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8 - Person-Centered Ethnography

Exploring Complex Personhood

from Part II - Methodological Innovations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2025

By
Douglas Hollan
Edited by
Edward Lowe
Edward Lowe
Affiliation:
Soka University of America
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Summary

This chapter discusses person-centered ethnography, a methodology that is useful for exploring “complex personhood” as a dynamic field within the social, cultural, historical, and ecological milieus in which humans live. Person-centered ethnographic methods aim to describe human behavior and subjective experience from the point of view of the acting, intending, and attentive subject. They also aim to intentionally explore the emotional and motivational importance of social, cultural, political, economic, and material forces in individual lives. The chapter includes three sections: the development and the varieties of person-centered methods, major person-centered ethnographies published since the mid-2000s, and the central role that empathy plays in person-centered ethnography. A key finding of person-centered ethnography is that our understanding of people’s experiences documents how people live complex lives in dynamic interpersonal worlds.

Keywords

Personhoodcomplex personhoodperson-centered methodsempathysubjective experience

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The Cambridge Handbook of Psychological Anthropology , pp. 201 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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