So What? The Benefits and Pitfalls of Being There

It does not take much to appear unconventional and odd. Compared with the established toolkit of political science, ethnography is unconventional and odd (see for example such standard texts as Burnham et al., 2004). It is the preserve of anthropology, organisation theory and sociology, not political science. As Fenno (1990: 128) comments, ‘not enough political scientists are presently engaged in observation’. We know that for colleagues in disciplines such as anthropology and sociology and for those who work in such interdisciplinary fields as organisation studies, police studies and leadership studies, observation is a common research method. We recognise there are exceptions in political science. But we insist that generally, in political science, being there, especially observation, remains conspicuous mainly by its absence. This book set out to show the manifold uses of the ethnographic toolkit for research in political science.