Reflexive Ethnography by Charlotte Aull Davies (1999, Paperback)

Ethnographic research is fundamental to the discipline of anthropology. However, contemporary debate on themes such as modernism/postmodernism, subjectivity/objectivity and self/other put the value of fieldwork into question. Reflexive Ethnography provides a practical and comprehensive guide to ethnographic research methods which fully engages with these significant issues.

Reflexive Ethnography tackles all the relevant research questions, including chapters on selection of topics and methods, data collection, analysis, and ethics and politics. Charlotte Aull Davies stresses that the researcher's own subjectivity need not have a negative effect on their methodology. Reflexive ethnography can create a unique form of material which is not accessible through native texts, but which is neither simply the product of the individual anthropologist's psyche. Instead it generates knowledge which in essence reflects social reality.