Ethnography at the edge of risk

Starting from specifying definitions of ethnography and ethnographic act, three current basic tensions in the practice of ethnography are proposed that are the result of a brief conceptual analysis on the discipline. The Kosterec, Jackson, and Peltonen approaches to conceptual analysis are compared to Morse's approach to concept analysis to provide context for the analysis conducted here. German historicism, American pragmatism, and colonization of the New World are three processes in which our conceptual analysis is inscribed to bring in the three tensions of our interest. Who is the stranger? What can I say about the others ? Who am I writing to ? Are the tensions that we present in the form of crucial questions that must be answered by ethnographers today who are not afraid of facing epistemological, logical, pragmatic and linguistic challenges to prevent ethnography from falling off a cliff. The political and ideological crisis seen in turn-of-the-century ethnography left its mark and now is the time to face it, and our conceptual analysis is a modest proposal.