1 Coming Out from Under the Ethnographic Interview

My principal method for sociological research is the ethnographic interview. Thus far, my research has largely entered on urban-based, low-income African American men and on African American social scientists and humanists who conduct research and teach on the African American experience. In recent decades, ethnographic interviewing has been embraced rather strongly by researchers in various sub-fields in the discipline of sociology. More specifically, sociologists interested in the formal study of culture and race and ethnic relations have employed this method in recent research efforts. I regard myself as standing within both camps. In the most simple terms, I interview people about their life experiences, their visions of self, and their visions of particular features of the social world in order to gain some purchase on their “common-sense ” understandings about these matters. In responding to the core questions posed for this conference, I will first provide some initial remarks about cultural analysis in sociology via ethnographic interviews. I will then comment on each the three core questions, first by providing some general commentary, and then by addressing what I maintain to be a standing issue pertaining to each question