Foreword

Abstract

In an age where research productivity has become a valued measure, it is encouraging to read a book that calls for researchers to slow down and embrace ethnography in order to dwell in the throes of everyday life. As the editors rightly point out, ethnographic research enables us to search deeper, ask unexplored or under-explored questions and reveal the 'hidden gems' that allow us to better understand what really goes on in the practices of constructing the built environment. Over 20 years ago, as I was embarking on my own journey as a PhD student, I was indeed drawn to the power of ethnographic research. An early inspiration came from reading LeMasters' (1975) tavern approach and his attempt to grasp the culture of building workers, their attitudes to family and work life and their perspectives and suspicions of the 'other' (e.g. the managerial classes, women, ethnic minorities). LeMasters spent five years immersed in the life of a tavern where building workers socialised and, apart from writing up his observations, he also learnt to play pool and eventually became part of the winning team in the tavern's champion's league.