By Geoff Pearson
The launch date for An Ethnography of Football Fans: Cans, Cops and Carnivals coincided with the 7th Annual Ethnography Symposium held at the University of Liverpoolâs Management School 29-31 August. Organised by the Ethnography at Liverpool and Keele group, the symposium is a cross-discipline forum for ethnographers from all over the world. The 2012 symposiumâs title was Ethnographic Horizons in Times of Turbulence and attracted around 100 delegates and 60 papers, with keynotes delivered by Karen Ho, Simon Down, John Weeks and Gideon Kunda. The symposium finished with a lively debate on the topic of conducting ethnography in the age of ethical approval: a panel session involving Heather Hopfl, John van Maanen and representatives of Liverpool Universityâs Ethics Committee. The 2013 Symposium will take place in Amsterdam in August, and more details can be found here.
The book launch itself gave the series editor Dr Alex Smith an opportunity to showcase the New Ethnographies series and attracted considerable interest from the delegates in terms of both existing publications and potential new projects. Dr Smith commented,
âIt was a pleasure to meet so many scholars engaged with ethnographic research and the interest of Symposium delegates in our books was very encouraging. The feedback on our series was superb: everyone was delighted to learn of Manchesterâs renewed commitment to ethnographic publishing in a challenging climate for academic publishing.’
It was also fantastic to see one of my research participants attending; one of my beliefs about ethnography is that it is important to make our work as accessible as possible to those we are researching as this is an important way to demonstrate authenticity and accuracy. Dr Smith believes the New Ethnographies series will encourage further quality research in this field,
âEthnography is capable of attracting academics across a wide variety of disciplines. It is now clear that the âNew Ethnographiesâ series is well placed to promote interdisciplinary debate on ethnographic methods, both here in the UK and abroad. We look forward to engaging further with scholars and students through the Ethnography Symposium as we continue to solicit and publish some of the very best new ethnographic monographs. We also welcome the support of all those who are passionate about ethnography in helping us establish our book series as one of the worldâs leading lists in publishing innovative and original ethnographic research.â
While An Ethnography of Football Fans obviously has to be written in a style that contributes in a meaningful way to the academic understanding of football fan behaviour (as well as engaging in debate about the principles and value of ethnography), I have tried to keep it as accessible as possible, and a number of my former research participants have already read all or part of the book. So far the feedback from them has been positive!
MUP blog readers can take advantage of a special 15% discount on all titles in the New Ethnographies series. Simply contact our distributors on +44 (0)1752 202301, or email your details to [email protected], quoting the discount code OTH306 (offer expires 31/10/2012).
Visit our website for a full list of titles in the New Ethnographies series. Highlights include,
 The British in Rural France: Lifestyle migration and the ongoing quest for a better way of life
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