Among Wolves: Ethnography and the Immersive Study of Power

by Timothy Pachirat

Summoned by an anonymous Prosecutor, ten contemporary ethnographers gather in an aging barn to hold a trial of Alice Goffman’s controversial ethnography, On the Run. But before the trial can get underway, a one-eyed wolfdog arrives with a mysterious liquid potion capable of rendering the ethnographers invisible in their fieldsites.



Presented as a play that unfolds in seven acts, the ensuing drama provides readers with both a practical guide for how to conduct immersive participant-observation research and a sophisticated theoretical engagement with the relationship between ethnography as a research method and the operation of power. By interpolating "how-to" aspects of ethnographic research with deeper questions about ethnography’s relationship to power, this book presents a compelling introduction for those new to ethnography and rich theoretical insights for more seasoned ethnographic practitioners from across the social sciences. Just as ethnography as a research method depends crucially on serendipity, surprise, and an openness to ambiguity, the book’s dramatic and dialogic format encourages novices and experts alike to approach the study of power in ways that resist linear programs and dogmatic prescriptions. The result is a playful yet provocative invitation to rekindle those foundational senses of wonder and generative uncertainty that are all too often excluded from conversations about the methodologies and methods we bring to the study of the social world.

Genres: Anthropology, Ethnography

190 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2014

About the author

While the discipline of political science is my formal institutional home, I subscribe to an expansive definition of politics as the study of how power is understood, exercised, and contested across time and space (and acknowledge the words in that definition as concepts themselves in need of query). My work listens for and wants conversation with the rivers and tributaries that flow through and across political science, sociology, anthropology, history, geography, law, philosophy, literature, and poetry.

Source: https://polsci.umass.edu/people/timot...

Reviews

[Pepe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is among the best method book I’ve ever read. Ethnography as something beyond a technique, but a way of thinking—a way to craft your research & understanding of your study. One hot take that I buy is how this book emphasizes the joy of reading fictions (poetry & novels) to investigate why a researcher asks such a question for her research. Written in the setting of a play—kinda cringe, I know—, but it’s really effective and not boring at all!! It feels like reading a minutia from ten famous contemporary ethnographers in their respective disciplines (socio, journalism, polisci, & ofc anthropology!). The philosophical discussion of the turbulent & colonial history of ethnography is marvelous. Pachirat also is able to provoke one’s understanding of ethnography to go beyond a mere tool—and to reflect on what it means when you treat it as a tool. As a friend of mine says, “ethnography is a thought. Not just a solidified technique.” Because indeed, there is no one way to do ethnography.

Ps: i also like how this book kinda throws shades on sociology for its unnecessarily rigorous approach to validate field notes & ethnographic approach for research. Hehe

[Rojitas Oliva · Rating 3 out of 5]

ahahhahaahah i luv dis man

[Mika Bracke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book that tackles issues within ethnography - as many others do - but in an entirely innovative way. As a reader of almost exclusively non-fiction, this was a breath of fresh air. Pachirat starts from a remarkable angle: the gathering of ten established ethnographers to discuss Alice Goffman's controversial book 'On the Run', with a wolfhound and an invisibility potion also playing a role. From this starting point, he explores a number of tensions in the development and practice of ethnography. A true recommendation that never bores.

[Shreya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating, joyful, a little insane. Pachirat has a cast of dramatized ethnographers (all real people with real books!) and throws them into a situation with a newly-invented and controversial invisibility potion that lets ethnographers observe their subjects undetected, the impending trial of Alice Goffman, and a one-eyed wolfdog who sees into the future. The wonderful conceit of 'let's discuss the problem of the potion-trial-wolfdog in small groups' lets Pachirat take us on a tour through the winding roads of ethical and methodological debate ('how should we divide ourselves into small groups? by geography, theme, level of immersion in the field? but what tensions do these categories conceal?'). I did not anticipate that the defense for Alice Goffman (who admits to wanting to kill a potential research subject in her book) would change my mind, having started the book squarely on the side of her Prosecutor, yet it did.

[Roxani]

An excerpt that resonated: "I find joy in this element of fieldwork, that beauty can be evoked or created even in the most mundane description or moment of interaction. Not that the thing being described or the interaction being recounted is necessarily beautiful itself, [...] but that there is an art in evoking it, in calling it forth with vividness."

[Spencer Beadle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic summary of writing ethnography, written in a way that is entertaining and memorable!
My university required me to read this before I write my first anthropological thesis, and it is definitely worth it.

[Katy Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Such an interesting and different way of presenting ideas.

[Sydney Rankin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, well researched, informative, creative, sharp

[Dalia Ismail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Playful and interesting intro to ethnography.

[Jerónimo · Rating 1 out of 5]

worst piece of literature i’ve read in a very long time, it’s too cringe

[Chetana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such an intellectual shag - really enjoyed reading it especially because it could have easily been a very academic and boring book but wasn't. Must read for any social scientist.

[Dylan Groves]

If you thought mastering metrics was informal, have I got a wolfdog to show you