Ethnography

‘Ethnography’ is the in-depth study of collective life and is concerned with the interpretation and representation of social and material practices, traditionally referred to as culture. Originating in the discipline of anthropology in the early part of the 20th century, it was used to refer to the descriptive and comparative accounts of so-called primitive peoples. Subsequently, it has moved beyond disciplinary boundaries, across the humanities and social sciences, and away from the traditional concerns of anthropology: moving first away from small-scale indigenous societies and groups, to take in ‘advanced’ societies, which is often the researcher’s ‘home’ society, moving into smaller groups and sub-cultures, and latterly, moving away from the dominance of ‘the human’ within ethnographic accounts, to instead emphasise the role of materials, objects, technologies, ...