Subcultural Mosaics and Intersubjective Realities : An Ethnographic Research Agenda for Pragmatizing the Social Sciences

Examines the theory and methods by which social scientists study the human lived experienced.The author builds on the broader interpretive/constructionist ethnographic and pragmatist traditions, particularly those developed within symbolic interaction to provide an agenda to refocus, revitalize, and synthesize the social or human sciences. Robert Prus offers a set of primary assumptions that centrally respect the unique (and uniquely enabling) features of the human condition, as well as considers a reformulation of the cultural problematic. By viewing human group life as a subcultural mosaic that is more or less continuously “in the making,” a systematic research agenda for attending to the entire realm of human involvement is developed; one that opens every single arena of human endeavor to ethnographic inquiry.Robert Prus is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research: Intersubjectivity and the Study of Human Lived Experience, also published by SUNY Press, as well as Pursuing Customers: An Ethnography of Marketing Activities and Making Sales: Influence as Interpersonal Accomplishment. He is the co-author of Road Hustler: The Career Contingencies of Professional Card and Dice Hustlers; Hookers, Rounders, and Desk Clerks: The Social Organization of the Hotel Community; Road Hustler: Grifters, Magic, and the Thief Subculture; and Doing Everyday Life: Ethnography as Human Lived Experience. Dedication Contents Preface Part I: Establishing the Conceptual Foundations 1. Studying the Human Condition: An Interactionist Approach to the Ethnographic Venture 2 Subcultural Mosaics and Intersubjective Realities: Acknowledging Ambiguity, Activity, and Accomplishment 3 Subcultural Involvements: Experiencing, Forming, and Coordinating Subcultural Associations Part II: Pragmatizing the Social Sciences: A Research Agenda 4 Achieving Intersubjectivity, Managing Place and Space, and Maintaining Presence 5 Encountering the Other, Managing Morality, and Emphasizing Community Presence 6 Experiencing the [Intersubjective] Self Part III: Pursuing the Ethnographic Venture 7 Doing Ethnographic Research: Fieldwork As Practical Accomplishment 8 Writing Ethnographic Research Reports: Some Practical Considerations for Students References Index of Names Index of Tferms Robert Prus is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Intersubjectivity and the Study of Human Lived Experience , also published by SUNY Press, as well as Pursuing An Ethnography of Marketing Activities and Making Influence as Interpersonal Accomplishment . He is the co-author of Road The Career Contingencies of Professional Card and Dice Hustlers; Hookers, Rounders, and Desk The Social Organization of the Hotel Community; Road Grifters, Magic, and the Thief Subculture ; and Doing Everyday Ethnography as Human Lived Experience .