Getting Published

In this paper, Joel Best reflects upon what we may have forgotten about the ethnographic tradition and reminds us about the historical context of our work.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35 (4), 466-78 (2006)
DOI 10.1177/0891241606286988
http://jce.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/35/4/466

'What, we worry? The pleasures and costs of defective memory for qualitative sociologists'
Joel Best, University of Delaware, Newark, USA

TIP
Contexting your research in a tradition is a tricky task if you want to publish an article. Following Best's argument, it is helpful to show that you understand how your work connects to what has gone before. On the other hand, you should not spend too much time in a historical review. Perhaps the best solution to this problem is to seek to tie your article to previous papers or debates in the journal concerned.