john atkinson

"This wonderful Handbook establishes the central and complex place ethnography now occupies in the human disciplines. All future work will begin here. This Handbook will soon become required reading for all scholars and graduate students who wish to be knowledgeable in this complex field of inquiry. This is a stunning accomplishment. The field owes the editors and their contributors a major debt of thanks."
-Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"A marvelous achievement! The Handbook has all the marks of a winner - compelling writing, comprehensive coverage, and very useful discussions. This is a real benchmark for ethnography. It will set the background for debate and point to new directions for years to come. My graduate students will love it."
-Jaber F. Gubrium, University of Florida, Gainesville

"The Handbook of Ethnography compiles invaluable, original, critical essays on ethnographical work, earning it a place on everyone's must-have bookshelf."
-Virginia Olesen, University of California, San Francisco

Ethnography is one of the chief research methods in sociology, anthropology and other cognate disciplines in the social sciences. This Handbook provides an unparalleled critical guide to its principles and practice.

The volume is organized into three parts. The first systematically locates ethnography in its relevant historical and intellectual contexts. The roots of ethnography are pinpointed and the pattern of its development is demonstrated.

The second part examines the contribution of ethnography to major fields of substantive research. The impact and strengths and weaknesses of ethnographic method are dealt with authoritatively and accessibly.

The third part moves on to examine key debates and issues in ethnography, from the conduct of research through to contemporary arguments.

The result is a landmark work in the field which draws on the expertise of an internationally renowned group of interdisciplinary scholars. The Handbook provides readers with a one-stop critical guide to the past, present and future of ethnography. It will quickly establish itself as the ethnographer's bible.