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595 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 6 (2004)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0595 and id is 1 raw text is: Preface By ELIJAH ANDERSON, SCOTT N. BROOKS, RAYMOND GUNN, and NIKKI JONES These articles are gathered from the ethnog- raphy conference Being Here and Being There: Fieldwork Encounters and Ethnographic Discoveries, which was held at the University of Pennsylvania in November 2003. An ethnography fieldwork conference that was held at the University of California, Los Angeles, in May 2002, provided a rare opportu- nity for established scholars and graduate stu- dents to share their work and to socialize infor- mally. Participants at the Penn conference explored further some of the projects, pro- grams, and conversations from the California conference. In keeping with the previous con- ference, new and seasoned fieldworkers from various parts of the United States and the world came together to underscore the value of ethnographic work and also to seek new directions. With these concerns in mind, conference participants discussed the social organization of urban life, culture, and the continuing signifi- cance of the city as a site for ethnographic stud- ies. Seemingly, ethnographers are forever in search of ways to better get at these persistent issues: How do people live? How do they go about meeting the demands of life? How and why do they form their definitions of the situa- tion? What do researchers know about these processes? How dowe knowwhatwe know? and What is its significance? These are among the issues that were addressed over the course of the conference. There was ample opportunity for young scholars and veteran field researchers to come together in an intimate setting to bridge their work in ways that both take ethnography into the future and reestablish ties to their scholarly roots. When the four of us met to discuss putting on an ethnography conference, we had no idea how much of a Herculean task it would be or how sat- DOI: 10.1177/0002716204267846 ANNALS, AAPSS, 595, September 2004 6