Of Rhetoric and Representation: The Four Faces of Ethnography

Influenced by the new literary movement and postmodernism, in the 1990s sociologists began to reflexively examine their writings as texts, looking critically at the way they shape reality and articulate their descriptions and conceptualizations. Advancing this thread, in our presidential address we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociological quarterly 2008, Vol.49 (1), p.1-30
Main Authors: Adler, Patricia A., Adler, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Audiences
Concepts
Conceptualization
Cultural studies
Discourse analysis
Empiricism
Epistemology
Ethnography
Literary criticism
Literary genres
Literary movements
Literary rhetoric
Literature
Poetry
Postmodern rhetoric
Postmodernism
Presidential Address
Reflexivity
Representation
Rhetoric
Scholarship
Sociological research
Sociology
Sociology of knowledge and ethics
Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture
Sociology of science
Subjectivity
Texts
Writing
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Summary:Influenced by the new literary movement and postmodernism, in the 1990s sociologists began to reflexively examine their writings as texts, looking critically at the way they shape reality and articulate their descriptions and conceptualizations. Advancing this thread, in our presidential address we offer an overarching analysis of ethnographic writing, identifying four current genres and deconstructing their rhetoric: classical, mainstream, postmodern, and public ethnography. We focus on the differences in their epistemological, organizational, locational, and stylistic self-presentations with an eye toward better understanding how these speak to their intended audiences, both within and outside of the discipline.
ISSN:0038-0253
1533-8525
DOI:10.1111/j.1533-8525.2007.00104.x