The Strange Case of Ethnography and International Relations

Over the past couple of decades a growing number of International Relations (IR) scholars have adapted and adopted ethnographic research and writing modes, hoping that ethnography would introduce an emancipatory research agenda and refurbish the discipline's parochial vestiges. This article discusses the promising and problematic implications of this move. It argues that the `ethnographic turn' in IR ignores recent anthropological literature on the topic and employs a selective and often instrumental notion of what ethnography is and does. By reviewing some of the most prominent ethnographic contributions made by feminist and social constructivist authors, this article demonstrates that, in international relations, the complexity of ethnography has been reduced to (1) an empiricist data-collection machine, (2) a writing style, or (3) a theoretical sensibility. However, this intervention also hopes to encourage students of global politics to rewrite international relations from an ethnographical stance and take full advantage of ethnography's radical promise.