Essay On Critical Ethnography

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Definitions and its Meaning The literal meaning of the word ‘Ethnography’ is “writing about groups of people”. Which is defined in Oxford dictionary as “The scientific description of peoples and cultures with their customs, habits, and mutual differences”. Culture can be defined as the ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or society. It can include language, ritual, life stages, eating habits, clothing etc. The ethnographic studies tries to explore these customs, features, and social behaviours of a particular society. The researcher spends time in the field, observing these patterns or features of the community and finally document them 1. The critical ethnographic is an approach to ethnography which aims to explore the connection or link between the findings of ethnographic studies and the factors which constitute such realities such as wider social structures and system of power relationships etc2. Critical ethnography is similar to conventional ethnography in a way that the subjects’ meaning is central to the study. But it differs from the conventional ethnography, and formulates its method and approach based on the idea that probing subjects’ meaning is not the end of the story. It aims to explore the reasons behind those constructs, which has resulted in the subjects’ meaning. For e.g. let’s assume that an…show more content…
The critical ethnographer studies social issues of power, empowerment, inequality, inequity, dominance, repression, hegemony, and victimization. The critical ethnographers are politically minded individuals, as they do not fear taking sides. Through their research, they aim to provide more authority to the weaker section of the society/community, seek to challenge the status quo, the power hierarchy and unjust social order within the society
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