ABSTRACT

Across intellectual disciplines, the ontological turn is restructuring how we think about our relationships with the natural world. Influenced by the seemingly disparate realms of indigenous philosophy and quantum physics, the turn invites us to think about intra-actions and assemblages of human and nonhuman entities.

This raises epistemological questions about how we know about the world, and spotlights some of the problems with how we currently do conventional social science research. Diffractive Ethnography invites social scientists to consider alternate methodologies that account for the complexity of human behavior situated in larger environmental contexts.

For both novice and experienced researchers, this thought-provoking book opens new ways of thinking about methodology and raises questions about the ethical and justice orientations of our work.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

part I|24 pages

Engaging the Ontological Turn

chapter 1|7 pages

A Turn From what?

chapter 2|11 pages

An Overview of Vibrant Materialism

chapter 3|4 pages

Paradigm Changes

part II|60 pages

Methodological Contradictions in Social Science Inquiry

chapter 4|11 pages

Objectivity in Research

chapter 5|10 pages

Instruments of Measurement

chapter 6|12 pages

Beyond Cause and Effect

chapter 7|5 pages

Zombie Categories

chapter 8|5 pages

Data

chapter 9|7 pages

The Crisis of Representation

chapter 10|8 pages

Reflexivity and its Discontents

part III|54 pages

Diffractive Ethnography

chapter 11|6 pages

A Brief Overview of Ethnography

chapter 12|4 pages

Thinking with Theory

chapter 13|10 pages

Assemblages and Entanglements

chapter 14|12 pages

Diffraction

chapter 15|20 pages

The Liveliness of Matter

part IV|14 pages

Becoming

chapter 16|6 pages

Healing the Nature/Culture Divide

chapter 17|6 pages

The Ethics of Entanglements