There are a range of books assigned for the class. They fall into the complicated classes of required, optional required (you are required to have one, but you can have any one), and optional.
The required books are ones we will make significant use of at some point in the class. They are:
- Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw. 1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes.
- Becker. 1998. Tricks of the Trade.
- Strauss and Corbin. 1998. Basics of Qualitative Research (Second Edition).
The "optional required" books are short and readable overviews of ethnography. I am not going to concentrate on this material, but you must read one of these during the first week or two of the class. You will find them invaluable, and they will set a context for what comes later. They are:
- Lofland, Snow, Anderson, and Lofland. 2005. Analyzing Social Settings.
- Fetterman. 1997. Ethnography Step-by-step.
- Agar. 1996. The Professional Stranger.
Other readings come up at various points. Here is a list of those that I have used before and might use again (I'll keep this page updated as new ones come up; several of these probably won't be used except as examples.)
- Anderson, R. 1994. Representation and Requirements. Human-Computer Interaction.
- Anderson, R. 1997. Work, Ethnography, and Systems Design.
- Barley, S. 1986. Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from Observations of CT Scanners. Administative Science Quarterly.
- Bell, G. and Dourish, P. 2006. Back to the Shed: Gendered visions of technology and domesticity.
- Cahill, S. 1999. Emotional Capital and Professional Socialization: The Case of Mortuary Science Students (and me). Social Psychology Quarterly, 62, 2, 101-116.
- Clifford, J. 1983. On Ethnographic Authority. Representations.
- Jordan, B. and Dalal, B. 2006. Persuasive Encounters: Ethnography in the Corporation.
- Davis, M. 1971. That's Interesting! Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology. Philosophy of Social Science.
- DeWalt, K. and DeWalt, W. 2002. Informal Interviewing. Chapter 7 of Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers.
- Dourish, P. 2006. Implications for Design. Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2006 (Montreal, Canada).
- Fine, G. 1992. The Culture of Production: Aesthetic Choices and Constraints in Culinary Work. American Journal of Sociology.
- Fine, G. 1979. Small Groups and Culture Creation: The Ideoculture of Little League Baseball Teams. American Sociological Review, 44(5), 733-745.
- Geertz, C. 1977. Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture. The Interpretation of Cultures.
- Geertz, C. 1977. Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight. The Interpretation of Cultures.
- Gupta, A. and Ferguson, J. 1997. Discipline and Practice. Anthropological Locations.
- Marcus, G. 1995. Ethnography in/of the World Systems: The Emergence of Multi-sited Ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology.
- Miller, D. and Slater, D. 2000. The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach (chapter 1).
- Nader, L. 1992. Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained from Studying Up.
- Salvador, T., Anderson, K., and Bell, G. 1999. Design Ethnography. Design Management Journal.
- Snow, D. and Anderson, L. 1987. Identity Work Among the Homeless: The Verbal Construction and Avowal of Personal Identity. American Journal of Sociology, 92(6), 1336-1371.
- Star, S. 1999. The Ethnography of Infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist.
- Sudnow, D. 1965. Normal Crimes: Sociological Features of the Penal Code in a Public Defender's Office. Social Problems.
- Traweek, S. 1992. Prologue: An Anthropologist Studies Physicists. From "Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High-Energy Physicists", Harvard University Press.
- Weiss. Interviewing. Learning from Strangers.