Editorial: Ethnography

Ethnography of Development Sociology

Development sociology as a distinct area of study gained prominence in the post-world war era with the evolving interest in political and economic progression of the post-colonial world. The emerging discipline from the mainstream sociology have been particularly interested in development paths and strategies adopted in nations in the various regions of the world with greater emphasis in develo...

Guest Editorial: Challenging Divisions - Exploring the intersections of ethnography and intervention in IS research

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Sociologists understand the term ‘organization’ in very broad terms to mean any structure by which social life and behaviour are managed. The term is more narrowly understood to mean formal organizations with a bureaucratic structure. Some formal organizations process ‘clients’, like schools and police stations, where the principal purpose is the management of people and their needs. Others are...

Relational ethnography

All matters related to ethnography flow from a decision that originates at the very beginning of the research process—the selection of the basic object of analysis— and yet fieldworkers pay scant attention to this crucial task. As a result, most take as their starting point bounded entities delimited by location or social classification and in so doing restrict the kinds of arguments available ...

Ethnography in Parallel

Ethnography has been introduced into technology design lifecycles to help sensitise new technologies to the work practices of their intended users. This paper reports on how ethnography was used in parallel to technology prototyping in the design of a workflow system to improve accuracy and efficiency in banking in India. Unlike previously largely positive reports of how ethnography helps to sh...