The Winding Paths of Political Ethnography

Authors

  • Javier Auyero University of Texas at Austin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X.804

Keywords:

Political ethnography, clientelism, collective action, gray area, suffering, sociology of waiting

Abstract

The text reviews the author’s extensive and productive career in the difficult craft of political ethnography. Through a reflective account of his own ethnographic experience, he highlights the importance and complexity of the craft; and therefore refers us to the findings, obstacles, problems, limitations and projections of ethnographic practice in politics. The document is divided into five sections, each corresponding to the research topics addressed by the author’s ethnographic career. These review the relation and usefulness of political ethnography in the study of clientele networks, collective action, and in the study of the gray area of politics, environmental suffering, and the topic of waiting as an expression of the relations of social domination. The document closes with an invitation and a warning in regard to the craft of ethnography.

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Author Biography

Javier Auyero, University of Texas at Austin

Profesor en The University of Texas at Austin, Estados Unidos. Es coautor del libro Inflamable: estudio del sufrimiento ambiental (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2008), premiado con el Robert Park Best Book Award y el Charles Tilly Best Book Award, de la American Sociological Association.

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Published

2019-06-30

How to Cite

Auyero, J. (2019). The Winding Paths of Political Ethnography. Revista Colombiana De Antropología, 55(2), 169–190. https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X.804