Who are we trying to impress?: Reflections on navigating political science, ethnography and interpretation
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Author(s)
Boswell, John
Corbett, Jack
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2015
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Show full item recordAbstract
Purpose – Turning laborious ethnographic research into stylized argumentative prose for academic
consumption is a painstaking craft. The purpose of this paper is to revisit this perennial issue, and
extend a claim the authors have made elsewhere about the inevitably impressionistic, rather than the
oft-claimed “systematic”, nature of this task.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw and reflect on their own experiences of
conducting and navigating across political science, ethnography and interpretation in order to justify
and uphold the benefits of impressionism.
Findings – The authors argue that the impressionistic ...
View more >Purpose – Turning laborious ethnographic research into stylized argumentative prose for academic consumption is a painstaking craft. The purpose of this paper is to revisit this perennial issue, and extend a claim the authors have made elsewhere about the inevitably impressionistic, rather than the oft-claimed “systematic”, nature of this task. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw and reflect on their own experiences of conducting and navigating across political science, ethnography and interpretation in order to justify and uphold the benefits of impressionism. Findings – The authors argue that the impressionistic account of writing up fieldwork has important implications for these diverse disciplinary terrains. Originality/value – The authors develop an argument as to how and why an appreciation of this craft’s impressionistic nature can affect how the authors go about creating, evaluating and ultimately thinking about ethnographic research in foreign disciplines like political science.
View less >
View more >Purpose – Turning laborious ethnographic research into stylized argumentative prose for academic consumption is a painstaking craft. The purpose of this paper is to revisit this perennial issue, and extend a claim the authors have made elsewhere about the inevitably impressionistic, rather than the oft-claimed “systematic”, nature of this task. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw and reflect on their own experiences of conducting and navigating across political science, ethnography and interpretation in order to justify and uphold the benefits of impressionism. Findings – The authors argue that the impressionistic account of writing up fieldwork has important implications for these diverse disciplinary terrains. Originality/value – The authors develop an argument as to how and why an appreciation of this craft’s impressionistic nature can affect how the authors go about creating, evaluating and ultimately thinking about ethnographic research in foreign disciplines like political science.
View less >
Journal Title
Journal of Organizational Ethnography
Volume
4
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2015 Emerald. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Anthropology
Sociology
Sociology not elsewhere classified