Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography

by John Van Maanen

Book Overview

For more than twenty years, John Van Maanen's Tales of the Field has been a definitive reference and guide for students, scholars, and practitioners of ethnography and beyond. Originally published in 1988, it was the one of the first works to detail and critically analyze the various styles and narrative conventions associated with written representations of culture. This is a book about the deskwork of fieldwork and the various ways culture...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226849643
• ISBN13: 9780226849645
• Release Date: July 2011
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Perfect Companion To Goodall's The New Ethnography

Van Maanen's Tales is an excellent and succinct primer on the various ways we write ethnographic research. Giving a rich history of the 'armchair ethnographer' of the early 20th century, he procedds to show how our conceptualizations of this great practice has evolved.This is a great book to determine not necessarily what kind of ethnography you want to write, but is a great exploration on how ethnography can write you. Are you a modern classisist ethnographer? Are you a interpretive ethnographer? Are you a critical ethnographer? Reading this book opened my eyes to the different techniques and questions we ethnographers can ask. Better yet, by delving into the various questions and ideas posed, I found where my ethnographic 'being' is.I rate this with the highest rating possible.

Writing Culture/Writing Ethnography

I utilized Van Maanen's short, but essential text on writing ethnography throughout my dissertation ethnography research (now a book: Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). Unlike most "how to" texts on Ethnography, Tales of the Field focuses on writing as methodology. Van Maanen's writing is clear and concise. The reader is given several writing styles in ethnography, with ample examples from the author's, and other's, ethnographic writings. A great little book for fieldworkers, novice and veteran, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in research methods courses.