Global ethnography: forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world

TLDR

The studies examine globalization dynamics by extending from everyday contexts, contrasting with abstract radical debates. The authors aim to explore how local struggles and global forces mutually shape each other, extending beyond conventional sociology. They employed participant observation across diverse struggles worldwide over three years, using a “grounded globalization” method to capture workplace evaporation, community dissolution, and identity fluidity. They show that groups negotiate, circumvent, challenge, and re‑create the global web, underscoring ethnography’s insight into global dynamics.

Abstract

In this follow-up to the highly successful Ethnography Unbound, Michael Burawoy and nine colleagues break the bounds of conventional sociology, to explore the mutual shaping of local struggles and global forces. In contrast to the lofty debates between radical theorists, these nine studies excavate the dynamics and histories of globalization by extending out from the concrete, everyday world. The authors were participant observers in diverse struggles over extending citizenship, medicalizing breast cancer, dumping toxic waste, privatizing nursing homes, the degradation of work, the withdrawal of welfare rights, and the elaboration of body politics. From their insider vantage points, they show how groups negotiate, circumvent, challenge, and even re-create the complex global web that entangles them. Traversing continents and extending over three years, this collaborative research developed its own distinctive method of 'grounded globalization' to grasp the evaporation of traditional workplaces, the dissolution of enclaved communities, and the fluidity of identities. Forged between the local and global, these compelling essays make a powerful case for ethnography's insight into global dynamics.