Political Theory in an Ethnographic Key
Name
political_theory_in_an_ethnographic_key.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
147.38 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d490b22b3f7b753f56d2cbeeef0cd663
Author(s)
Longo, Matthew
Zacka, Bernardo
Date Issued
July 2019
Journal
American Political Science Review
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Citation
Longo, Matthew and Bernardo Zacka. "Political Theory in an Ethnographic Key." American Political Science Review 113, 4 (July 2019): 1066-1070 © 2019 American Political Science Association
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Should political theorists engage in ethnography? In this letter, we assess a recent wave of interest in ethnography among political theorists and explain why it is a good thing. We focus, in particular, on how ethnographic research generates what Ian Shapiro calls “problematizing redescriptions”—accounts of political phenomena that destabilize the lens through which we traditionally study them, engendering novel questions and exposing new avenues of moral concern. We argue that (1) by revealing new levels of variation and contingency within familiar political phenomena, ethnography can uncover topics ripe for normative inquiry; (2) by shedding light on what meanings people associate with political values, it can advance our reflection on concepts; and (3) by capturing the experience of individuals at grips with the social world, it can attune us to forms of harm that would otherwise remain hidden. The purchase for political theory is considerable. By thickening our understanding of institutions, ethnography serves as an antidote to analytic specialization and broadens the range of questions political theorists can ask, reinvigorating debates in the subfield and forging connections with the discipline writ large.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Political Science
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000431
