Ethnographic Fieldwork. Dr. Jan Blommaert
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Ethnographic Fieldwork
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Ethnographic Fieldwork
A Beginner's Guide
2nd Edition
Jan Blommaert and
Dong Jie
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit
DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/BLOMMA7130h
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Names: Blommaert, Jan, author. | Jie, Dong, author.
Title: Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner’s Guide / Jan Blommaert and Dong Jie.
Description: Second Edition. | Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, 2020. |
First edition published 2010. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “The authors draw on their experiences in explaining the complexities of ethnographic fieldwork as a knowledge trajectory. They do so in an accessible way that makes these complexities easier to understand and to handle. The 2nd edition of this bestselling book updates the 1st edition and includes a new postscript on ethnography in an online world”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020012158 (print) | LCCN 2020012159 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781788927123 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781788927130 (Hardback) |
ISBN 9781788927147 (PDF) | ISBN 9781788927154 (ePub) | ISBN 9781788927161
(Kindle Edition) Subjects: LCSH: Ethnology—Fieldwork.
Classification: LCC GN346 .B56 2020 (print) | LCC GN346 (ebook) |
DDC 305.80072/3—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012158
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020012159
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-713-0 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-712-3 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters
UK: St Nicholas House, 31–34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.
USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA.
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Copyright © 2020 Jan Blommaert and Dong Jie.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned.
Typeset by Nova Techset Private Limited, Bengaluru and Chennai, India.
Printed and bound in the UK by Short Run Press Ltd.
Printed and bound in the US by NBN.
Contents
Ethnography as Counter-hegemony
3The Sequence 1: Prior to Fieldwork
4The Sequence 2: In the Field
Chaos
The Learning Process
Observation and Fieldnotes
Interviewing
Collecting Rubbish
Conclusion
5The Sequence 3: After Fieldwork
Your Data
Techniques and Methods
Analysing Narrative
6By Way of Conclusion
7Postscript: When Your Field Goes Online
The Online–Offline Nexus
What Do We See? The Compelling Bubble
Who is There?
Where are We? Invisible Lines
More Complexity? More Ethnography Please!
References
Index
Ethnographic Fieldwork: A Beginner’s Guide was, from its very inception, a practical text. It had emerged out of the practice of research supervision and reflected the practical circumstances of a particular instance of supervision: Jan supervising Dong Jie from a distance, while Dong Jie was doing her fieldwork in Beijing and Jan was based in London, with Dong Jie sending Jan long written reports from the field and Jan responding in writing to those reports. This long-distance supervision ping-pong was focused on very immediate and practical issues, on the concreteness of fieldwork and of the learning process it involved. While methodical principles and customs were exchanged and emphasis was put on the ethnographic foundations of the enterprise, most of what we discussed was the fine grain of social facts, of actual things done by actual people in actual contexts and of how to address them most adequately on the spot. And both of us gradually realised that ethnographic fieldwork could be described as just that: a practical