Dorothy E. Smith
Developed institutional ethnography, a feminist sociological method that examines social relations from the standpoint of women's everyday experiences.
Quotes by Dorothy E. Smith
The institutional text is a key site for understanding how power operates.
We must challenge the taken-for-granted assumptions that underpin our social world.
The experiences of women have been systematically excluded from sociological inquiry.
The everyday world is not a trivial realm, but a crucial site for understanding social life.
Institutional ethnography is a way of seeing the world from the ground up.
The ruling relations are not abstract forces, but concrete practices that organize our lives.
To understand power, we must examine its local manifestations.
The standpoint of the oppressed offers a unique insight into the workings of power.
The social world is constituted through our ongoing interactions and communications.
The conceptual practices of power are embedded in the very language we use to describe the world.
Sociology must be a tool for social change, not just a description of the status quo.
The everyday world is a site of both constraint and possibility.
Institutional ethnography is a way of making sense of the senseless.
The ruling relations are not just about formal institutions, but also about informal practices and understandings.
The standpoint of women is not a monolithic voice, but a diversity of experiences and perspectives.
The social world is always in the making, always being produced and reproduced.
The conceptual practices of power are not always obvious; they often operate in subtle and insidious ways.
Sociology must be accountable to the people it studies.
The everyday world is a complex tapestry of interconnected relations.
The ruling relations are not simply imposed from above, but are actively participated in by those who are ruled.