the complexity and “significant, but not insurmountable” challenges these particular issues pose. The book concludes with emergent themes and trends. For experienced practitioners, this may be the most significant section of the book. In it Delgado raises important questions about advancing critical service-learning to the next level. As youth engagement gains momentum worldwide, these questions will become central to refer to again and again, to ensure ethical practice and social equity. Among these questions are: will youth remain subjects of [community- Book Reviews 150 engaged] research, or will they also play a role in knowledge creation and dissemination? What roles and relationships are at play between adults and youth in community-engaged endeavors? What roles are technology and social media playing in advancing youth activism? In this discussion, Delgado cautions that “the concept of participation plays an influential role in service-learning and civic engagement. However, the degree to which youth participate in an active and meaningful manner is open to interpretation. In essence, the ‘devil is in the details’” (p. 167). Meaningful participation has, in fact, been identified as a significant issue for many decades, receiving extensive attention from the fields of children’s geography, environmental design, and urban planning. Delgado does not give the same thoroughness to his review of this literature as to other subjects of the book. Many authors have critiqued and developed ideas of meaningful participation for youth in as extensive a form as Delgado does his own subjects (e.g., Lynch (1977), Chawla (2002), Driskell (2002), Hart (1997), Percy-Smith and Thomas (2009), as well as recent volumes by Wyn and Cahill (2015) or Gal and Duramy (2015)). Indeed, the field of participatory practice with children and youth is a rich and contextualized ally, and a missed representation in this book. In fact, some of the questions Delgado poses—children as generators of knowledge, or roles and relationships between adults and youth in processes of engagement—are addressed very well in the literatures of participatory...

Zasoby lokalne regionu pomorskiego i przykłady ich wykorzystania dla wzmocnienia rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego obszarów wiejskich

This article presents issues related to the role and importance of local resources for development of rural areas in Pomerania (Pomorskie Voivodeship). The spatial scope of the research encompasses the Pomorskie Voivodeship, occupying a total area of 18310,34 km2 , which represents 5,9 % of the country. This article comprises analysis of selected local cultural and natural village resources in the Pomeranian region. The paper presents local resources of the region, which are particularly associated with cultural, social and natural heritage of Kashubians. The aim of the study was an attempt to assess the impact of local resources on socio-economic development of rural areas in Pomerania. The first part presents natural, landscape and cultural diversity of examined area, while the second concerns richness and culinary specificity of Pomerania region, local and traditional products. An important factor in the development of the Pomeranian village is a unique environment and tourist attractions, mainly the proximity to the Baltic Sea and the presence of lakes and forests, enabling the development of various forms of tourism and recreation. Pomerania is also characterized by cultural diversity, resulting from local and regional identity. It is worth noting that cultural heritage is increasingly regarded as an important factor for local development (by fostering economic activation, creating new jobs and positive image of the area). Kashubian traditions are promoted by i.a. cultural and ethnographic parks or local action groups. Regional Kashubian dishes are to a greater extent appreciated and included on the list of traditional products. Local and regional food products are becoming increasingly recognized by consumers, which contributes to the strengthening of regional identity and promoting the Pomorskie Voivodeship.

Ethnography in Action: Active Learning in Academic Library Outreach to Middle School Students

ABSTRACTThis article describes an outreach activity developed and coordinated by academic librarians as part of a state program for low-income middle school students. Rather than offering a traditional library tour, the library organizers wanted to provide the middle school students with a meaningful experience that would encourage active participation, critical thinking, and alleviate library anxiety. As a spin on the traditional tour, students applied an ethnographic approach to learning about the library. The authors describe the development and implementation of the activity and provide recommendations for other librarians involved in outreach to K–12 students.

“Make Holy the Bare Life”

This article examines thevivencias en la vida cotidiana(everyday lived experiences) of undocumented youth activists in theusaat the intersection where dislocated “bare lives” encounter the hegemonic sovereign power of the nation-state (Agamben 1998). As nearly 2.1 million undocumented immigrant youth in the United States face the precarious reality of “learning to be illegal” (Gonzales 2011) and the threat of “deportability” (De Genova and Peutz 2010), a growing movement of undocumented youth fight for the dignity and liberation of their community while the light of their activism illuminates the majority who remain in the shadows. Based on three years of ethnographic research and action within the undocumented youth activist movement, this article utilizes a dialogical framework through collaborative and participatory based research methods to examine the theological dimensions of “illegal” and “bare” lives on the margins lived between the borders of citizenship and human dignity, between nation-states and the kingdom of God. The research and writing are grounded in a methodological and theological praxis with the marginalized, embodied most poignantly in the co-authors collaborative work and friendship.

Feminist Activist Ethnography: Counterpoints to Neoliberalism in North America. ChristaCraven and Dána‐AinDavis, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2013. 279 pp.

American EthnologistVolume 41, Issue 4 p. 789-791 Book Review Feminist Activist Ethnography: Counterpoints to Neoliberalism in North America. Christa Craven and Dána-Ain Davis, eds. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2013. 279 pp. KARIN FRIEDERIC, KARIN FRIEDERIC Wake Forest UniversitySearch for more papers by this author KARIN FRIEDERIC, KARIN FRIEDERIC Wake Forest UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 November 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12111_17Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume41, Issue4November 2014Pages 789-791 RelatedInformation

Teacher resilience: theorizing resilience and poverty

In this article, I hope to provide some novel insights into teacher resilience and poverty on the basis of ten-year long-term ethnographic participatory reflection and action data obtained from teachers (n = 87) in rural (n = 6) and urban (n = 8) schools (n = 14, high schools = 4, primary schools = 10) in three South African provinces. In resilience debates, resilience in poverty-saturated schools is generally indicated as both process and outcome. Evidence from this study posits resilience processes in poverty as a lifeline chain, linking uninterrupted incidences of adaptation one after the other. Thus, rather than once-off incidental processes depicting a clear adversity beginning and positive adaptation end, adapting to poverty calls for resilience qualities characterized as a cable of nonstop vigilance. To mediate risk during resilience processes, the teachers in the study made use of traits such as compassion, creativity, optimism and especially flocking to access and use scarce protective resources. In the lifeline chain of resilience, the teachers demonstrated mostly positive outcomes as well as instances of maladaptation and thriving. Teacher resilience in poverty contexts means that teachers ceaselessly adapt in a sequence of linked incidents to a procession of risks. They use particular traits to unite and direct their adaptive series of behaviors in order to transform high-risk schools into supportive spaces where they sometimes thrive, and sometimes feel distressed but mostly function effectively as teachers.

Anthropological Superheroes and the Consequences of Activist Ethnography

Anthropological Superheroes and the Consequences of Activist Ethnography

Beyond activism/academia: militant research and the radical climate and climate justice movement(s)

The problematic of the activist/academic relationship has been a source of sustained concern for radicalGeographers over the past 15 years. Drawing on my personal experience within the radical climate movement(s), this paper looks to develop on the commitments of militant research, contribute to the development of militant ethnography as a research approach and consider the subsequent implications for thinking through the activist/academic problematic. Elaborating on the epistemological distinction between ‘truth relaying’ and ‘knowledge production’, it is contended that militant research is an orientation and process synonymous with the disavowal of positivist knowledge and the construction of situated partisan knowledge(s). Rather than the (social) science of transmitting truth, research thus becomes the art of producing tools you can fight with. From this perspective, the activist/academic problematic is not a ‘neutral’ problem but a product of a certain way of knowing associated with the academy. The paper concludes that our concern should not be to navigate between (and thus reiterate) the fields of ‘activism’ and ‘academy’, but to surpass the problematic altogether. We are tasked not with reproducing the university in its current form, but reimagining it as a machine for the production of otherworlds.

Participatory Action Research with High-risk Groups: Best Practice for Researchers' Safety and Data Integrity

Partnerships with high-risk groups can be fraught with personal and methodological problems resulting in researcher ill health, poor data and corrupt analysis. Based upon the literature, a method was developed to avoid these outcomes for a longitudinal community psychology study which required researcher immersion into the subculture of outlaw motorcycle clubs (‘OMCs’) during Phase One. The methodology, termed ‘insider-outsider’, improved the accuracy of data collection, compelled researcher debriefing and allowed for enhanced use of data for participant action research (‘PAR’). The ‘insider-outsider’ methodology also appears to have initially prevented negative consequences of ethnographic and participant action research reported elsewhere. However, more long-term analysis demonstrated these methods resulted in the OMCs ‘going their own way’, but still using the foundations, tactics and principles used in the initial establishment of the study. This methodological comment presents a pilot methodology to advance the field's knowledge about entry and access of PAR.

Book Review: Social movements and activist ethnography

Book Review: Social movements and activist ethnography

Contradictions and Dilemmas Within the Practice of Immigration Medicine

To identify, explore and critique features of how practices associated with immigration medicine are socially organized. Specifically, how the work of designated medical practitioners (DMP) - physicians who conduct immigration medical examinations of prospective immigrants to Canada as contractors to the Canadian government department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada - is organized to occur in interactions with applicants who are diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus during the immigration medical examination.Findings from a theoretically informed empirical study using institutional and political activist ethnography inform this article. Data collection and analytic activities spanning 18 months included observational work in institutional settings, textual review, 61 interviews, and 2 focus groups in three Canadian cities.The medical examination of prospective immigrants to Canada is not organized as a therapeutic relation of care and has little to do with medicine per se. The rationale structuring the work of DMPs is actually administrative responsibilities. The work achieved by the DMP positions her/him as a key figure and important decision-maker within the Canadian immigration system.The work of doctors who practice immigration medicine gives rise to contradictions and ethical problems. These are largely unresolvable because of the way in which the labour process in which the DMP is implicated is coordinated. The social organization of immigration doctoring practices has serious consequences for prospective immigrants to Canada, for doctors themselves, and for the Canadian immigration system more broadly.

Contradictions and dilemmas within the practice of immigration medicine.

To identify, explore and critique features of how practices associated with immigration medicine are socially organized. Specifically, how the work of designated medical practitioners (DMP) - physicians who conduct immigration medical examinations of prospective immigrants to Canada as contractors to the Canadian government department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada - is organized to occur in interactions with applicants who are diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus during the immigration medical examination. Findings from a theoretically informed empirical study using institutional and political activist ethnography inform this article. Data collection and analytic activities spanning 18 months included observational work in institutional settings, textual review, 61 interviews, and 2 focus groups in three Canadian cities. The medical examination of prospective immigrants to Canada is not organized as a therapeutic relation of care and has little to do with medicine per se. The rationale structuring the work of DMPs is actually administrative responsibilities. The work achieved by the DMP positions her/him as a key figure and important decision-maker within the Canadian immigration system. The work of doctors who practice immigration medicine gives rise to contradictions and ethical problems. These are largely unresolvable because of the way in which the labour process in which the DMP is implicated is coordinated. The social organization of immigration doctoring practices has serious consequences for prospective immigrants to Canada, for doctors themselves, and for the Canadian immigration system more broadly.

An Analytic Glossary to Social Inquiry Using Institutional and Political Activist Ethnography

This analytic glossary, composed of 52 terms, is a practical reference and working tool for persons preparing to conduct theoretically informed qualitative social science research drawing from institutional and political activist ethnography. Researchers using these approaches examine social problems and move beyond interpretation by explicating how these problems are organized and what social and ruling relations coordinate them. Political activist ethnography emerges from, and extends, institutional ethnography by producing knowledge explicitly for activism and social movement organizing ends. The assemblage of vocabulary and ideas in this word list are new, and build on existing methodological resources. This glossary offers an extensive, analytic, and challenging inventory of language that brings together terms from these ethnographic approaches with shared ancestry. This compilation is designed to serve as an accessible “one-stop-shop” resource for persons using or contemplating using institutional and political activist ethnography in their research and/or activist projects.

Neoliberal Governance and Faith-Based Initiatives: Agentive Cracks in the Logic Informing Homeless Sheltering in South Carolina's Capital

This essay began as part of a session honoring Vincent Lyon-Callo's ethnography of governmentality and structural violence in the homeless sheltering industry, in which he worked in Massachusetts. This is a review of his book Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry, and also an application of Lyon-Callo's argument. He encourages attention to the neoliberal logic and structural conditions shaping understandings and experiences of homelessness. In this essay, I discuss visits with students (who have read his book) to homeless shelters in Columbia, South Carolina, and analyze a long-term debate in the city about where to locate a large service facility for the homeless. I argue that the national neoliberal and neoconservative policy of strengthening faith-based initiatives in providing public services ironically reduced the possibility of neoliberal governance of those services at the local level, as when business owners ask the city to reduce the visibility of homelessness in the commercial district.

'Political Activist as Ethnographer', Revisited

In this essay I revisit and expand upon George Smith’s landmark article, “Political Activist as Ethnographer” (1990). Political activist ethnography (PAE) is a specialized form of institutional ethnography (IE) that has not received nearly enough attention in the twenty years since the original publication of Smith’s article. In an effort to revisit and bolster this research approach, I provide an overview of IE/PAE and critically engage with three recent commentaries on PAE, and along the way I offer a novel interpretation of this approach as well as an example of its application from my own ongoing research.

Cultural Memory Banking in Preservice Science Teacher Education

This study focused on the exemplification of cultural memory banking as an ethnographic tool to understand cultural practices relevant to science teaching and learning in a rural coastal village in a central island of the Philippine archipelago. Using the collaborative action ethnography as a research methodology, 10 prospective science teachers and a science teacher educator/doctoral candidate formed a research team and documented community funds of knowledge relevant to science teaching and learning through their participation in a Community Immersion course. The study employed the use of the cultural memory banking as a meditational tool to analyze, make sense of, and represent interview, focus-group discussion, and observation data, among others, for the development of culturally relevant science lessons. Originally used as an anthropological tool to preserve cultural knowledge associated with the cultivation of indigenous plant varieties, the cultural memory banking, as adapted in science education, was used, both as a data collection and analytic tool, to locate relevant science at the intersection of community life. The research team developed a cultural memory bank exemplar, “Ginamos: The Stinky Smell that Sells,” to highlight the learning experiences and meaning-making process of those involved in its development. Dilemmas and insights on the development and use of cultural memory banking were discussed with respect to issues of knowledge mining and mainstreaming of indigenous/local funds of knowledge, troubling the privileged position of Western-inspired nature of science.

Troubling the proletarianization of Mexican immigrant students in an era of neoliberal immigration

In response to Richardson Bruna’s “Mexican immigrant transnational social capital and class transformation: examining the role of peer mediation in insurgent science”, this paper draws on the author’s research on organizing, mobilization and knowledge production among adult im/migrant workers in Canada. While appreciative of the content and concerns of Richardson Bruna’s argument, the paper argues for a clearer position on tensions between agency and structure, and class and capitalist social relations in which to contextualize the schooling of immigrant children in today’s US classrooms. In addition, it explores some implications of Mignolo’s (2000) work on the geohistory of knowledge, notably his concept of ‘border thinking’ for teachers, teacher education, and curricula. Finally, the article suggests the potential of methodological frameworks and approaches of institutional ethnography (Smith 1987), political activist ethnography (Frampton et al. 2006) and global ethnography (Burawoy 2000) to inform research into this field.

Transformative Education: Chronicling a Pedagogy for Social Change

This article chronicles the work of the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development, an educational nonprofit organization in South Texas, by following the narrative of one of its students and two of the authors, who are also founders of Llano Grande. Through the use of ethnography, visuals, and storytelling, they present an emerging theory of practice and a hybrid methodology that has contributed to the development of the work, the school, and the community. An activist agenda informed by practice and supported with theory is woven through the text in biographical form. The text also documents the cornerstones of the work: building strong relationships; work originating from self, place, and community; and engaging in meaningful work. When integrated into a seamless practice, this combination of guiding principles yields a certain power that youth and adults alike begin to negotiate within and between their peers, teachers, and community for change. This sense of self, efficacy, and power then informs much of their work as adults. [Latino epistemology and education, activist ethnography, Llano Grande Center, storytelling, community as text, pedagogy of hope]