Abstract

GERIN-LAJOIE, Diane. The use of critical ethnography in the study of power relations. Rev. Lusófona de Educação [online]. 2009, n.14, pp.13-27. ISSN 1645-7250.

The use of traditional ethnography is not new in qualitative research. Anthropologists and then sociologists have favored this methodological approach for some time now. In the middle of the seventies, a few “critical” researchers turned towards ethnography as a methodology because this approach allows researchers to better understand the lived experiences of the oppressed and the power relations in which social groups evolve. The present article will attempt to demonstrate the adequacy of critical ethnography in the study of power relations. Results from two ethnographic studies will be used to demonstrate how the ethnographic approach can favor a more serious examination of existing social practices by theoretically deconstructing the notion of power within these practices. Results examined are from the study of the official linguistic minorities in Canada - Francophones outside of Quebec and Anglophones in Quebec. The comparative analysis shows that power relations are not only to be found between the two minorities and the majority group, but as well as between the two minorities themselves.

Keywords : Qualitative methodology; ethnography; critical ethnography; power relations; social practices; linguistic minorities.

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