Ethnography and Ambiguity
Episode Description
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Dr Nafay Choudhury about ethnography and ambiguity. Nafay shares his experiences embracing ambiguity as a strength of ethnographic work, drawing on his research with Afghanistan’s money exchangers. He highlights the need for ethnographers to be upfront about the limits of what they can know, their positionality, and to centre complex stories of their interlocutors. He explains why ethnography is a bit like fishing, how to fight ethnographic decay through habitual note-taking, and why it takes stamina beyond fieldwork.
Readings recommended by Nafay Choudhury
Roitman, J. (2005) Fiscal Disobedience: An Anthropology of Economic Regulation in Central Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Chua, L.J. and Massoud, M.F. (eds.) (2024) Out of Place: Fieldwork and Positionality in Law and Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781009338219.
Geertz, C. (1972) ‘Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight’, Daedalus, 101(1), pp. 1–37.
Work by the Speaker:
Choudhury, N., & Schmeding, A. (Eds.). (2025). Frontier Ethnographies: Deconstructing Research Experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan (1st ed.). Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.14170589
About the Speaker
Dr Nafay Choudhury
Assistant Professor of Law , LSE Law School
Dr Nafay Choudhury is an Assistant Professor of Law (Socio-Legal Studies) at LSE Law School. His work sits at the intersection of socio-legal studies, legal pluralism, economic development, private law, and the rule of law. He studies the fragmented and plural forms of order that exist within the state, alongside the state, and beyond the state. His current research looks at the role of market associations in providing normative order in fragile settings.