Institutional Ethnography: Inquiries into Text-Mediated Social Organization
("Maymester" Group Independent Study)
May 21-25, 1-4 p.m., Sociology Seminar Room, Maxwell 303
Seminar leader: Marj DeVault
Books:
Dorothy E. Smith, Writing the Social: Critique, Theory, and Investigations. U. of Toronto Press,
1999.
Marie Campbell and Ann Manicom (eds.), Knowledge, Experience, and Ruling Relations: Studies in
the Social Organization of Knowledge, U. of Toronto Press, 1995.
If you wish to buy one or both of these books, Mary Ellen Kavanaugh, at My Sisters' Words, will
order them for us in batches. Contact her at the bookstore if you want to buy the books. I will also
place both books on reserve at Bird Library. And there are copies around, so we can share.
Readings that are not in these books will be available in a reader at Campus Copy Shop by midMay. Ask for Reader #6510: SOC/WSP 690: Institutional Ethnography (DeVault).
Reading list:
NOTE: I know this looks quite daunting for one week (for me too!). But I hope interested participants
will not be put off by the ambitious schedule. We will see how it goes, and make adjustments as
needed. And we will understand that some people will inevitably be able to read more than others, and
find ways to accommodate those differences in our discussions.
1. MONDAY, MAY 21: WHAT IS IE?
Dorothy E. Smith, Writing the Social, Ch. 1: "Introduction."
George W. Smith, "Political Activist as Ethnographer." Social Problems 37 (1990): 629-648.
Peter R. Grahame and Kamini Maraj Grahame, "Official Knowledge and the Relations of Ruling:
Explorations in Institutional Ethnography." Forthcoming in Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and
Practice.
Marjorie L. DeVault, "Institutional Ethnography: A Strategy for Feminist Inquiry." Liberating
Method: Feminism and Social Research (Temple U. Press, 1999), ch. 3.
Additional, related reading:
D.E. Smith, The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (Boston:
Northeastern U. Press, 1987), chs. 4-5.
2. TUESDAY, MAY 22: CONCEPTUAL PRACTICES
Smith, Writing the Social, chs. 2-4 (esp. ch. 4: "Sociological Theory: Methods of Writing Patriarchy
into Feminist Texts").
Charles Bazerman, "Whose Moment? The Kairotics of Intersubjectivity." Ch. 18 in Constructing
Experience (Southern Illinois U. Press, 1994).
D.E. Smith, "The Social Organization of Textual Reality." Ch. 3 in The Conceptual Practices of
Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge (Northeastern U. Press, 1990).
Alfred Schutz, Excerpt from "On Multiple Realities."
George Herbert Mead, Excerpt on "Meaning."
M.M. Bakhtin, Excerpt from "The Problem of Speech Genres."
Related:
D.E. Smith, "Telling the Truth After Postmodernism." Ch. 6 in WS (esp. pp. 109-127).
C. Bazerman, Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental
IE Seminar
2
Article in Science (U. of Wisconsin Press, 1988), esp.:
ch. 3: "Reporting the Experiment: The Changing Account of Scientific Doings in the
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1665-1800"; and
ch. 8: "Physicists Reading Physics: Schema-Laden Purposes and Purpose-Laden Schema."
3. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23: EXEMPLARY INVESTIGATIONS
From Campbell and Manicom:
Alison I. Griffith, "Mothering, Schooling, and Children's Development" (pp. 108-121).
Gerald A.J. de Montigny, "The Power of Being Professional" (pp. 209-220).
Adele Mueller, "Beginning in the Standpoint of Women: An Investigation of the Gap between Cholas
and 'Women in Peru'" (pp. 96-107).
Nancy Jackson, "'These Things Just Happen': Talk, Text, and Curriculum Reform" (pp. 164-180).
Marilee Riemer, "Downgrading Clerical Work in a Textually Mediated Labour Process" (pp. 193-208).
Roxana Ng, "Multiculturalism as Ideology: A Textual Analysis" (pp. 35-48).
Gillian Walker, "Violence and the Relations of Ruling: Lessons from the Battered Women's
Movement" (pp. 65-79).
4. THURSDAY, MAY 24: HOW TO MAKE THE CONNECTIONS
Marjorie L. DeVault and Liza McCoy, "Institutional Ethnography: Using Interviews to Investigate
Ruling Relations." Forthcoming in Handbook of Interview Research (Jaber F. Gubrium and James
A. Holstein, eds., Sage Publications, Inc.).
D.E. Smith, Writing the Social, ch. 5: "The Ruling Relations"; and ch. 7: "Exploring the Social
Relations of Discourse: Sociological Theory and the Dialogic of Sociology."
Related, in Campbell and Manicom:
Liza McCoy, "Activating the Photographic Text" (pp.181-192).
Himani Bannerji, "Beyond the Ruling Category to What Actually Happens: Notes on James
Mill's Historiography in The History of British India" (pp. 49-64).
5. FRIDAY, MAY 25: TWO ANALYTIC DEVICES
On "ideological codes":
D.E. Smith, Writing the Social, ch. 8: "The Standard North American Family: SNAF as an Ideological
Code"; and ch. 9: "'Politically Correct': An Organizer of Public Discourse."
George W. Smith, "The Ideology of 'Fag': The School Experience of Gay Students." Sociological
Quarterly 39: 309-55.
On "processing interchanges":
Ellen Pence, excerpts from "Safety for Battered Women in a Textually Mediated System." Ph.D.
Dissertation, U. of Toronto, 1997.
Related:
Timothy Diamond, Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Life (U. of Chicago
Press, 1992).