Ethnography and Fieldwork in Moving Worlds

Ethnography and fieldwork are often defined in terms of differentiation or negation—they are not only qualitative social science, they are not travel reports, they are not natural science, they are not art. This chapter shows that fieldwork and ethnography combine diverse methods and research perspectives. They juxtapose various data dimensions and genres, based on the long-term and open-ended scientific engagement of the researchers, their ethical responsibility, and their participatory observation. Ethnography and fieldwork mean staying away from those epistemic, theoretical, or analytical generalizations about lifeworlds, cultures, or societies that smooth out and essentialize contrasts, contradictions, and open questions. Fieldwork and ethnography generate theories based on long-term scientific engagement instead of ‘testing’ them.