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Defining focused ethnography: Disciplinary boundary-work and the imagined divisions between ‘focused’ and ‘traditional’ ethnography in health research – A critical review

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  • Trundle, Catherine
  • Phillips, Tarryn

Abstract

This article offers the first critical review of focused ethnography, an increasingly popular research method across health disciplines. Focused ethnographers, we argue, exemplify the practice of methodological boundary work, defining their method in contrast to the ‘traditional’ ethnographic approach of anthropology and sociology. To examine this boundary work, we collected two samples of health research articles published over the last decade and compared how focused ethnographers and medical anthropologists described, justified, and practised ethnography.

Suggested Citation

  • Trundle, Catherine & Phillips, Tarryn, 2023. "Defining focused ethnography: Disciplinary boundary-work and the imagined divisions between ‘focused’ and ‘traditional’ ethnography in health research – A critical review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:332:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623004653
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116108
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Siri Lygum Voldbjerg & Karen Lyng Larsen & Gitte Nielsen & Britt Laugesen, 2020. "Exploring nursing students’ use of the Fundamentals of Care framework in case‐based work," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(11-12), pages 1968-1980, June.
    2. Bröer, Christian & Agyekum, Humphrey Asamoah, 2021. "Medicalization and manhood: Is an ADHD diagnosis emerging for allegedly troublesome boys in Accra, Ghana?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    3. Siri Lygum Voldbjerg & Mette Grønkjær & Rick Wiechula & Erik Elgaard Sørensen, 2017. "Newly graduated nurses’ use of knowledge sources in clinical decision‐making: an ethnographic study," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(9-10), pages 1313-1327, May.
    4. Manderson, Lenore & Aaby, Peter, 1992. "An epidemic in the field? Rapid assessment procedures and health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 839-850, October.
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