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ETHNOGRAPHIC methods, relying substantially or partly on “participant observation,” have a long if somewhat checkered career in the social sciences. They have been employed, in various guises, by scholars identified with a variety of disciplines. In this chapter we shall not attempt a comprehensive review of the historical and contemporary methodological literature. Rather, we shall focus on several complementary themes that relate to some of the sources and dimensions of diversity and difference in ethnographic research, the recurrent tensions within the broad ethno-graphic tradition, and contemporary responses to these.

Definition of the term ethnography has been subject to controversy. For some it refers to a philosophical paradigm to which one makes a total commitment, for others it designates a method that one uses as and when appropriate. And, of course, there are positions between these extremes. In …