Ethnography and Policy
QUESTION: What are the opportunities and/or limitations of ethnography that critically examines policy? Include a few exploratory statements that relate to the implications of policy-themed ethnography applied to your visualizing development project.
Ethnography is “a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group” (Ethnography).
R.L. Stirrat’s “Cultures of Consultancy” analyzes not only what development consultants do, but also how their work affects the implementation and improvement of projects. In “Cultures in Consultancies” Stirrat explains that development consultancy work via consultants “can somehow penetrate to the ‘truth’, the essence of what is going on in the world they are seeking to change, and that they can do this with the analytical tools which their ‘modernity’ puts at their disposal” (Stirrat, 37). That is, it is assumed that consultants aim to change the world so that it closely relates the essence of modernity. This is yet a limitation of policy in regards to ethnography because modernity is rooted in Westernization. That is, often the ways consultants approach culture is established by their own culture, rather than objectively exploring the given culture (Stirrat, 40).
David Mosse’s “Is Good Policy Unimplementable? Reflections on the Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice” builds upon Stirrat’s work in that even though there is a large amount of energy devoted to concrete policy models, little energy is applied to the relationship between the policy and how it is implemented and legitimized. That is, Stirrat outlines the development of a concrete policy report, which includes the concise structure of the report, the appeal to objectivity and certainty, the appeal to systematic rationality, and the appeal to official legitimacy. This is directly correlated with Mosse’s assumption that there is more time spent building the ideal policy, rather than on implementing it. In addition, ethnography of development can be perceived as both an opportunity and a limitation in that it contours to both “rational planning and domination/resistance frameworks” (Mosse, 644). On the other hand, ethnography of development attempts to regulate social life, “not by repression and overt control, but through a productive power which engenders subjectivities and aspirations” (Mosse, 644). This can be perceived as an opportunity of ethnography that critically examines policy because even though policy can sometimes be driven by strict guidelines that skew the ultimate attempt of finding the truth in every culture, it attempts to standardize these goals through that of rational planning and action without coercion.
In regards to my visualizing development project, concrete written policy is imperative to school standards and funding. Policy removes loose ends that distort standardization within and between schools. Still, policy is limited by standardization in that much like the world around us, there are diverse cultures within primary and secondary education that need to be evaluated on their own accord, rather than as one mono-cultural community.
“Ethnography.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. .
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