"Political activist as ethnographer" revisited

Abstract

In this article I revisit and expand upon George Smith's (1990) landmark article, "Political Activist as Ethnographer." Political activist ethnography (PAE) is a specialized form of institutional ethnography (IE) that has not received nearly enough attention in the twenty years since the original publication of Smith's article. In an effort to revisit and bolster this research approach, I provide an overview of IE/PAE, critically engage with three recent commentaries on PAE, and offer a new interpretation of this approach as well as an example of its application from my ongoing research on fair trade. © Canadian Journal of Sociology.