Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography is a peer-reviewed, international, and interdisciplinary forum for research using ethnographic methods such as participant observation, unobtrusive observation, intensive interviewing, contextualized discourse analysis, and field sampling to analyze social life as it occurs in natural settings. The journal publishes in-depth investigations that examine a wide range of social interactions and practices from a variety of academic disciplines, including anthropology, communications, cultural studies, criminal justice, education, health studies, management, and sociology.

The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography was first published in 1972 as Urban Life. Later it changed its name to Urban Life and Culture. The journal is currently published six times a year. Most issues have three to five lengthy academic articles. Examples of articles in recent issues include “Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop,” “The Balikbayan Researcher: Negotiating Vulnerability in Fieldwork With Filipino Labor Brokers,” and “Telling the Code of the Street: An Ethnomethodological Ethnography.” Other pieces explore identity and inner-city gangs, the impact of social class on parents' attitudes toward their children's education, and ambivalence in the K-9 officer–patrol dog relationship. The journal also publishes book reviews, mostly in the form of review essays. From time to time it offers single-themed special issues dedicated to such topics as indicated by the following titles: “Ethnography Under the Gun: Fieldwork in Zones of Conflict, War, and Peace,” “Gender Crime and (In)Justice,” and “Analytic Autoethnography.”

In 2005, in his inaugural issue as the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Scott Hunt explained that the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography publishes ethnographies that are “close-up” and “analytic” descriptions of social life. In other words, close-up ethnographies are those where the researcher has been physically close to the persons and settings of the study and has also spent a significant period of time in the field. This type of work allows ethnographers not only to “tell” about modes of life, but to portray points of view and perspectives of the people under study. Another important characteristic of the ethnographic pieces published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography is that they are analytic, that is, the articles identify patterns and regularities of social life. Although most articles published in this journal are characterized by being close-up and analytic, there is ample room for variation.