Institutional Ethnography

Institutional ethnography is an alternative sociology that examines social relations and social institutions from the standpoint of the experiences of particular, active subjects. It is distinct from other sociological modes of investigation in that it is not under the direction or conceptual control of any sociological theory; rather, inquiry begins in and remains in the social world in which we live.

The aims of institutional ethnography investigations are twofold. The first is to discover how it is that day in and day out we put together our social world, including how our local everyday activities are linked to and coordinated by social relations that are not entirely visible from any one location. Thus, institutional ethnography research expands people's knowledge of their everyday worlds beyond that which they develop through their routine participation. The second aim is to build knowledge of institutional processes in general and to develop new ways of discovering ruling relations. This work involves an examination of studies done in varied institutional settings and drawing out those relations and social processes commonly found across institutions. Throughout institutional ethnography investigations, however, the focus is on the material world: what people are doing, with whom they are doing it, and the conditions under which their activities are carried out.

Canadian sociologist and founder of institutional ethnography Dorothy E. Smith described institutional ethnography in the 1970s as an articulation of the women's movement in North America. She identified two different modes of consciousness active in her life of running a household and being a mother and her life as a scholar in the university. The life in the home was one of particularities and real people, whereas the life of the university was abstract and the social relations were extra-local. Yet, through her involvement in the women's movement, Smith learned to take her own experience as a woman as the basis for how she could know the world. She also realized, as did many others involved in the women's movement, that the academic disciplines were written almost exclusively by men and from their viewpoint. Furthermore, the disciplines—sociology in Smith's case—claimed objectivity while excluding women, their knowledge, and their concerns from the scholarly discourse. Smith concluded that it was necessary to remake sociology from the ground up. This alternative sociology would be a “sociology for women,” one which would discover the social relations which shaped women's everyday experiences.

In 1986, the term institutional ethnography first appeared in print in Smith's article “Resources for Feminist Research.” Indeed, the conceptual design of [Page 499]institutional ethnography was to aid women in understanding the social organization of their lives. Yet, it soon became evident that the social relations shaping the experiences of women shaped those of men as well, and in the 1990s institutional ethnography evolved as a “sociology for people.” A network of institutional ethnographers (many of whom were students of Smith at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) formed, and they initiated research from the standpoint of people with AIDS, teachers, social workers, nurses, nursing home residents, and others.

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