Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes PDF
Preview Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes
WRITING ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDNOTES SECOND EDITION WRITING ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELDNOTES SECOND EDITION Robert M. Emerson Rachel I. Fretz Linda L. Shaw THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS • CHICAGO AND LONDON robert m. emerson is professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, now in its second edition. rachel i. fretz is a lecturer in the Writing Programs unit at UCLA. linda l. shaw is professor in and chair of the sociology department at California State University, San Marcos. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 1995, 2011 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2011. Printed in the United States of America 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 isbn- 13: 978-0-226-20683-7 (paper) isbn- 10: 0-226-20683-1 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Emerson, Robert M. Writing ethnographic fi eldnotes / Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, Linda L. Shaw. — 2nd ed. p. cm. — (Chicago guides to writing, editing, and publishing) isbn- 13: 978-0-226-20683-7 (pbk.: alk. paper) isbn- 10: 0-226-20683-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Ethnology—Authorship. 2. Ethnology—Fieldwork. 3. Ethnology— Research. 4. Academic writing. I. Fretz, Rachel I. II. Shaw, Linda L. III. Title. gn307.7.e44 2011 808(cid:2).066305—dc22 2011016145 o This paper meets the requirements of ansi/ niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). To our friend and colleague, Mel Pollner (1940– 2007) Contents Preface to the Second Edition ix Preface to the First Edition xiii 1 Fieldnotes in Ethnographic Research 1 Ethnographic Participation 2 The Complexities of Description 5 Inscribing Experienced/ Observed Realities 12 Implications for Writing Fieldnotes 15 Refl ections: Writing Fieldnotes and Ethnographic Practice 18 2 In the Field: Participating, Observing, and Jotting Notes 21 Participating in Order to Write 24 What Are Jottings? 29 Making Jottings: How, Where, and When 34 Refl ections: Writing and Ethnographic Marginality 41 3 Writing Fieldnotes I: At the Desk, Creating Scenes on a Page 45 Moving from Field to Desk 48 Recalling in Order to Write 51 Writing Detailed Notes: Depiction of Scenes 57 Narrating a Day’s Entry: Organizational Strategies 74 In- Process Analytic Writing: Asides and Commentaries 79 Refl ections: “Writing” and “Reading” Modes 85 4 Writing Fieldnotes II: Multiple Purposes and Stylistic Options 89 Stance and Audience in Writing Fieldnotes 90 Narrating Choices about Perspective 93 Fieldnote Tales: Writing Extended Narrative Segments 109 Analytic Writing: In- Process Memos 123 Refl ections: Fieldnotes as Products of Writing Choices 126 5 Pursuing Members’ Meanings 129 Imposing Exogenous Meanings 131 Representing Members’ Meanings 134 Members’ Categories in Use: Processes and Problems 151 Race, Gender, Class, and Members’ Meanings 158 Local Events and Social Forces 166 Refl ections: Using Fieldnotes to Discover/ Create Members’ Meanings 167 6 Processing Fieldnotes: Coding and Memoing 171 Reading Fieldnotes as a Data Set 173 Open Coding 175 Writing Code Memos 185 Selecting Themes 188 Focused Coding 191 Integrative Memos 193 Refl ections: Creating Theory from Fieldnotes 197 7 Writing an Ethnography 201 Developing a Thematic Narrative 202 Transposing Fieldnotes into Ethnographic Text 206 Producing a Completed Ethnographic Document 229 Refl ections: Between Members and Readers 241 8 Conclusion 243 Notes 249 References 269 Index 283 Preface to the Second Edition Over the past twenty- fi ve years or so, ethnography has become a widely rec- ognized and generally accepted approach to qualitative social research. But ironically, in the years since the publication of the fi rst edition of Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes in 1995, the surge of interest in ethnographic writing we noted at that time seemingly has receded. Sociologists and anthropolo- gists no longer take up the complexities of representation in ethnography as frequently as they did in the 1980s and 1990s; they offer fewer considerations of the nature and effects of writing in ethnographic research than in those decades, although these issues seem to remain lively concerns in commu- nity studies and writing programs. But the earlier concern with the pro- cesses of writing fi eldnotes, as opposed to polished ethnographic articles and monographs, does appear to have made signifi cant marks on the prac- tice of ethnography: Some ethnographers now publish articles on key issues and processes in writing fi eldnotes, including Warren (2000) and Wolfi nger (2002). In addition, and probably more signifi cantly, some ethnographic an- thologies (e.g., Atkinson, Coffey, Delamont, Lofl and, and Lofl and’s Hand- book of Ethnography) and qualitative research guides (e.g., Lofl and, Snow, Anderson, and Lofl and, Analyzing Social Settings, fourth edition; Warren and Karner, Discovering Qualitative Methods: Field Research, Interviews, and Anal- ysis, second edition) now provide extended discussions of how to produce and work with fi eldnotes. These developments provide some indication that
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