Experimenting with Ethnography

Andrea Ballestero is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Rice University and author of A Future History of Water, also published by Duke University Press. She also directs The Ethnography Studio.Brit Ross Winthereik is Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Ethnography at the IT University of Copenhagen and coauthor of Monitoring Movements in Development Aid: Recursive Partnerships and Infrastructures.

“This innovative book about ethnography as knowledge provokes in all the right ways. Packed with concrete and creative suggestions for doing, writing, and teaching ethnography well beyond anthropology, Experimenting with Ethnography offers thoughtful inspiration for anyone seeking to sharpen their analytical skills.” - Carole McGranahan, editor of (Writing Anthropology: Essays on Craft and Commitment) “Along with much else, analysis is at risk today, as it is equated with actionable findings, tempting us to bracket everything that's confusing. What to do? Let this stunning gathering of anthropologists surprise, puzzle, and enlighten you: their work opens up an altogether different mode of analysis, one that expands the range of incompatibilities that can be held together in thought, a critical competence for anyone committed to knowing and acting in and with, not merely of and on, our world.” - Noortje Marres, author of (Digital Sociology: The Reinvention of Social Research) "Invaluable. Any qualitative researchers, not just ethnographers, would benefit from the practical, hands-on protocols, as well as the imaginative and diverse projects the authors reference. No other book I have come across offers more stimulating and practical guidance on undertaking analysis of ethnographic material."- Emily Zimbrick-Rogers (Practical Theology) "I was continually inspired as I read through this collection of essays and heartened by the willingness of the authors to reveal the inner workings of how ethnographic analysis may unfold. I highly recommend Experimenting with Ethnography to anyone who already has a hunch that ethnographic analysis is not an endpoint but rather a stop along the way."- Christine Hegel (Anthropos) “The book stands out as one of the most enjoyable volumes I have ever encountered on ethnographic analysis. It undoubtedly serves as an outstanding ‘unruly companion’ to keep close at hand for anyone with an interest in anthropological thinking.” - Fulya Pinar (American Ethnologist)

• Acknowledgments  ixIntroduction. Analysis as Experimental Practice / Andrea Ballestero and Brit Ross Winthereik  1Part I. Bodily Practices and Relocations1. Tactile Analytics: Touching as a Collective Act / Patricia Alvarez Astacio  152. The Ethnographic Hunch / Sarah Pink  303. The Para-Site in Ethnographic Research Projects / George E. Marcus  414. Juxtaposition: Differences That Matter / Else Vogel  53Part II. Physical Objects5. Relocating Innovation: Postcards from Three Edges / Endre DÁnyi, Lucy Suchman, and Laura Watts  696. Object Exchange / Trine Mygind Korsby and Anthony Stavrianakis  827. Drawing as Analysis: Thinking in Images, Writing in Words / Rachel Douglas-Jones 948. Diagrams: Making Multispecies Temporalities Visible / Elaine Gan  108Part III. Infrastructural Play9. Ethnographic Drafts and Wild Archives / Alberto CorsÍn JimÉnez  12310. Multimodal Sorting: The Flow of Images across Social Media and Anthropological Analysis / Karen Waltorp  13311. Categorize, Recategorize, Repeat / Graham M. Jones  15112. Sound Recording as Analytic Technique / Brit Ross Winthereik and James Maguire  163Part IV. Incommensurabilities13. Substance as Method (Shaking Up Your Practice) / Joseph Dumit  17514. Excreting Variously: On Contrasting as an Analytic Technique / Justine Laurent, Oliver Human, Carolina DomÍnguez GuzmÁn, Els Roding, Ulrike Scholtes, Marianne de Laet, and Annemarie Mol  18615. Facilitating Breakdowns through the Exchange of Perspectives / Steffen Dalsgaard  19816. Analogy / Antonia Walford  20917. Decolonizing Knowledge Devices / Ivan da Costa Marques  21918. Writing an Ethnographic Story in Working toward Responsibly Unearthing Ontological Troubles / Helen Verran  23519. Not Knowing: In the Presence of . . . / Marisol de la Cadena  246Afterword 1. Questions, Experiments, and Movements of Ethnographies in the Making / Melanie Ford Lemus and Katie Ulrich  257Afterword 2. Where Would You Put This Volume? On Thinking with Unruly Companions in the Middle of Things / ClÉment DrÉano and Markus Rudolfi  262References  267Contributors  287Index  295