Thoughts on Week 5 Readings - Sullivan

There were a couple things that really stood out to me in the Sullivan article in particular.

First, near the beginning of the article was a passage that said, “the emphasis…was driven strongly by a reaction to the notion of a ‘culture of poverty,’ itself the product of ethnographic work.  The specter of the culture-of-poverty debate continues to haunt ethnographic work on the urban poor.”  I think this statement really brings to light for ethnographers that as much as you are trying to observe only and not affect what is going on around you, you may have a much more far-reaching effect that goes way beyond the subject at hand.  It’s scary to think that the work of ethnographers could basically stifle an entire population and pigeon-hole them into a stereotype.  This must make ethnographers today more careful about how they observe and interpret to mitigate any unwarranted negative impact.

The other part that stuck out to me was the passage that said, “the gap between studies of community and studies of human development is somewhat surprising, since both fields have long acknowledged, in theory, their interdependence.”  It seems that there would be more of an effort in the field of ethnography to make sure that these two fields are treated equally.  I am surprised such a gap exists since I don’t know how one understands the individual without understanding the community, and vice versa.