On Critical Ethnographic Work

This article provides an introduction to critical ethnographic work. Critical ethnography is understood as a form of knowledge production which supports transformative as well as interpretive concerns. Three fundamental conditions for ethnographic work are discussed: (1) a particular “problematic” that defines data and analytic procedures in a way consistent with one's pedagogicall political project: (2) the engagement of such work within a public sphere that allows it to become a starting point for social critique and transformation; and (3) the inclusion of a reflexive inquiry which would identify the limits of its own knowledge claims.