Thick comparison : reviving the ethnographic aspiration / / edited by Jorg Niewohner and Thomas Scheffer.

• Superior document: International studies in sociology and social anthropology ; vol. 114
• Author: Niewöhner, Jörg.
• TeilnehmendeR: Scheffer, Thomas.
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: International studies in sociology and social anthropology ; vol. 114.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (235 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

We have come a long way from Evans-Pritchard’s famous dictum that “there is only one method in social anthropology, the comparative method - and that is impossible.” Yet a good 40 years later, qualitative social inquiry still has an uneasy relationship with comparison. This volume sets out “thick comparison” as a means to revive “comparing” as a productive process in ethnographic work: a process that helps to revitalise the articulation work inherent in analytical ethnographies; to vary observer perspectives and point towards “blind spots;” to name and create “new things” and modes of empirical work and to give way to intensified dialogues between data analysis and theorizing. Contributors are Katrin Amelang, Stefan Beck, Kati Hannken-Illjes, Alexander Kozin, Henriette Langstrup, Jörg Niewöhner, Thomas Scheffer, Robert Schmidt, Estrid Sørensen, and Britt Ross Winthereik.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / T. Scheffer and J. Niewöhner -- Introduction Thickening Comparison: On The Multiple Facets Of Comparability / Jörg Niewöhner and Thomas Scheffer -- Chapter One. Comparability On Shifting Grounds: How Legal Ethnography Differs From Comparative Law / Thomas Scheffer -- Chapter Two. Producing Multi-Sited Comparability / Estrid Sørensen -- Chapter Three. Re-Describing Social Practices: Comparison As Analytical And Explorative Too / Robert Schmidtl -- Chapter Four. Producing Alternative Objects Of Comparison In Healthcare: Following A Web-Based Technology For Asthma Treatment Through The Lab And The Clinic / Henriette Langstrup and Brit Ross Winthereik -- Chapter Five. Contrasts And Comparisons: Three Practices Of Forensic Investigation / Amade M’Charek -- Chapter Six. Comparison In The Wild And More Disciplined Usages Of An Epistemic Practice / Katrin Amelang and Stefan Beck -- Chapter Seven. Making A Comparative Object / Kati Hannken-Illjes -- Chapter Eight. On Positionality And Its Comparability In The Legal Context / Alexander V. Kozin -- Index / T. Scheffer and J. Niewöhner.