Reflections on Fieldwork in a Complex Organization: Lawyers, Ethnographic Authority, and Lethal Weapons

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Abstract
Contemporary critical writing on ethnographic authority begins with the premise that ethnographers inescapably exercise textual and social authority over the people they study, particularly people who occupy subordinate social positions. Clifford (1988), for example, suggests that ethnographic texts produce subjectivities in an unequal exchange between anthropologists and “natives.” Within this asymmetrical relationship, ethnographers typically provide the final, authoritative account. 1 Sociologists also acknowledge the inequality in the relationship between the researcher and her 2 subjects. As social scientists, we receive grants for our research and write publications that further legitimate our professional status, while the people we study often receive little ...

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