Writing truth to power? Ethnography and poor people’s movements

• In Event: Methodological approaches to the study of social movements in Latin America

Abstract

Alice Goffman’s controversial new book On the Run has put ethnographers in catch 22. On the one hand, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) rightly require researchers to protect the anonymity of their subjects, particularly that of vulnerable and stigmatized minorities. On the other, the conventions of ethnographic practice can make it next to impossible to check the veracity of one’s work. What are the strengths and weaknesses of ethnographic methods and how can researchers best protect the safety of their human subjects while writing credible accounts of the movements in which they participate? I will discuss the methodological and philosophical foundations of my books Shantytown Protest in Pinochet’s Chile and Police Power and Race Riots: Urban Unrest in Paris and New York. In particular I will focus on how researchers can accurately capture the lives and motivations of those who participate in poor people’s movements. The research for Shantytown Protest was conducted during the Pinochet dictatorship in left wing shantytowns engaged in underground organizing and open protest against the regime. The research for Police Power and Race Riots was conducted in Puerto Rican and African American neighborhoods in New York and African and North African neighborhoods in Paris, among people who had been beaten by or had family members killed by police.

Author

• Cathy L Schneider, American University