The Ethnographer's Way guides researchers through the exciting process of turning an initial idea into an in-depth research project. Kristin Peterson and Valerie Olson introduce "multidimensioning," a method for planning projects that invites scholars to examine their research interests from all angles. Researchers learn to integrate seemingly disparate groups, processes, sites, and things into a unified conceptual framework. The handbook's ten modules walk readers step-by-step, from the initial lightbulb moment to constructing research descriptions, planning data gathering, writing grant and dissertation proposals, and preparing for fieldwork. Designed for ethnographers and those working across disciplines, these modules provide examples of multidimensional research projects with exercises readers can utilize to formulate their own projects. The authors incorporate group work into each module to break the isolation common in academic project design. In so doing, Peterson and Olson's handbook provides essential support and guidance for researchers working at all levels and stages of a project.

About the Author
Kristin Peterson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Speculative Markets: Drug Circuits and Derivative Life in Nigeria, also published by Duke University Press.

Valerie Olson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics beyond Earth.

Reviews
"Offering an agenda for contemporary ethnographic research design that finally brings our disciplinary methods in line with current ethnographic theory, The Ethnographer's Way provides a radically transformed cartography for research. This exceptional book will become canonical for its meticulously tested step-by-step instructions, its thoughtful, generous, and generative set of solutions, and the possibilities it will open up in the academy." -- Emilia Sanabria, author of * Plastic Bodies: Sex Hormones and Menstrual Suppression in Brazil *
"The Ethnographer's Way is an outstanding guide for students to investigate their own set of desires for places, questions, and theories that can become the conceptual glue that holds a project together for proposals, fieldwork, and writing. Deeply attentive to the psychological difficulty of imagining a truly ethnographic project before the fieldwork has been done, it is a manual for transforming the feeling of being overwhelmed into insight. This is a much-needed book for which there is no equivalent." -- Joseph Dumit, author of * Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health *



Book Information
ISBN 9781478030157
Author Kristin Peterson
Format Paperback
Page Count 376
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 445g