Overview

Written by the two preeminent voices in the field, this book is a guide to the fundamentals of institutional ethnography. Institutional ethnography (IE) originated as a feminist alternative to sociologies defining people as the objects of study. Instead, IE explores the social relations that dominate the life of the particular subject in focus. Simply Institutional Ethnography is written by two pioneers in the field and is grounded in decades of groundbreaking work. Dorothy E. Smith and Alison I. Griffith lay out the basics of how institutional ethnography proceeds as a sociology. The book introduces the concepts Discourse, Work, Text that institutional ethnographers have found to be key concepts used to organize what they learn from the study of people's experience. Simply Institutional Ethnography builds an ethnography that makes this material visible as coordinated sequences of social relations that reach beyond the particularities of local experience. In explicating the foundations of IE and its principal concepts, Simply Institutional Ethnography reflects on the ways in which the field may move forward.

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9781487528065

Table of Contents

Reviews

Simply Institutional Ethnography is an inviting, practical introduction to the project of institutional ethnography. Readers new to IE will find clear explanations and inspiring examples of research strategies. - Liza McCoy, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Calgary Institutional ethnography may at times appear to be a complex enterprise, but it is at heart a brilliantly straightforward way of thinking about 'how things work' in people's everyday lives. In this book, Smith and Griffith adopt a conversational tone in order to offer an overview of its basic ideas and the varied approaches developed by practitioners over time. Brief discussions of exemplary research studies provide a valuable specificity that grounds the discussion - and suggest avenues for further learning. - Marjorie L. DeVault, Professor Emerita, Syracuse University This book is a most welcome contribution to the field of institutional ethnography, in that it explicates the issues and questions most often raised - or which could or should be - when doing IE research. Simply Institutional Ethnography shows how issues come to the surface but also how they are solved. Here is something for us all, representing every level of knowledge. - Karin Widerberg, Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, and founder of the Nordic Network on Institutional Ethnography

"""This book serves as a fitting legacy of the work of authors Smith and Griffith, two pioneers in the field of institutional ethnography, both of whom passed away prior to this book's publication. The authors encapsulate decades of their efforts to create and develop this particularly unique form of sociology and document its conceptual and theoretical refinement along the way. The result is a sophisticated, comprehensive overview that, although rather complex at times, nonetheless lays out for readers the promise and potential of this approach to studying human lived behavior an.d the myriad institutions in which such behavior is embedded."" -- J. R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University * <em>CHOICE</em> * “In this slim volume, the authors encapsulate decades of their efforts to create and develop this particularly unique form of sociology and document its conceptual and theoretical refinement along the way. The result is a sophisticated, comprehensive overview that lays out for readers the promise and potential of this approach to studying human lived behavior and the myriad institutions in which such behavior is embedded.” -- J.R. Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University * <em>CHOICE</em> *"

Author Information

Dorothy E. Smith is an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria. Alison I. Griffith was a professor emerita in the Faculty of Education at York University.

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