Historical Ethnography: Key Characteristics and the Journey Before, During, and After the Archival Field

Historical Ethnography: Key Characteristics and the Journey Before, During, and After the Archival Field

Blog Article

The aim of this M BOTTOMS article is to elaborate on the overlooked strategy of historical ethnography.Drawing from the literature and sharing vignettes from my research at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees archive, I advance in two stages.First, by reviewing key works, I provide an overview of historical ethnography, focusing mainly on its distinct characteristics: The historical reach and reliance on a wide range of materials.I also present the inductive-deductive debate to consider the role of theory.

Then I provide informed reflections about the different research stages: Before, during, and after leaving the archival field.Becoming immersed in the subject matter prior to the actual empirical examination opens the path to the archives and to a meaningful data collection endeavor.In turn, informed decisions, rather than luck, fuel the ongoing movement between data collection and analysis.Lastly, acknowledging the interpretive mindset involved PRO CREATINE with thinking ethnographically, I present indexing and temporal coding as helpful strategies for organizing a large corpus of historical data.