1st Edition

An Ethnographic Inventory Field Devices for Anthropological Inquiry

Edited By Tomás Sánchez Criado, Adolfo Estalella Copyright 2023
    248 Pages 17 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book provides an inventory of modes of inquiry for ethnographic research and presents fieldwork as an act of relational invention. It advances contemporary debates in ethnography by arguing that the empirical practice of anthropology is and has always been an inventive activity. Bringing together contributions from scholars across the world, the volume offers an expansive vision of the resourcefulness that anthropologists unfold in their empirical investigations by compiling inventive social and material techniques, or field devices, for anthropological inquiry. The chapters seek to inspire both novel and experienced practitioners of ethnography to venture into the many possibilities of fieldwork, to demonstrate the essential creative and inventive practices neglected in traditional accounts of ethnography, and to invite anthropologists to confidently engage in inventive fieldwork practices.

    Introduction: The ethnographic invention

    Adolfo Estalella and Tomás Sánchez Criado

    Interlude I: The principle of invention (Outside in)

    Martin Savransky

    1. How to counter-map collectively

    Counter-Cartographies Collective (3Cs)

    2. How to produce responsive ethnography of data

    Jorge Núñez and Maka Suárez

    3. How to use disconcertment as ethnographic field-device

    Helen Verran

    4. How to draw fieldnotes

    Letizia Bonanno

    5. How to do a digital epidemiography

    Shama Patel and John Postill

    6. How to make ethnographic research with exhibitions

    Francisco Martínez

    7. How to write fieldpoetry

    Leah Zani

    8. How to flow with materials

    Rachel Harkness

    9. How to game ethnography

    Ignacio Farías and Tomás Sánchez Criado

    10. How to get caught in the ethnographic material

    Greg Pierotti and Cristiana Giordano

    11. How to devise collaborative hermeneutics

    Kim Fortun and Mike Fortun

    12. How to set ethnography in motion

    Monika Streule

    13. How to use Pathosformeln in anthropological inquiry

    Anthony Stavrianakis

    14. How to perform field encounters

    Andrew Irving

    15. How to invent childhood publics with photo-stories

    Sevasti-Melissa Nolas, Christos Varvantakis and Vinnarasan Aruldoss

    16. How to remediate ethnography

    Adolfo Estalella

    17. How to disrupt our field habits with sensory probes

    Anna Harris

    18. How to stitch ethnography

    Tania Pérez-Bustos

    Interlude II: An elimination dance (a history of disciplining the field/s)

    Denielle Elliott

    Interlude III: The politics of invention

    Isaac Marrero-Guillamón and E. Gabriel Dattatreyan

    Conclusion: Taking inventory

    Tomás Sánchez Criado and Adolfo Estalella

    Biography

    Tomás Sánchez Criado is Ramón y Cajal Senior Research Fellow at the CareNet-IN3 of the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain.

    Adolfo Estalella is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Anthropology and Social Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.