Institutional Ethnography

Institutional ethnography (IE) is a sociological method of inquiry. IE was created to explore the social relations that structure people's everyday lives. For the institutional ethnographer, ordinary daily activity becomes the site for an investigation of social organization. IE was first developed by Dorothy E. Smith as a Marxist feminist sociology "for women, for people;" and is now used by researchers in social sciences, education, human services and policy research as a method for mapping the translocal relations that coordinate people's activities within institutions.

Further Reading

• Campbell, Marie L. (2004) Mapping Social Relations: An introduction to Institutional Ethnography Altamira Press.
• Comber, B. (2012). Mandated literacy assessment and the reorganisation of teachers’ work: federal policy, local effects. Critical Studies in Education, 53(2), 119-136.
• Hart, R. J., & McKinnon, A. (2010). Sociological epistemology: Durkheim’s Paradox and Dorothy E. Smith’s Actuality. Sociology, 44(6), 1038-1054.
• Smith, D. E. (2005) Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People Lanham: Alta-Mira Press
• Smith, D. E. (editor) (2006). Institutional ethnography as practice Rowman and Littlefield

External links

• What is institutional ethnography?
• Institutional Ethnography – Towards a Productive Sociology. An Interview with Dorothy E. Smith by Karin Widerberg (MS Word document)
• Dorothy E. Smith (Ed.) Institutional Ethnography as Practice reviewed by Kevin Walby, Carleton University
• The Praxis Safety and Accountability Audit: Practicing a "Sociology for the People" by Jane Sadusky, Rhonda Martinson, Kristine Lizdas and Casey McGee
• Institutional etnography in Wikiversity http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Institutional_ethnography