THE WORK OF RESPONSE IN ETHNOGRAPHY

The author uses the concept of “response” from literary criticism to examine the work of response in an ethnography with a group of older, white southern women in her hometown. Employing this concept from another discipline, she identifies two different kinds of response data produced in her study....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of contemporary ethnography 1999-06, Vol.28 (3), p.266-287
Main Author: PIERRE, ELIZABETH ADAMS ST
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Culture
Data Quality
Elderly Women
Ethnography
Ethnology
Identity
Literary criticism
Methodology (Data Collection)
Post-structuralism
Researcher Subject Relations
Respondents
Southern States
White people
Whites
Women
Writing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The author uses the concept of “response” from literary criticism to examine the work of response in an ethnography with a group of older, white southern women in her hometown. Employing this concept from another discipline, she identifies two different kinds of response data produced in her study. The first is “member-check” data that she found disappointing—her participants did not convince her that she had “got it right.” The second is “imaginary” response data, produced as she imagines an audience's response to her work and as people respond to the study they imagine she is conducting. She describes why the ethics of response leaves her hesitant about writing an ethnography that claims to be the final representation of the women and their culture.
ISSN:0891-2416
1552-5414
DOI:10.1177/089124199129023442