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Urban Marginality and Ethnographic Practice: on the Ethics of Fieldwork
Author(s) -
Gounis Kostas
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1525/ciso.1996.8.1.108
Subject(s) - ethnography , sociology , politics , relation (database) , criminology , state (computer science) , gender studies , environmental ethics , anthropology , political science , law , philosophy , algorithm , database , computer science
URBAN HOMELESSNESS in the U.S. is a project that involves the political to domesticate social marginality and to institutionalize new exclusions, prohibitions and interdictions. Whether in the streets or in asylums, homelessness denotes a state of captivity and exposure where administrative discipline permeates social and personal practices that are normally exempt from regimentation and policing. This paper seeks to explore the possibilities for an ethical relation between observer and observed in the course of ethnographic practice among homeless and other similarly marginalized urban populations.