KRISTIN PETERSON and VALERIE OLSON, 2024, The Ethnographer’s Way: A Handbook for Multidimensional Research Design, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 338 pp., ISBN 978-1-4780-2590-0

Keywords: Ethnography, research design, research methodology, qualitative methods, multidimensional design.

How to Plan an Ethnography Without Suffering Unnecessarily in the Process could be another fitting title for the wonderful book written by Kristin Peterson and Valerie Olson. It serves as a comprehensive and approachable guide for those embarking on the exciting yet challenging task of designing ethnographic research.

Throughout an introductory section and ten modules, the authors provide readers with insights developed from their extensive experience as researchers and educators to plan and design ethnographic projects.

Unlike other handbooks on research methodology, Peterson and Olson pay attention to details that are commonly considered peripheral to the research design process. From the importance of maintaining a comfortable workspace to the value of engaging in dialogue with others to enrich our work, the authors address these aspects with sensitivity and seriousness.

They also acknowledge that the process of planning research is not linear and involves ups and downs that frequently challenge our convictions and may even discourage us from continuing. In this regard, the book emphasizes that it is an iterative process in which we continuously revisit various concerns. Therefore, one principle the authors suggest is to value the process before seeking quick results.

This holistic perspective underscores the importance of remembering that behind any project is always a person with intertwined concerns, uncertainties, and dreams. Thus, The Ethnographer’s Way: A Handbook for Multidimensional Research Design presents itself as a deeply human text, attuned to the factors that affect the labyrinthine path toward a coherent and motivating research approach.

The authors focus on the initial stages of design to develop the theoretical and empirical notions that researchers have from the start, and to turn them into a coherent framework with clear questions that can be addressed using data collection techniques. To achieve this, they propose the concept of multidimensional design, which broadly aims to integrate different concepts and intentions into a consistent research framework. In this context, “dimension” refers not only to the characteristics or values that a theoretical category might encompass— as commonly conceived in qualitative research— but is also considered from a broad perspective, including any term that constitutes the project, whether empirical or theoretical, such as objects, places, and contexts.

Therefore, Peterson and Olson encourage fostering intuition, curiosity, and imagination to find connections between elements and ideas that, based on our experiences, seem to have at least a vague relationship. With this goal in mind, the book includes eight activity modules that are ideally carried out in discussion and exchange communities, though it is also applicable to researchers who need to conduct their process in solitude.

Module 1 focuses on writing the research imaginary, a narrative exercise about the project’s context, potentials, and objectives. Before confining our ideas with concepts and norms, the authors guide us to freely express the sketches and intuitions from which the