No abstract

Although there are increasing examples of collaborative ethnography, there are few explicit reflections on its process. The authors systematically juxtapose their jointly collected but separately recorded observations in a neighborhood recreation center in Chicago to examine points of similarity and difference. They find that collaborative ethnography can be useful for providing a richer description, highlighting perceptual inconsistencies, and recognizing the influence of ethnographers' personal and intellectual backgrounds on the collection and recording of data. The authors' reflexive analysis also illustrates that the choice of collaborators is key for influencing the depth or breadth of the data collected. Finally, they show that there is neither one truth, nor one reality, nor one stable social world to observe.Although many researchers have turned to collaborative ethnography as a way in which to explore a variety of social phenomena, we find that there are few explicit reflections on doing collaborative ethnography or on the systematic juxtaposition of observations, what caused those particular observations, and their possible interpretations. There are many comparative ethnographies or ethnographic monographs that use a team approach. In fact, the comparative and team approaches to ethnography have become quite popular, especially in urban sociology, challenging the research done by the lone ethnographer in his or her exclusive domain (see, e.g., Burawoy et al., 1991;Newman, 1999;Sullivan, 1989;Wilson, 1996). Yet, often these studies are written by one voice (or perhaps two voices) who compiles the data collected by others to offer his or her realist narrative of social life in the setting(s) under study.

No abstract

Certain developments contributed to disinterest in research on the environs of the black middle class in favor of intensive study of the black urban poor. One example is the theory that civil rights housing policies allowed middle class African Americans to leave black communities. Using historical sources, 1990 census data, and ethnographic evidence from Chicago, I offer a reinterpretation of this out-migration hypothesis. Growth in the number of middle class African Americans has increased the size of their residential enclaves, and thus the physical distance between classes. I also find historically continuous patterns of out-migration circumscribed by racial residential segregation, which ensures the constant reincorporation of black middle class neighborhoods within the black ghetto. Making the black middle class a visible part of black communities highlights its spatial connection to the black poor, which is contrasted with the ability of the white middle class to distance itself from urban poverty.

No abstract