Reshaping ethnography: contemporary postpositivist possibilities

Following Leinginger's introduction of ethnography into the field of nursing research, numerous descriptive and interpretive studies of health care beliefs and practices have been conducted. The resultant data have been translated into recommendations relative to the areas of nursing education, administration and clinical practice in an effort to ensure that the identified cultural needs are recognized and met. In this paper the discourses that inform such work are explored. Its practices and emergent dilemmas are reassessed in the light of an emerging body of work that challenges its foundational assumptions. Linked under the umbrella of 'postpositivist ethnography', such work recognizes the research area as a social and political field of which the researcher is an integral part. Hence, as an informed subject, the researcher, like the informants, is seen to be implicated in the generation of data. She, or he, is not charged with occupying the opposing roles of objective researcher and subjective participant, nor with reporting 'the truth' as told by informants. This emergent tradition is not without its dilemmas and of particular concern is the issue of authority; that is, whose voice constructs the text? As nursing academics grapple with questions regarding the nature of the knowledge that informs their discipline, it is imperative that they critique potentially fruitful research practices before they appropriate them. Failure to do so may lead them to unwittingly generate knowledge that is inimical to their particular quest. The 'new ethnography' discussed in this paper, offers academics and others interested in the generation of knowledge, not only a methodology that invites the possibility of opening up previously hidden areas of practice, but one that actively involves the researcher in challenging her taken-for-granted assumptions.