Ethnographic Choices: A Primer on Doing Complex Social Research

Ethnographic Choices is the outcome of a collaborative effort among teachers and students. Our goal was to develop a primer teaching ethnography that resists oversimplifying complex human dynamics but remains accessible to undergraduate students. This book focuses on what a person new to the field needs to know in order to deeply engage the method. We have chosen to provide specific examples with more detail, excavating the complexity of data collection, analysis, and representation. We have also chosen to focus more on critical cultural approaches attending to race, gender, and class. Conversely we have sacrificed some attention to history and breadth of the field. While this too is important, we believe the value of ethnography is best learned through doing the method, and doing so with attention to the complexity of the method.