Self-Contained Ethnography or a Science of Phenomenal Forms and Inner Relations

Abstract

This article develops a critique of ethnography in educational research. It is argued that ethnography concerns the study of the phenomenal forms of everyday life. Beyond these phenomenal forms are inner relations, causal processes, and generative mechanisms which are often invisible to the actors. A science of social totalities, deriving from Marx, is advocated which can elaborate the relationship between phenomenal forms, the world of appearances, and deeper social structural causal mechanisms. This science cannot be generated by ethnography alone but only through historical and comparative analyses of modes of production in history. The argument is illustrated by an imaginary ethnographic study of a typical “fascist” school in Germany and by a discussion of developments taking place in schooling systems in the contemporary world. A theory of reproduction is required which locates the analysis of capitalist schooling systems in a broader theory of the reproduction of all the economic, political, and ideological requirements for capitalist accumulation and the role of the state in this process. Ethnography carried out in schools informed by such a theory has a political rationale. It can lay the foundations for a critique of the world of appearances in everyday life, a necessary part of any political practice designed to produce a society in which essence and appearance are at one.

Research Traditions, Ideology and Critical Ethnography

“…A critical ethnography, as opposed to conventional ethnography, insists upon an ongoing awareness of the fundamental human agency of social actors while simultaneously remaining aware that the Downloaded by [McGill University Library] at 05:09 04 February 2015 subjective consciousness of individuals may conceal underlying structural relationships which are capable of distorting and limiting, or of enhancing and enabling, negotiated systems of meaning (Sarup, 1984;Sharp, 1982). Meaning systems and individual perceptions are not taken at face value to produce explanations that are simply those of the actors.…”

Ethnography and the politics of absence

“…While for some time the tradition has been to give pride of place to "thick description," the real promise of ethnography as a transformative tool is fulfilled when it becomes dieoretically embedded and when it, therefore, tries to recover the silenced context, die conditions and the relations in the light of which phenomena need to be apprehended. As West (1984) has argued so well, it has become possible to situate particular ethnographies widiin wider structural accounts, and this syndiesis of phenomenon and form is possible not only at die epistemological level but, as we shall see in die next section, also can be articulated at die political level (Sharp, 1982).…”

“…Shipman (1984) for instance, in a paper on ethnography and public policy, describes policy-makers as "hungry for evidence," and he regards ethnographic work as having a clear potential role by virtue of the inadequacies of previous quantitative work. Sharp (1982) has claimed that theoretically embedded ethnography has a political rationale, since a scientific political practice requires knowledge of the fissures, ruptures, and contradictions in capitalism's mode of appearance which guide political and pedagogical work. Ethnography can offer insight concerning the points at which politicization is possible, feasible, and productive of greater awareness and concerning the processes through which this could be achieved, (p. 60)…”

Processes of Knowledge Production in Social Movements as Multi‐level Power Dynamics

“…Adopting the concept of 'local rationalities' implies reflecting upon what counts as data in the research of power relations underlying processes of knowledge production within social movements. According to Sharp (1982), the aim of 'Critical Ethnography' is to apprehend 'the inner relations, causal processes and generative mechanisms which are often invisible to actors' (p. 48). Such perspective leads the researcher not only to extra-local factors, but also to intra-local aspects of collective interaction that are not articulated textually by the members of the group under study.…”