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The Role of Theory in Ethnographic Research

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  • Wilson, William Julius
  • Chaddha, Anmol

Abstract

Scholars, including urban poverty researchers, have not seriously debated the important issues that Loïc Wacquant raised in his controversial review of books by Elijah Anderson, Mitchell Duneier, and Katherine Newman concerning the disconnect between theory and ethnographic research. Despite the tone of Wacquant’s review, we feel that he made a contribution in raising important issues about the role of theory in ethnography. The responses to his review that address this issue, especially those by Anderson and Duneier, are also important because they help to broaden our understanding of how theory is used in ethnographic research. What we take from this exchange is that good ethnography is theory driven, and is likely to be much more reflective of inductive theoretical insights than those that are purely deductive. Moreover, we show that in some ethnographic studies the theoretical insights are neither strictly deductive nor inductive, but represent a combination of both.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilson, William Julius & Chaddha, Anmol, 2010. "The Role of Theory in Ethnographic Research," Scholarly Articles 4778477, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    • Handle: RePEc:hrv:hksfac:4778477
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    Cited by:

    1. Carolina Feliciana Machado & Ana Luísa Costa, 2022. "Diversity Management: Homosexuality and the Labor Market," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-24, October.
    2. Penny Curtis & Andy Northcott, 2017. "The impact of single and shared rooms on family‐centred care in children's hospitals," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(11-12), pages 1584-1596, June.

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