300850 Institutional Ethnography: A Feminist Method of Inquiry (S) (SoSe 2026)

Institutional ethnography is a research method that explores the institutional relationships that shape people's lives. It was developed by Dorothy Smith, a Canadian Marxist sociologist who was active in the feminist movement. Smith's institutional ethnography is the result of her search for a "feminist research methodology": a research approach in which people are considered subjects, not objects, of study.

Smith first developed IE through her own experience. As a single mother, she struggled to balance her job at the university with her domestic duties. Together with Alison Griffith, also a single parent, Smith began investigating how mothers support their children through school. The study evolved into an examination of how the education system perpetuates class inequalities by neglecting children who lack parental support.

In this seminar, we will discuss Smith's texts and engage in related classroom activities and exercises. Students are invited to draw inspiration from IE to develop their own research questions and problematic. By the end of the seminar, students will know how to develop research projects by starting with observations of their experiences and the social environment around them.