If Truth Be Told

The Politics of Public Ethnography

Buch | Softcover

368 Seiten

2017
Duke University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8223-6977-6 (ISBN)

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The contributors to If Truth Be Told explore the difficulties, dangers, and stakes of having ethnographic research made available, debated, and appropriated by the public.

What happens when ethnographers go public via books, opinion papers, media interviews, court testimonies, policy recommendations, or advocacy activities? Calling for a consideration of this public moment as part and parcel of the research process, the contributors to If Truth Be Told explore the challenges, difficulties, and stakes of having ethnographic research encounter various publics, ranging from journalists, legal experts, and policymakers to activist groups, local populations, and other scholars. The experiences they analyze include Didier Fassin’s interventions on police and prison, Gabriella Coleman's multiple roles as intermediary between hackers and journalists, Kelly Gillespie's and Jonathan Benthall's experiences serving as expert witnesses, the impact of Manuela Ivone Cunha's and Vincent Dubois's work on public policies, and the vociferous attacks on the work of Unni Wikan and Nadia Abu El-Haj. With case studies from five continents, this collection signals the global impact of the questions that the publicization of ethnography raises about the public sphere, the role of the academy, and the responsibilities of social scientists.

Contributors. Jonathan Benthall, Lucas Bessire, João Biehl, Gabriella Coleman, Manuela Ivone Cunha, Vincent Dubois, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Didier Fassin, Kelly Gillespie, Ghassan Hage, Sherine Hamdy, Federico Neiburg, Unni Wikan

Didier Fassin is James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, a Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and the author and editor of many books, most recently, Prison Worlds: An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition.

Introduction: When Ethnography Goes Public / Didier Fassin 1
Part I. Strategies
1. Gopher, Translator, and Trickster: The Ethnographer and the Media / Gabriella Coleman 19
2. What Is a Public Intervention? Speaking Truth to the Oppressed / Ghassan Hage 47
3. Before the Commission: Ethnography as Pubic Testimony / Kelly Gillespie 69
4. Addressing Policy-Oriented Audiences: Relevance and Persuasiveness / Manuela Ivone Cunha 96
Part II. Engagements
5. Serendipitous Involvement: Making Peace in the Geto / Federico Neiburg 119
6. Tactical versus Critical: Indigenizing Public Ethnography / Lucas Bessire 138
7. Experto Crede? A Legal and Political Conundrum / Jonathan Benthall 160
8. Policy Ethnography as a Combat Sport: Analyzing the Welfare State against the Grain / Vincent Dubois 184
Part III. Tensions
9. Academic Freedom at Risk: The Occasional Worldliness of Scholarly Texts / Nadia Abu El-Haj 205
10. Perils and Prospects of Going Public: Between Academia and Real Life / Unni Wikan 228
11. Ethnography Prosecuted: Facing the Fabulation of Power / João Biehl 261
12. How Publics Shape Ethnographers: Translating across Divided Audiences / Sherine Hamdy 287
Epilogue: The Public Afterlife of Ethnography / Didier Fassin 311
Contributors 345
Index 349

Erscheinungsdatum	03.06.2017
Verlagsort	North Carolina
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	499 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Völkerkunde (Naturvölker)
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Volkskunde
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-8223-6977-X / 082236977X
ISBN-13	978-0-8223-6977-6 / 9780822369776
Zustand	Neuware