ETHNOGRAPHY Paperback / softback

* What is ethnography in social research?* To what use can ethnographic data be put?* Who are its fiercest critics?* Does ethnography have a future?Ethnography is one of the principal methods of qualitative research and has a long-established tradition of use in the social sciences.

However, the literature on ethnography has become a battleground as ethnography is attacked from within and without the qualitative tradition.

Post-modern critics attack the methodological status of ethnography and challenge the importance of its representations of reality, and others argue that globalization narrows its application as localism disappears. Ethnography provides a robust defence of this research method and establishes its continued relevance in the social sciences.

It sets out the competing methodological bases of ethnography and details its different uses as a research method.

The author offers guidelines for good practice in the research process, as well as advice on the analysis, interpretation and presentation of ethnographic data.

Although written as a textbook, the contents are research led, informed by the author's own extensive experience of undertaking ethnographic research in dangerous and sensitive locations in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

The result is a lively and engaging read on an essential topic for both students and researchers.