Interpreting parliaments, but how? Centring parliamentary actors and settings in ethnographic design and practice

Marc Geddes*, Cherry Miller

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Do researchers that use ethnographic methods study parliaments and parliamentary actors in the same way? While parliamentary ethnography is a growing research methodology to study political phenomena, such as informality, political behaviour and interpretations of parliamentary work, less is said about how access to sites and actors may affect analytical foci, strategies and outcomes. This neglects the complexity of parliamentary organisation and distinctive practices of parliamentary actors. We draw attention to this complexity to investigate how different levels and types of access to parliaments, and actors therein, affect ethnographic research. We reflect on this issue through four themes: (1) entry and access, (2) adapting to organisational rhythms, (3) ethnographic capital of researchers and (4) analysis and publication of findings. We argue that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of undertaking ethnographies of parliaments, but emphasise that researchers must explicitly reflect on how their particular strategies may shape ethnographic research on parliaments.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-23
Number of pages23
JournalBritish Journal of Politics and International Relations
Early online date13 Aug 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 13 Aug 2024

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • access
  • ethnography
  • field relations
  • interpretive political science
  • positionality
  • qualitative research
  • representation

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