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	If Truth Be Told

If Truth Be Told

The Politics of Public Ethnography

Didier Fassin [dir.]
Durham,  Duke University Press,  [2017],  368 p.

What happens when ethnographers go public via books, opinion papers, media interviews, court testimonies, policy recommendations, or advocacy activities?  Calling for a consideration of this public moment as part and parcel of the research process, the contributors to If Truth Be Told explore the challenges, difficulties, and stakes of having ethnographic research encounter with various publics, ranging from journalists, legal experts, policy-makers, activist groups, local populations, and other scholars. With case studies from five continents, this collection signals the global impact of the questions that the publicization of ethnography raises about the public sphere, the role of the academy, and the responsibilities of social scientists.

Contributors: Jonathan Benthall, Lucas Bessire, João Biehl, Gabriella Coleman, Manuela Cunha, Vincent Dubois, Nadia Abu El-Haj, Kelly Gillespie, Ghassan Hage, Sherine Hamdy, Federico Neiburg, Unni Wikan

About The Editor: Didier Fassin is James Wolfensohn Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, a Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and the author and editor of many books, most recently, Prison Worlds: An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition.

Table of contents

Introduction: When Ethnography Goes Public / Didier Fassin

Part I. Strategies

  • 1. Gopher, Translator, and Trickster: The Ethnographer and the Media / Gabriella Coleman
  • 2. What Is a Public Intervention? Speaking Truth to the Oppressed / Ghassan Hage
  • 3. Before the Commission: Ethnography as Pubic Testimony / Kelly Gillespie
  • 4. Addressing Policy-Oriented Audiences: Relevance and Persuasiveness / Manuela Ivone Cunha

Part II. Engagements

  • 5. Serendipitous Involvement: Making Peace in the Geto / Federico Neiburg
  • 6. Tactical versus Critical: Indigenizing Public Ethnography / Lucas Bessire
  • 7. Experto Crede? A Legal and Political Conundrum / Jonathan Benthall
  • 8. Policy Ethnography as a Combat Sport: Analyzing the Welfare State against the Grain / Vincent Dubois

Part III. Tensions

  • 9. Academic Freedom at Risk: The Occasional Worldliness of Scholarly Texts / Nadia Abu El-Haj
  • 10. Perils and Prospects of Going Public: Between Academia and Real Life / Unni Wikan
  • 11. Ethnography Prosecuted: Facing the Fabulation of Power / João Biehl
  • 12. How Publics Shape Ethnographers: Translating across Divided Audiences / Sherine Hamdy

Epilogue: The Public Afterlife of Ethnography / Didier Fassin

Contributors / Index

 


ISBN : 978-0-8223-6977-6
Fiche éditeur : https://www.dukeupress.edu/if-truth-be-told

If Truth Be Told

The Politics of Public Ethnography

EHESS
CNRS
Sorbonne Paris Nord
INSERM

IRIS - CAMPUS CONDORCET
Bâtiment Recherche Sud
5 cours des Humanités
93322 Aubervilliers cedex
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IRIS - U. SORBONNE PARIS NORD
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