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Practicing Ethnography in Law brings together a selection of top scholars in legal anthropology, social sciences, and law to delineate the state of the art in ethnographic research strategies. Each of these original essays addresses a particular set of analytical problems and uses these problems to explore issues of ethnographic technique, research methodology, and the theoretical underpinnings of ethnographic legal studies. Subjects explored include the relationship between legal and feminist scholarship, between law and the media, law and globalization, and the usefulness of a wide variety of research techniques: comparative, linguistic, life-history, interview, and archival. This volume will serve as a guide for students who are designing their own research projects, for scholars who are newly exploring the possibilities of ethnographic research, and for experienced ethnographers who are engaged with methodological issues in light of current theoretical developments. The book will be essential reading for courses in anthropological methods, legal anthropology, and sociology and law.
List of contents
Preface; J.Starr, J.Collier & S.Merry Introduction - Legal Ethnography: New Dialogues, Enduring Methods; J.Starr & M.Goodale PART I: PERFORMING LEGAL ETHNOGRAPHY Feminist Participatory Research on Legal Consciousness; S.Hirsch Trekking Processual Planes Beyond the Rule of Law; P.Parnell Legal Ethnography in an Era of Globalization: The Arrival of Western Human Rights Discourse to Rural Bolivia; M.Goodale Analyzing Witchcraft Beliefs; J.Collier Exploring Legal Culture in Law-Avoidance Societies; R.Kidder Reconceptualizing Research: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Immigration Politics in Southern California; S.Coutin Ethnography in the Archives; S.Engle Merry Stories from the Field: Collecting Data Outside Over There; H.M.Kritzer Doing Ethnography: Living Law, Life Histories, and Narratives from Botswana; A.Griffiths PART II: REFLECTIONS ON ETHNOGRAPHY IN LAW A Few Thoughts on Ethnography, History, and Law; L.Friedman Moving On: Comprehending Anthropologies of Law; L.Nader
About the author
JUNE STARR was one of the major figures in the ethnographic study of law and, until her death last year, was Professor at the Indiana University School of Law, USA.
MARK GOODALE is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Virginia, USA.
Summary
Practicing Ethnography in Law brings together a selection of top scholars in legal anthropology, social sciences, and law to delineate the state of the art in ethnographic research strategies. Each of these original essays addresses a particular set of analytical problems and uses these problems to explore issues of ethnographic technique, research methodology, and the theoretical underpinnings of ethnographic legal studies. Subjects explored include the relationship between legal and feminist scholarship, between law and the media, law and globalization, and the usefulness of a wide variety of research techniques: comparative, linguistic, life-history, interview, and archival. This volume will serve as a guide for students who are designing their own research projects, for scholars who are newly exploring the possibilities of ethnographic research, and for experienced ethnographers who are engaged with methodological issues in light of current theoretical developments. The book will be essential reading for courses in anthropological methods, legal anthropology, and sociology and law.
