Ethnography at the Edge

by Ferrell, Jeff; Hamm, Mark S.

• ISBN13: 9781555533403
• ISBN10: 155553340X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-04-09
• Publisher: Northeastern Univ Pr

Summary

The candid, first-person accounts of their experiences, especially in illegal, immoral, and dangerous situations, reveal the horrors, perils, and joys of ethnographic research. The methodological, theoretical, and political implications of field work are also thoroughly discussed. Describing their deep involvement with such diverse groups as skinheads, phone sex workers, drug dealers, graffiti artists, and the homeless, many of the authors confess to their own episodes of illegal drug use, drunk driving, weapons violations, assault at gunpoint, obstruction of justice, and arrest while engaged in ethnographic studies. Although field research is seldom safe, convenient, or above professional criticism, this volume demonstrates that it is vital for providing a fuller understanding of deviant and criminal populations.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Moving Backward
Preface
True Confessions: Crime, Deviance, and Field Research	p. 2
Criminological Verstehen: Inside the Immediacy of Crime	p. 20
Ethnographers, Pimps, and the Company Store	p. 44
Shattered Lives and Shelter Lies?: Anatomy of Research Deviance in Homeless Programming and Policy	p. 65
Enjoying Militarism: Political/Personal Dilemmas in Studying U.S. Police Paramilitary Units	p. 88
The Ethnography of Terror: Timothy McVeigh and the Blue Centerlight of Evil	p. 111
Reversing the Ethnographic Gaze: Experiments in Cultural Criminology	p. 132
(Dis)Courtesy Stigma: Fieldwork among Phone Fantasy Workers	p. 146
Researching Crack Dealers: Dilemmas and Contradictions	p. 160
Marijuana Subcultures: Studying Crime in Rural America	p. 178
Honesty, Secrecy, and Deception in the Sociology of Crime: Confessions and Reflections from the Backstage	p. 206
Dangerous Methods: Risk Taking and the Research Process	p. 221
Confessions of Danger and Humanity	p. 254
References	p. 273
Contributors	p. 301
Index	p. 305
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