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  • 12 - Comparisons with an Ethnographic Sensibility: Studies of Protest and Vigilantism

  • from Part II - Developing New Approaches to Comparison through Research
    • By
  • Edited by Erica S. Simmons, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Nicholas Rush Smith, City University of New York
  • Book:
    Rethinking Comparison
    Published online:
    24 September 2021
    Print publication:
    07 October 2021, pp 231-250

  • Summary

    To what extent can an ethnographic sensibility enhance comparison? We argue that approaching comparison with an ethnographic sensibility – that is, being sensitive to how informants make sense of their worlds and incorporating meaning into our analyses – can strengthen comparative qualitative research. Adopting an ethnographic sensibility would enhance the quality of scholarly arguments by incorporating the processes through which actors ascribe meanings to their lived experiences and the political processes in which they are enmeshed. Because social science arguments often involve accounts of individual actors’ interests, ideas, or impressions, it is imperative to place such cognitive arguments in a broader cultural context. Adopting an ethnographic sensibility requires attention not only to that context but also to the political and social meanings which make that context intelligible. We elaborate these arguments through the lens of two comparative ethnographic works: a study of political mobilization in Bolivia and Mexico and a study of vigilantism in two South African townships.