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Jeff Ferrell, Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking and Street Scavenging.

Publication: Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare
Publication Date: 01-JUN-07 		Format: Online
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Full Article Title: Jeff Ferrell, Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking and Street Scavenging.(Book review)

Article Excerpt
Jeff Ferrell, Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking and Street Scavenging. New York: New York University Press, 2006. $22.00 paperback.

Social workers have discovered ethnography, to the benefit of neither so far. To some it seems an excuse not to worry about rigorous research. To others it seems a way to fancy up open-ended interviews or participant observations, perfectly legitimate methods not in need of cosmetics. Real ethnographers immerse themselves in a culture for months, sometimes years; they don't just visit occasionally. Calling a two-hour interview an ethnography is like calling two notes a symphony or Twinkies[R] a balanced diet.

At the other end of the spectrum there is the problem of ethnographers becoming so immersed in the culture that they lose any outside perspective on it. It's called "going native." Jeff Ferrell is the real thing. He was a full time scrounger--someone who derives...

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