Family and Work in Everyday Ethnography exposes the intimate relationship between ethnographers as both family members and researchers. The contributors to this exciting volume question and problematize the “artificial divide” between work and family that continues to permeate writing on ethnographic field work as social scientists try to juggle research and family tensions while “on the job.”

 

Essays relate experiences that mirror work-family dilemmas that all employed parents face, and show how deeply personal experiences affect social scientists’ home life and their studies. Bringing together voices of various family members—pregnant women, mothers, fathers, and children—Family and Work in Everyday Ethnography demonstrates how the mixture of work and family in this particular occupation has raised questions—both practical and theoretical—that relate to race, class, and gender.

 

Tamara Mose Brown is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Program Director of Caribbean Studies at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She is author of Raising Brooklyn: Nannies, Childcare, and Caribbeans Creating Community.

Joanna Dreby is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University at Albany, State University of New York. She is author of Divided by Borders: Mexican Migrants and their Children.