Getting the balance right in ethnographic writing (or, why Alain de Botton is no ethnographer)

1. Getting the balance right in ethnographic writing (or, why Alain de Botton is no ethnographer) Beth Bechky, UC Davis

2. Three balanced elements • Emic and etic accounts • Structure and story • Evidence, evidence, evidence

3. Balance of emic and etic accounts • Emic accounts: The natives’ view • Etic accounts: The analysts’ view • Alain is heavy on the etic • How do ethnographies balance emic and etic accounts? • Workmanship example • Emic term, used differently by groups of informants • Linked to etic account of objects as representations of knowledge, authority and legitimacy

4. Balance of structure and story • Story – Thick descriptions that show you were there • Structure – theoretical framing or argument • – Alain has stories, but in the service of too many points. • How doethnographies balance theory with rich, grounded data ? • Workmanship example • Story: Engineers’ treated it as tribal knowledge, to techniciansand assemblers it represented skill and effort • Structure: Simultaneously embedded knowledge, authority, legitimacy

5. Evidence from “The pleasures and sorrows of work”

6. More evidence?

7. Evidence, evidence, evidence • Is there such a thing as too much evidence? • No.Show me the data! • Do not tell me about the data, show it to me • But… • Do not leave your data unattended • Explain it – link it to your theory • Do not stick unexplained data in tables