Abstract

HAGENE, Turid. Debatiendo conceptos con metodología etnográfica: el caso del "clientelismo político" y la "compra de votos". Nueva antropol [online]. 2015, vol.28, n.83, pp.47-71. ISSN 0185-0636.

The author explores y argues how ethnographic methodology -principally participant observation- produces invaluable data for the construction of concepts. She uses as an illustration the case of a debate concerning the separation or not into two different concepts of "political clientelism" and "vote-buying", taken from a study realized in a native village in Mexico, Distrito Federal. The principal research question of the article is the methodology she used to gather the ethnographic data. She details on one hand which data had enabled her to demonstrate the difference between the two practices, and therefore two concepts, and on the other, which fieldwork practices she carried out to obtain those data. The author argues that the concepts we build should not disregard the notions of the people we study, since otherwise our research cannot help us understand the actions of those we study.

Keywords : ethnographic methodology; participant observation; political clientelism; vote-buying; concept-building.