The Role of Ethnography as Ethical and Policy-Relevant Public Scholarship

• In Event: Ethnography and Public Scholarship: Ethical Obligations, Tensions, and Opportunities

Abstract

Objectives

Building on previous work, the authors explore the role of ethnography as ethical and policy-relevant public scholarship. The paper begins with an examination of the processes through which policy stakeholders influence cultural representations and define policy issues. Using examples of rigorous and thoughtful ethnographies, the authors then argue for the utility of ethnography to improve policy designs for marginalized populations. They conclude with a discussion of major issues regarding the design, production, and sharing of ethical and policy-relevant ethnography.

Perspective

To understand the policy process and the ways in which ethnography may inform it, the authors employ framing theory (Benford & Snow, 2000; Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Fischer, 2003; E. Goffman, 1974; Schön & Rein, 1995). Erving Goffman (1974), who popularized the theory, defines frames as “schemata of interpretation” that help cultural groups make sense of social events (p. 21). Scholars have explored various applications of the theory. Benford and Snow (2000), for instance, identify three types of frames for collective action: diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. Schneider and Ingram (1993; 1997) extend the theory to examine the ways in which policymakers construct target populations and policy agendas. Fischer (2003) emphasizes the use of frames as a deliberate and critical act for researchers to facilitate social justice. Frames serve as an important tool for the social construction of cultural groups and the creation of public policy (Van Gorp, 2007).

Methodology

The conceptual paper incorporates literature pertaining to policy framing and ethnography—particularly the confluence of ethics and cultural representation. The authors intersperse discussions with examples of ethnography as public scholarship; they use the critical case method to select examples (Flyvbjerg, 2001).

Findings

Ethnography serves a significant role to inform socially just policy designs. The qualitative approach has the ability to contest mainstream discourse that reproduces pernicious stereotypes and inequitable public policies (Fischer, 2003; Gamson et al., 1992; Scheinder & Ingram, 1993; Schneider & Ingram, 1997). However, ethnography as public scholarship requires academics to account for major issues regarding research design, production, and sharing.

Significance

To some, ethnography and public policy may be at odds. Ethnographers explore nuance and interpretive complexity; policymakers seek simple and actionable findings. And yet, such an approach underestimates the utility of ethnography and the demands of policy design, particularly in regard to the creation of cultural representations and the need for multiple perspectives (Datnow, 2006; Fine, Weis, Weseen, & Wong, 2003; Marcus & Fischer, 1986; Rabinow, 1986; Schneider & Ingram, 1993; Van Maanen, 1988).

The authors acknowledge the vital role of ethnography as public scholarship to inform public policy and promote social justice (Boyer, 1997; Burawoy, 2005). The paper explores the ways in which ethnography might contest the construction of harmful cultural representations and promote the contexts necessary to produce socially just reforms.

Authors

• Randall F. Clemens, Saint John's University

• William G. Tierney, University of Southern California