Review: Paradigm Busting and Vertical Linkage

Author(s): Laura Nader

Review by: Laura Nader
Source: Contemporary Sociology, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Jan., 1993), pp. 6-7
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2074963
Accessed: 05-01-2016 08:35 UTC

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6 SYMPOSIUM
LAURA NADER
ParadigmBustingand Vertical Department of Anthropology
Linkage University
of California,Berkeley

The dustjacket describesEthnography Un- ratherthan to discover new theory,by

bound as a powerfulvolume in whichten focusingon theunexpected, theabnormalor
originalethnographies explore how people anomalous,a searchforthecounterintuitive.
confront thethreats anddisruptions ofcontem- In thisviewit is theanomaly,therecognition
porarylife, and how researchers can effec- ofinternal contradiction,
theoreticalgaps,and
tivelystudythe modemmetropolis-a dia- silencesthatlead to reconstruction. Enterthe
logue between participantand observer, tenethnographies.
betweena professorof sociology and his AuthorsGamsonand Schiffman highlight
graduatestudents. Theyseek to contribute to silencesin the way the literature on "new
social sciencemethodology by avoidingthe social movements"treatspower. Symbolic
positivistsimplification "thatreducessocial politicsbecomesan effort to combatstigma-
science to the naturalscience model and tizationof gaysand peoplewithAIDS. What
suppressesthe hermeneutic dimension"and was itaboutthecontemporary politicalorder,
the postmodemsuppression of the scientific withits formsof invisibledomination, that
dimension that"leads socialsciencedownthe accountedforthisparticular response?In her
pathof textualanalysis,whereitmergeswith studyof SANE/FreezeSchiffmanuses the
literarycriticism"(p. 3). literatureon new social movements,but
In his introduction MichaelBurawoyspells unlikeGamsonsees themas a responseto a
out the framework. He does not advocate nuclear state in which social movements
ethnography as an expressionof empathy carveout arenasof civil societyautonomous
resulting fromimmersing oneselfin thefield, fromthe state. By thus locatingthe peace
nordoes he arguefora participant observer, movement, Schiffman reconstructsthetheory
detachedand emotionallydistanced.Rather of new social movements.
he advocates a participationthat is not Otherstudents reconstruct
similarly theory.
immersion,and observationthat is neither Burtonand Fergusonlocate consumersand
marginalnoremotionally distanced.Further- producersin a welfarestate and capitalist
more,Burawoyexplains,"We are interested economy, examininghow wider systems
not only in learningabout a specificsocial structurework forms and how external
situation. . . but also in learningfromthat pressurescall forthcounterintuitive worker
social situation.. . . we wantto be able to responses.Salzingerand Ui's studiesof new
makecausal claimsthathavevaliditybeyond immigrants downplaythe social disorganiza-
thesituation we study"(p. 5). The goal is to tionusual to the literature and focuson the
movefromthedataofparticipant observation politicsand economicsof theUnitedStates,
towardexplanation. He proposesto do thisby locatingimmigrants withina contextthey
using the interpretive case methodand the helpedshape. Hurstand Juliusfollowin the
extended case method to examine "the ethnography-of-schooling tradition, and Fox
institutional contextthatshapes and distorts and Kurzmanexaminetheresearchers. Bura-
whathappensin thelifeworld"(p. 6). Using woyconcludeswithan essayon theextended
interpretive methods,researchers examinea case methodas it differs fromthe grounded
macroprinciple(such as male domination or theory of Glaserand Strauss,thereby indicat-
commodification) in its microsetting,thus inghis centraldialogue.
blurring theuniquenessof thesituation.The publishstudent
Few professors work,some
extended case method tries to examine with good reason. Fewer still introduce
situations in thecontextof theexternalforces sociologystudents to ethnographic techniques
thatshapethem.Burawoysees thisapproach or attemptto link micro situationsto the
as a challengeto theacceptedcorrespondenceexternalforcesthatoftenlurkin the back-
between techniqueand level of analysis, groundof social science publications.Yet,
arguing thatparticipant observationcan exam- despitetheirethnographic experiences, Bura-
ine the macro world, and vice versa. He woy and his studentsend up being most
proposes to reconstructexisting theories, interested in what sociologistsare so often

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 SYMPOSIUM 7
mostinterested in-methodology.What we Anthropologists are less preoccupiedwith
areleftwithis nota discussionof powerand beingscientific thanare theirsocial science
resistancein the modem metropolis,but colleagues, more intenton recordingand
reflectionson method.Sociologicalimagina- interpreting anotherpeople's way of life-
tionis subordinated to developingmethodol- ethnography we call it. Ethnography entails
ogy.The dustjacketis wrong:The peopleare deep immersion and is seldomaccomplished
powerful; thevolumeis not. in shortperiodsoftime.It is a specialkindof
The concept "ethnography"has been description, notto be confusedwithqualita-
graduallyreducedin meaningin recentyears tive and descriptive studiesof anotherkind.
and in proportion to its popularity.In this The goal of ethnography, as Malinowskiput
book and theacademyand, generally, in the it, is "to graspthenative'spointof view,his
businessandpoliticalworldswhereitis used, relationto life, to realize his vision of his
I hearlawyersand businessand governmentworld"(1922, p. 25). Anthropology is a feat
peopleequateethnography withsurveillance; of empathyand analysis.Using such mea-
psychologistsand sociologists,with"hanging suresas empathy, analysis,and insight, these
out" or participantobserving;and even some tenethnographies arenotethnographies. They
anthropologists,with"beingthere."Simulta- are passing methodologicalexperiments, a
neouslysome anthropologists insistthatthe collaborative effort to bustthrough dead-end
validityof an ethnography be determined by paradigms-thepositivist andthepostmodern
the amountof time spent in the field- versions,paradigmswhichlimitour under-
increasingly,a year or more so that all standingto microsituationsas if theywere
seasons can be experienced.Others have autonomous littleislandsuntouched by swirl-
writtenme fromfieldsas different as energy ingseas or boltsof lightning, an effort thatis
policyand businessof havingaccomplished too mechanistic to be powerful.
an ethnography in anywhere fromthreeweeks
to threemonths.Ethnographic is notethnog- References
raphy.Anthropologists JamesSpradleyand
Bronislaw.1922. Argonauts oftheWestern
David McCurdy(1972) publishedundergrad- Malinowski,
Pacific.London:Routledge.
uate ethnographic descriptions, but it took Spradley,JamesP. and David W. McCurdy.1972. The
monthsof follow-upbefore they accom- CulturalExperience:Ethnography in ComplexSociety.
plishedseriousethnographies. Chicago:ScienceResearchAssociates.

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