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Abstract

Three versions of ethnographic research are presented. I call the first of these the “consensus model,” a widely accepted and standardized approach that combines the theoretical assumptions of Blumer’s formulation of symbolic interactionism and a set of data-gathering procedures. Mitchell Duneier’s work is an example of this model. The second approach, the “comparative model,” uses the consensus model while simultaneously developing an abstract, theoretical, conceptually innovative, comparative schema. Erving Goffman serves as an example. I call the third approach the “transferential model.” This approach also uses the consensus model but in addition requires ethnographers to examine the habitus of group members. To do this, ethnographers immerse themselves in the everyday world of their research participants to grasp the visceral, emotional, and unconscious aspects of group life and/or to discover discrediting aspects of the group. Here the ethnographer becomes loosely comparable to the psychoanalyst: both delve into the invisible and barely discursive elements of individual and group life. This approach was anticipated and developed by others, but in this paper I focus of Wacquant’s variant of this work. I conclude by suggesting that all ethnographic research rests wholly or partially on the assumptions of the consensus model. The other two approaches extend the consensus approach but in doing so employ very different—and very challenging—skill sets.

Keywords

ethnography history social psychology theory Wacquant

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Three Models of Ethnographic Research

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