Punk Ethnography provides a conceptual framework as well as practical guidelines for researchers and practitioners who wish to engage in imaginative, collaborative actions and are concerned with social change. Punk Ethnography thus foregrounds small-scale, action-oriented and creative collaborations, to imagine alternative futures starting from the present. It is driven by the punk ethos and anarchist organisational structures (i.e. the anarcho-syndicate), and guided by principles of solidarity, mutual aid, and relationality. Punk Ethnography builds further on the ethnographic tradition by expanding the scope for ethnographic work that does not start from a set agenda, an envisaged outcome or a problem that needs solving.
PE is conceptually organised around three components: the creation of an anarcho-syndicate; the punk ethos as a guide for research and practice; crossing the boundaries of institutions and expert fields to allow for creative and imaginative collaborations. Read more about the conceptual grounding of Punk Ethnography here.
This website offers a platform and sharing space for wide-ranging, interdisciplinary ideas, concepts, projects and actions inspired by Punk Ethnography. We invite you to explore, Do-It-Yourself and experiment with the Punk Ethnographic principles and practices, and take them in different directions.
Punk Ethnography in action: Human Technologies at ICHK
At International College Hong Kong (ICHK), an international secondary school in the north of Hong Kong, a group of teachers, educators and researchers has formed to work with Human Technologies as a curriculum lens and a way to imagine an alternative kind of education. The stimulus of Punk Ethnography as a futures forming practice has been significant as a dynamic for development. A range of flexible but structured groups has met to discuss and work on the curriculum- looking not just at content and pedagogy but on the role of teachers and how they can be enabled to live and share the Human Technologies approach. Partnerships have formed to share teaching ideas, develop resources and challenge the philosophical approaches that inform practice.
Punk Ethnography 