The Ethnographic Imagination (eBook)

Paul Willis (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

2013 | 1. Auflage
176 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-6912-0 (ISBN)

Infos

In this book Paul Willis, a renowned sociologist and ethnographer,
aims to renew and develop the ethnographic craft across the
disciplines. Drawing from numerous examples of his own past and
current work, he shows that ethnographic practice and the
ethnographic imagination are vital to understanding the creativity
and irreducibility of experience in all aspects of social and
cultural practice.

Willis argues that ethnography plays a vital role in
constituting 'sensuousness' in textual, methodological, and
substantive ways, but it can do this only through the deployment of
an associated theoretical imagination which cannot be found simply
there in the field. He presents a bold and incisive
ethnographically oriented view of the world, emphasizing the need
for a deep-running social but also aesthetic sensibility. In doing
so he brings new insights to the understanding of human action and
its dialectical relation to social and symbolic structures. He
makes original contributions to the understanding of the
contemporary human uses of objects, artefacts and communicative
forms, presenting a new analysis of commodity fetishism as central
to consumption and to the wider social relations of contemporary
societies. He also utilizes his perspective to further the
understanding of the contemporary crisis in masculinity and to cast
new light on various lived everyday cultures - at school, on the
dole, on the street, in the Mall, in front of TV, in the dance
club.

This book will be essential reading for all those involved in
planning or contemplating ethnographic fieldwork and for those
interested in the contributions it can make to the social sciences
and humanities.

Autor

Paul Willis is Professor of Social and Cultural Studes at Wolverhampton University. He is also the Founding Editor of the journal Ethnography.

Inhalt

Foreword.

Part One: Art in the Everyday.

Chapter 1: Life as Art.

Chapter 2: Form.

Chapter 3: The Social.

Part Two: Ethnography in Post Modernity.

Chapter 4: The Quasi-Modo Commodity.

Chapter 5: Penetrations in the Post Modern World.

Chapter 6: Social Reproduction as Social History.

Chapter 7: The Ethnographic Imagination and 'Whole Ways of
Life'.

Appendix.

Index

Rezensionen

"Willis is at his best in this book when he turns to the data from
his 30 years of ethnographic experience. He makes frequest
reference to his observations in both Learning to Labor and
the 1990, Common Culture, so that readers not yet acquainted
with these works will not be at a disadvantage. Indeed, his
observations are often so insightful that even those who have read
one or both books might be tempted to take them up again."
Methodology and Research Techniques

"Willis' book is an intriguing attempt to pose questions about
doing ethnography in our post-industrial 'leisure societies' ... it
presents some genuinely interesting insights and ethnographic
vignettes." Discourse & Society

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.5.2013
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeine Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Anthropological Theory & Methods/Ethnography • Anthropologie • Anthropologie / Theorie u. Methoden, Ethnographie • Anthropology • Gesellschaftstheorie • Research Methodologies • Social Theory • Sociology • Soziologie • Soziologische Forschungsmethoden
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-6912-3 / 0745669123
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-6912-0 / 9780745669120