Ethnography as a Mode of Policy and Urban Planning Study

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-World-Policing-Difference-Ethnography/dp/022649764X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514381162&sr=8-1&keywords=fassin+police+didier

Didier Fassin has edited a book about Writing the World of Policing, The Difference Ethnography Makes, Chicago 2017. The above link to amazon.com will enable you to read the beginning of the Introduction, an argument for why ethnography (vs. participant observation, fieldwork, ..., and vs. conventional social science statistical analysis of a data set) is crucial, and not only in police studies. Ethnography demands long times among those you are studying, and an openness to surprise given your prejudices. Hypotheses come after the writing and thinking.  He provides an elegant justification for ethnography in the public policy and urban planning fields.

He also has out another edited book,  If Truth Be Told, The Politics of Public Ethnography
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-World-Policing-Difference-Ethnography/dp/022649764X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514381162&sr=8-1&keywords=fassin+police+didier
where public policy concerns are addressed. Again the Introduction is illuminating.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coho: Coho salmon, Cohomology, and Cohomosexuality

 Coho:  Coho salmon, Cohomology, and Cohomosexuality During their  ocean  phase, coho salmon have silver sides and dark-blue backs. During their spawning phase, their  jaws  and  teeth  become hooked. After entering fresh water, they develop bright-red sides, bluish-green heads and backs, dark bellies and dark spots on their backs. Sexually maturing fish develop a light-pink or rose shading along the belly, and the males may show a slight arching of the back. Mature adults have a pronounced red skin color with darker backs and average 28 inches (71 cm) and 7 to 11 pounds (3.2 to 5.0 kg), occasionally reaching up to 36 pounds (16 kg). They also develop a large  kype  (hooked beak) during spawning. [2]  Mature females may be darker than males, with both showing a pronounced hook on the nose. [3] Cohomology is the other side of homology theory in mathematics. Poincare developed homology theo...
Read more

Building a Team in a Department in a University--lessons from basketball in Bill Bradley's Values of the Game

For the most part, our colleagues (professors!) may belong to a discipline and be a member of a department, but they are in effect each on their own. And this is the case for senior faculty as well as those who are just beginning. If a new faculty member is fortunate, someone in the department will take them under their wing, sponsoring and mentoring them. [This is not so much a dean providing guidance and help, as craft training that depends on the particular needs of a research area.]  I'm reading a book by Bill Bradley ( Values of the Game ), where the team is the right unit not any individual player. This begins to make sense for professors, if we think that the reputation and strength of the department is the right unit (and I suspect that for a dean or provost that may well be the case). Of course, you want the strongest players, but you want them to complement each other so that the department is not just the sum of individual strengths.  For the most part, at...
Read more

Robert Caro as a Model

In today's New York Times (9Jan20) there is an article about Robert Caro, author of monumental histories of Robert Moses and LBJ. His research and writing are monumental as well. You are unlikely to finish writing a Caro book in time for tenure review, unless it began as you dissertation. But few academic historians as as revered as is Caro. While it is foolish to expect your dissertation work to be as pathbreaking as is Caro's work, still it sets a standard for effort and writing that may well inspire you, not a bad thing. Choose your heroes with care, and surely do not restrict them to professors and the like. 
Read more