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Journal Article 2.1 McCurdy, P., & Uldam, J. (2014). Connecting participant observation positions: Toward a reflexive framework for studying social movements. Field Methods, 26(1), 40–55. DOI: 10.1177/1525822X13500448
Abstract: In this article, we argue for the importance of considering participant observation roles in relation to both insider/outsider and overt/covert roles. Through combining key academic debates on participant observation, which have separately considered insider/outsider and overt/covert participant observation, we develop a reflexive framework to assist researchers in (1) locating the type of participant observation research; (2) identifying implications of participant observation for both the research and the subjects under study; and (3) reflecting on how one’s role as participant observer shifts over the course of fieldwork and considering the implications of this. To illustrate these dynamics, we draw on two examples from our own ethnographic research experiences in direct action anticapitalist movements.

Journal Article 2.2 Brown, T., & de Casanova, E. (2014). Representing the language of the “other”: African American Vernacular English in ethnography. Ethnography, 15(2), 208–231. DOI: 10.1177/1466138112471110
Abstract: Ethnography is often described as the translation of culture, yet there has been little discussion of actual linguistic translation in ethnography. Many ethnographers engage in research across divides of language that require them to make decisions about how to represent the language of their informants. The privileging of academic Standard English creates dilemmas for ethnographers whose subjects speak stigmatized languages. Based on an analysis of 32 book-length ethnographies about African Americans (reviewed in the American Journal of Sociology between 1999 and 2009), this article answers the questions of how ethnographers typically deal with language difference in their texts, particularly when research takes place across dialects of the same language, and why language matters in the production of ethnographic texts.

Journal Article 2.3 Walter, L. (1995). Feminist anthropology? Gender & Society, 9(3), 272–288. DOI: 10.1177/089124395009003002
Abstract: In this article, the author argues that feminist anthropology as a field of study should pose questions about how differential power is constituted as gender differences. Addressing these questions calls for an approach to the study of gender and power that articulates the relationship between structure and agency. Such an approach is one that analyzes the practice of gender over time from intersubjective, political perspectives. Last, the author argues that feminist anthropology is a justice claim, which demands an ethic of engagement. Working on this project, feminist anthropologists contribute to debates over the concept of culture and the epistemological problem of representation within anthropology in a way that allows anthropology to speak more fluently to current debates within cultural studies over the politics of culture.