The Ethnographic Conceit
Abstract
THE ETHNOGRAPHIC CONCEIT PETER K. MANNING SOME CHANGES in ethnography and ethnographers is the subject here. The style of the essay will be semiformal; it will tread the line between observation, analysis, and comment. In that sense, it is something of a "confessional tale" in Van Maanen's (forthcoming) felicitous terms. It is a tale that locates the period in which I edited Urban Life in the context of change and development. While editing the journal, I developed further my conception of ethnography and fieldwork. The journal changed as Jim Thomas and I edited it; the discipline changed, and the economic situation, which above all patterned mobility and job opportunities, gradually worsened. These changes altered the mood and the structure within which ethnographic work was pursued. Sociology itself changed from a field that was dominated, potentially at least, by an enthusiastic set of interested people to one dominated by older, more cynical and job- focused people. Some of the fun had been taken out of sociology. Another important change in consciousness emerged: People began to question the inevitability of progress and improvement. The cynicism of the present generation, and their job-focused mentality is still surprising to encounter. The ideological