Chronicle of Higher Education Article on Interrogating Ethnography

The Chronicle of Higher Education has posted an article about Interrogating Ethnography.  It is a news story, not a book review, that summarizes the book and includes interviews with sociologists both favorable and critical. Unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall, but here are the first few paragraphs:

Law Professor’s New Book Puts Ethnography on Trial

By Marc Parry December 15, 2017 Premium

Replication controversies have plagued the social sciences in recent years. But one research method is uniquely difficult to verify: ethnography. Ethnographers, who often work in sociology and anthropology, immerse themselves in the daily lives of people they study. Their written narratives tend to cloak both subjects and field sites behind a curtain of anonymity. Only rarely does one ethnographer go back to another’s site to reexamine the original researcher’s findings.

Steven Lubet, a law professor at Northwestern University, thinks that’s unfortunate. He got interested in ethnography after writing a scathing review of Alice Goffman’s controversial 2014 study of young black men caught up in the criminal-justice system, On the Run (University of Chicago Press), a work of urban ethnography that he viewed as littered with ethical and factual problems. That made him wonder: Did the whole field suffer from similar issues?

Mr. Lubet, who has dedicated much of his academic career to the study of legal and historical evidence, tried to find out by plunging into the literature. He read more than 50 ethnographic monographs and an equivalent number of articles. Focusing on sociologists’ studies of American cities, he hunted for facts that could be documented — or not. He verified details by consulting experts and pulling public records.

The result of his investigation is a new book, Interrogating Ethnography: Why Evidence Matters (Oxford University Press). Its conclusion: Ethnography suffers from an accuracy problem, one that scholars in the field have largely overlooked.

Comments

[Al Brophy]

Congratulations, Steve. Marc Perry wrote a very nice article. Do you have the links to they Northwestern symposium about Interrogaitng Ethnography?

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

Oxford Press is offering free shipping and 50% off. My total cost for this book was $14.96. Six dollars less than a "Make America Great Again" hat.

[twbb]

"Ethnography suffers from an accuracy problem, one that scholars in the field have largely overlooked"

I still do not get this argument. There is a hundred year debate over the accuracy problem in ethnography; I do not see how he could write a book (a book that does not even reference many of the people who created the method) that jumps into a hundred year debate and thinks its new. But whatever, I've argued with Lubet enough on this on TFL, no point in re-hashing I guess.

[understudy]

I never saw the links to the video of the symposium? Were they ever posted on line?

[Deep State Special Legal Counsel]

twbb--

I disagree with your characterization that the book "Jumps into the debate" seemingly as an interloper. That argument lacks merit. Several days ago, I represented a client in a County where I never practiced. Nobody suggested that I was not "welcome." I read Professor Lubet's book (see post above). It focuses a great deal of ink and critique of Alice Goffman's "On the Run." She opened the door to Professor Lubet when she wrote about the law, criminal courts and the larger justice system. Her book is not off limits... She inserted herself into Professor Lubet's area of expertise. Her book is a head scratcher to a criminal defense attorney.