USING INSTITUTIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY TO TRACE THE RULING OF WEIGHT SURVEILLANCE WORK

This chapter shares how the authors analyzed qualitative data as part of a weight stigma study informed by institutional ethnography (IE), published in 2021 in Social Science & Medicine. This study illuminated how weight stigma-the blaming and shaming of people based on their body weight-happened from the standpoint of young people with experience of growing up in larger bodies. The chapter begins by introducing Dorothy Smith’s IE as a feminist sociology and summarizing IE’s core concepts. Data generation (16 individual interviews and 5 group interviews) is briefly described before elaborating on five iterative analytic strategies: (a) reading, listening, and deliberating; (b) indexing; (c) writing narrative accounts; (d) mapping; and (e) talking with critical friends and colleagues. The goal of the analysis was to empirically trace the links between informants’ local practices (e.g., dieting and weight monitoring) and translocal ruling relations, such as dominant weight discourses. Focusing on informants’ work (i.e., activities that demand energy, time, and intent) throughout the analysis helped the authors move beyond the realm of abstract ideas and remain attentive to material social relations. To conclude, the authors discuss their experiences of navigating IE imposter syndrome to encourage others who may be interested in trying IE.