Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (1): 71-97.

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The Power of the Sociological Ethnography: Revisiting Some Fieldwork of Early Social Research

TIAN Geng   

  1. Department of Sociology, Peking University
  • Online:2019-01-20 Published:2019-01-20
  • Supported by:

    This research is funded by the project of "The Evolution of the Social Study Practice in China during the First Half of the 20th Century" of the National Social Science Council(16BSH004).

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Abstract:

Since about the 1970s, sociological ethnographers have incorporated much of the traditional humanistic approaches into their fieldworks and narrative writings, and in so doing, have expanded the boundary of ethnography. This development, however, has not dissolved the tension facing sociological ethnographers between depicting the intensely first-hand experiences and theorizing them simultaneously. This paper proposes a historical as well as theoretical approach to understand this recurring tension. It is argued that the social researchers of some very important fieldwork conducted between the late 19th century and the end of the WWI conflated moral visions into their ethnographical inquiries. These early researchers sought out direct observations of the social world but, each in his own ways, managed to epitomize their subject matters and,during the process, offered a new structure of sentiment that added experiential valor to the normative sensibility characteristic of their times. The moral dimension of the early fieldwork enriches our understanding of the progressive morality. It is therefore argued that a serious exploration of the linkages between the empirical study, the structure of feeling and the moral reformation is crucial for the critical examination of the existing knowledge about the growth of sociological ethnography as well as the progressive morality itself.

Key words: sociological ethnography, Progressive morality, direct observation, fieldwork, structure of feeling