Contents

Introduction: Institutional Ethnography and Political Activist Ethnography in Context

Agnieszka Doll, Laura Bisaillon, and Kevin Walby

Part 1. Direct Action: The Sociology of Confrontation

1. “Don’t Study Us—Study Them”: Political Activist Ethnography and Activist Ethics in Practice

A. J. Withers

2. Direct Action as Political Activist Ethnography: Activist Research in the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty

Gary Kinsman

3. Looking into the Mouth of Premier David Alward’s Trojan Horse: Responsible Environmental Management of Shale Gas in New Brunswick, Canada

Jean Louis Deveau

4. Research from the Ground Up: Reflections on Activist Research Practice and Political Activist Ethnography

Aziz Choudry

Part 2. Research as Policy Intervention and Critique of Institutions

5. From an Institutional Absence to Radical Action: A Political Activist Ethnography Project in Aotearoa / New Zealand

Sue Bradford

6. North-South Partnership and Capacity Building: Tracing Ruling Relations in the Canadian-Bangladeshi Partnership Between Social Justice NGOs

Erin Sirett

7. Mandatory HIV Screening Policy and Everyday Life: A Look Inside the Canadian Immigration Medical Examination

Laura Bisaillon

Part 3. Frontline Research and the Ethics of Engagement

8. Studying Out: Institutional Ethnographic Fieldwork as Post-incarceration Activism

Megan Welsh Carroll

9. Double Ethics, Double Burden: Professionalism, Activism, and Institutional Ethnography

Agnieszka Doll

10. Objectivity Regimes: Challenges for Activist Research in the Academy

Shannon Walsh

Conclusion

Agnieszka Doll, Laura Bisaillon, and Kevin Walby

Postscript: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Gary Kinsman

List of Contributors