Ethnography is the study and systematic 

recording of human cultures. It descriptively studies the human

races and cultures. In Brotherton Ethnography is used in gang studies from the 1920s to the 1970s. Critical
ethnography applies a critical theory-based approach to ethnography. Its emphasized on the implied values voiced
within ethnographic studies and, therefore, on the unrecognized biases that may result from such implicit values.
In Brotherton the article describes critical ethnography as, “then critical ethnography problematizes each of these
notions, situating them within the asymmetrical power relations of a globalized capitalism within which we are all
situated. A critical practice of ethnography, therefore, is tied to excavating “the political underpinnings of all
modes of representation, including the scientific.”