This volume is an outstanding and much-needed addition to the literature on qualitative methods in political science. Despite a steady increase in research based on participant observation, until now political scientists have had to turn to texts by anthropologists to master the method. No more. Political Ethnography, written by political scientists for political scientists, should become required reading for graduate students of qualitative methods in the discipline.
The work integrates a treatment of the philosophical underpinnings of ethnography with concrete examples of its use in empirical research. It is surprising how few books to emerge amid the revival of qualitative methods have addressed the ontological, epistemological, and normative foundations of their subject matter. This volume does so in sophisticated fashion by introducing the reader to a range of philosophical positions embraced by ethnographers, extending from “neopositivist” to radical interpretivist points of view. These are effectively presented in the early chapters by Jan Kubik, Jessica Allina-Pisano, and Lisa Wedeen.
The case studies of ethnographic research that occupy most of the volume are well chosen to illustrate a variety of types of work. Many of them directly or indirectly address the eminently political theme of power, but they do so in different ways and in different contexts. The cases include research on the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Africa, thus serving well the diverse student constituency that usually enrolls in methods classes. The only empirical subfield that is excluded is international relations, which presents formidable (though perhaps not insurmountable) challenges of siting for participant observation.
The specific topics of study include Basque nationalism (Cyrus Ernesto Zirakzadeh); civil war in El Salvador (Elisabeth Jean Wood); class relations in an American slaughterhouse (Timothy Pachirat); survey research in American politics (Katherine Cramer Walsh); political culture in the Congo (Michael G. Schatzberg); authoritarian regimes and political Islam in Mauritania and Senegal (Cédric Jourde); American casino waitresses and Nicaraguan mothers of war victims (Lorraine Bayard de Volo); a survey of ethnographic research in Latin America (Enrique Desmond Arias); and policies toward home ownership in low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia (Corey Shdaimah, Roland Stahl, and Sanford F. Schram). Even readers who are familiar with the research of these authors will benefit from their self-conscious focus on the costs and benefits of ethnography. Each chapter provides a useful springboard for debating important issues related to the use of this method.
Dvora Yanow adds a helpful chapter that gives advice to would-be ethnographers regarding research design and instructs editors and reviewers as to how they should evaluate ethnographic manuscripts. Journal editors who have had difficulty passing judgment on ethnographic research will be especially grateful for her insights.
The term immersion is included in the subtitle of this volume, and the editor, Edward Schatz, stresses the need to differentiate ethnography from other qualitative methods. His introduction and conclusion provide excellent overviews of the field, but the particular task of separating ethnography from other qualitative methods was not accomplished as effectively as it might have been.
Several chapters do not make use of the standard ethnographic method of prolonged immersion in one or a few social milieux; instead, they involve only brief periods of participant observation complemented by interviews, archival research, or other methods. These research designs are referred to as having an “ethnographic sensibility,” even though they do not involve immersion. Purists who identify ethnography with prolonged participant observation may question the inclusion of those chapters. On the other hand, the decision to include them is not without advantage. Given the tremendous investment of time required by traditional immersion, many political scientists may wonder if it is not possible to gain some of the benefits of ethnography in mixed-method projects. These chapters show them several ways to do that. Nonetheless, the differences in philosophical underpinnings and research practice between standard ethnography and interviews, focus groups, and other methods deserve a more extended and nuanced treatment than they receive here.
This is one of the finest volumes on qualitative methods published in the last decade. It will not ease all the concerns of scholars who balk at the noncomparative and unhistorical character of much ethnographic research or question the ethnographer's ability to contribute to general theory. But Political Ethnography provides a perfect instrument for debating these and other key issues surrounding the use of this important method.
