Diffractive Ethnography

Jessica Smartt Gullion, PhD, is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas Woman’s University, where she teaches courses in research methods and medical and environmental sociology. Her research focuses on qualitative methodology as a tool for social justice.

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPart I: Engaging the Ontological TurnChapter 1. A Turn from What?Chapter 2. An Overview of Vibrant MaterialismChapter 3. Paradigm ChangesPart II: Methodological Contradictions in Social Science InquiryChapter 4. Objectivity in ResearchChapter 5. Instruments of MeasurementChapter 6. Beyond Cause and EffectChapter 7. Zombie CategoriesChapter 8. DataChapter 9. The Crisis of RepresentationChapter 10. Reflexivity and Its DiscontentsPart III: Diffractive EthnographyChapter 11. A Brief Overview of EthnographyChapter 12. Thinking with TheoryChapter 13. Assemblages and EntanglementsChapter 14. DiffractionChapter 15. The Liveliness of MatterPart IV: BecomingChapter 16. Healing the Nature/Culture DivideChapter 17. The Ethics of EntanglementsReferencesIndex

What would happen if social researchers de-centered themselves and humans? How do social scientists tackle important policy issues? These questions are deftly explored by Gullion in a fascinating and timely volume about the ontological turn in the social sciences. Diffractive Ethnography is for social scientists who want to be rid of hierarchies in order to engage deeply in social justice. It is for those of us who want to throw away the tool box, and see what creative new connections we can make across disciplines and ways of being. This is the most exciting book on methodology I have read in years.Sandra L. Faulkner, Bowling Green State University, author of Real Women Run