Ethnography and Public Scholarship: Ethical Obligations, Tensions, and Opportunities
Abstract
The article introduces the special issue, “Ethnography and Public Scholarship: Ethical Obligations, Tensions, and Opportunities.” The editors begin with a discussion of Alice Goffman’s On the Run. The popularity and influence of Goffman’s ethnography, coupled with critique and controversy, represent the promise and peril of ethnography as public scholarship. The case operates as a portal to explore at once familiar and still often unanswered methodological and ethical questions as ethnographers engage in public scholarship. After reviewing key considerations, the editors provide snapshots of the papers, papers that explore topics such as ethnography as policy-relevant research, representations of marginalized populations, compliance with regulatory agencies, protection of participants’ rights, and documentation and sharing of data. Recognizing the importance of Mills’ appeal to encourage the sociological imagination, the editors argue that, taken as a whole, the papers demonstrate complex methodological and ethical considerations as well as immense possibilities to inform and reframe social issues.
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Cites
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Claims the paper makes
Cites
The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research
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Self-citationBureaucracies of Mass Deception: Institutional Review Boards and the Ethics of Ethnographic Research
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- Clemens R. F., 2019, The Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)
- Clemens R. F., 2016, The Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association
- Fielding N., 2012, Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13
- Forgacs D., 2000, The Gramsci reader
- Authors
- Clemens, R. F., & Lincoln, Y. S.
- Affiliations
- St. John's University (US)
- Texas A&M University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Clemens, Randall F.
- Venue
- Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2020-07-02
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 383-388
- ISSN
- 1532-7086 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-356X
- OpenAlex
- W3038546704
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Culture Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture
- Keywords
- public scholarship, ethnography, research ethics, sociological imagination, policy-relevant research, research participant protection, research regulation, methodological tensions
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