Institutional Ethnography
SOCI 6182-01 (10912)
SYLLABUS Spring 2005
Paul Luken
Department of Sociology and Criminology
UWG
Pafford 236
pluken@westga.edu
678-839-6333
Office hours: Monday & Wednesday 3:30-5:00; Tuesday and Thursday 1-3:30; by appointment.
Class time and place: Wednesday, 5:30-8:00; Pafford 220
Course Description: Examination of institutional ethnography, a way of exploring the
particular and generalized social relations that shape people’s everyday experiences.
This course explores an alternative way of doing social science that was initiated by
distinguished sociologist Dorothy Smith and has been further developed by a number of her
colleagues and protégés in Canada and the United States. Institutional ethnography is a way of
understanding the social determinants of our everyday lives. Explorations often begin with
knowledge of the subjects’ experiences (how experience is talked about) and include descriptions
of coordinated activities in the everyday world, connections to ideological accounts which define
experiences institutionally, and examinations of the broader social relations in which local
activities are embedded.
Required readings: (The publishers and dates of publication may differ from what is listed
below for the books. The articles are on reserve.)
Campbell, Marie and Ann Manicom (eds.). 1995. Knowledge, Experience, and Ruling Relations:
Studies in the Social Organization of Knowledge. University of Toronto Press.
Diamond, Timothy. 1995. Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home Care. University of
Chicago Press.
Smith, Dorothy E. 1989. The Everyday World As Problematic: A Feminist Sociology.
Northeastern University Press.
Smith, Dorothy E. 1996. The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of
Knowledge. University of Toronto Press.
DeVault, Marjorie L. and Liza McCoy. 2002. “Institutional Ethnography: Using Interviews to
Investigate Ruling Relations.” Pp. 751-776 in Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein
(eds.), Handbook of Interview Research: Context and Method. Sage.
Smith, Dorothy. 2002. “Institutional Ethnography.” Pp. 17-52 in Tim May (ed.), Qualitative
Research in Action. Sage Publications.
Suggested Readings:
Campbell, Marie & Frances Gregor. 2002. Mapping Social Relations: A Primer in Doing
Institutional Ethnography. Aurora, Ontario: Garamond Press.
DeVault, Marjorie L. 1999. “Institutional Ethnography: A Strategy for Feminist Inquiry. Pp. 4654 in M.L. DeVault, Liberating Method: Feminism and Social Research. Philadelphia:
Temple University Press.
De Montigny, Gerald. 1995. Social Working: An Ethnography of Front-line Practice. University
of Toronto Press.
Grahame, Peter. 1998. “Ethnography, Institutions and the Problematic of the Everyday World.”
Human Studies 21: 347-360.
Laslett, Barbara & Barrie Thorne (eds.). 1992. Sociological Theory (symposium articles). Vol.
10. No.1.
Smith, Dorothy E. 1993. Texts, Facts, and Femininity: Exploring the Social Relations of Ruling.
Routledge.
Smith, Dorothy E. 1999. Writing the Social: Critique, Theory and Investigations. University of
Toronto Press.
Course objectives for students
1. Students will identify the significant features of institutional ethnography.
2. Students will recognize the ways in which institutional ethnography is different from
standard sociological practices.
3. Students will recognize the prominent contributors to institutional ethnography and
summarize their contributions.
4. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of institutional ethnography through tests,
class discussions and a research project.
5. Students will analyze social relations using institutional ethnography.
Learning outcomes: The above objectives, assignments, and class activities contribute to the
following learning outcomes:
 to understand and apply quantitative and qualitative research strategies
 to understand and apply sociological theories
 to think critically about the craft of sociology and about issues of social inequality
 to communicate effectively orally and in writing
Evaluation:
Students’ grades will be based on the following:
1. Two examinations based on the readings (100 points each)
2. Class participation (100 points)
3. Research project (150 points)
Proposal (10 points)
Progress report (15 points)
Written project report (100 points)
Oral project report (25 points)
Semester Grades
A = 401-450
B = 351-400
C = 301-351
D = 251-300
F = 0-250
1. Tests: Tests will be based on the required readings and all material presented in class.
Students are to demonstrate their command of the material. They are to be typed and
double-spaced. Make-up tests will be given only in extreme circumstances.
2. Written assignments: They are to be typed and double-spaced. Faxes and e-mails are
not acceptable for any assignment. Late assignments will result in penalties.
3. Attendance Policy: Attendance is expected for all classes. It will directly affect the
semester grade because it relates to class participation.
4. Inappropriate conduct. Inappropriate conduct, e.g., rudeness toward others, making
noise, class disturbances, dishonesty, cheating, or plagiarism, will result in a grade
reduction or receiving an F for the course. Pagers and cell phones should be turned off
and removed from sight unless they are first approved by me.
Sociology invariably involves discussion of controversial and sensitive topics.
We will not shy away from these matters. However, in an academic environment it is
important that we show respect for others in our discussions, even when we disagree with
their ideas. Conflict surrounding ideas is normal, but we should avoid personal attacks
and words which threaten or make people feel unduly uncomfortable.
Tentative Class and Reading Schedule
EWAP = The Everyday World As Problematic: A Feminist Sociology
CCP = The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge
KERR = Knowledge, Experience, and Ruling Relations: Studies in the Social Organization of
Knowledge
1/12
Introduction
1/19
Feminist/Materialist Sociology
“Women’s Experience as a Radical Critique of Sociology,” CPP, Chapter 1
“The Ideological Practice of Sociology,” CPP, Chapter 2
“Introduction,” EWAP
1/26
The Everyday World As Problematic
“A Feminist Sociology,” EWAP, introduction to Part II
“A Sociology for Women,” EWAP, Chapter 2
“The Everyday World as Problematic,” EWAP, Chapter 3
2/2
Research Strategies
Proposal due
“Research Strategies for a Sociology for Women,” EWAP, introduction to Part III
“Institutional Ethnography,” EWAP, Chapter 4
“Researching the Everyday World As Problematic,” EWAP, Chapter 5
2/9
Fieldwork
“Introduction” and chapters 1-6 of Making Gray Gold: Narratives of Nursing Home
Care, Diamond
“Institutional Ethnography: Using Interviews to Investigate Ruling Relations,” Devault
and McCoy (on reserve)
2/16
Considerations in the Sociology of Knowledge
“The Social Organization of Textual Reality,” CPP, Chapter 3
“Textual Realities, Ruling, and the Suppression of Disjuncture,” CPP, Chapter 4
2/23
Take home midterm due.
3/2
Standpoint – Beginning in Lived Experience
“Mothering, Schooling, and Children’s Development,” (Griffith) KERR
“Corporate Wives: Gendered Education of Their Children,” (Ueda) KERR
“Compulsory Heterosexuality: Schools and Lesbian Students,” (Khayatt) KERR
“What’s Health Got to Do with It? Class, Gender and Teacher’s Work,” (Manicom)
KERR
3/9
Texts and Ruling Relations
Progress report due
“Violence and Ruling Relations: Lessons from the Battered Women’s Movement,”
(Walker) KERR
“The Textual Practices of Sexual Rule: Sexual Policing and Gay Men,” (Kinsman)
KERR
“Beginning in the Standpoint of Women: An Investigation of the Gap between Cholas
and ‘Women of Peru,’” (Mueller) KERR
3/16
Texts in Organizational Contexts
“Rendering the Site Developable: Text and Local Government Decision Making in Land
Use Planning,” (Turner) KERR
“Literacy, Experience, Power,” (Darville) KERR
3/21-25 Spring Break
3/30
Transformation of Work
“‘These Things Just Happen’: Talk, Text, and Curriculum Reform,” (Jackson) KERR
“The Power of Being Professional,” (De Montigny) KERR
“Teaching Accountability: What Counts as Nursing Education,” (Campbell) KERR
“Downgrading Clerical Work in Textually Mediated Labour Process,” (Reimer) KERR
4/6
Texts, Social Situations and Ideological Considerations
“Activating the Photographic Text,” (McCoy) KERR
“Multiculturalism as Ideology: A Textual Analysis,” (Ng) KERR
“Beyond the Ruling Category to What Actually Happens: Notes on James Mill’s
Historiography in The History of British India,” (Bannerji) KERR
4/13
Politics of Exclusion and Subversion
Written project report due
“Accessing Treatments: Managing the AIDS Epidemic in Ontario,” (G. Smith) KERR
“Textual Politics,” EWAP, introduction to Part IV
“Beyond Methodology,” EWAP, Chapter 6
“Institutional Ethnography,” (on reserve)
4/20
Research Presentations
4/27
Second examination due.
5/4
Last class.