The Virtue of Patience

Scott Grills

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.03

Authors

Scott Grills Brandon University, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2596-2068

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.16.2.03

Keywords:

Fieldwork, Methods, Symbolic Interaction, Patience, Ethnography

Abstract

Shaffir (1998:63) writes, “We must learn to reclaim the virtue of patience. When we enhance the pace of doing research, it is often at the expense of acquiring a deep appreciation of the research problem.” This paper engages Shaffir’s claim by examining the importance of undertaking a patient sociology. What is the virtue to be found in prolonged and sustained work? How does this speak to the relationships found in field research and in the identities that inform our work as researchers and theorists? In contrast to recent trends towards various versions of instant or short-term ethnography (e.g., Pink and Morgan 2013) this paper argues for the merits of “slow” ethnography by examining the advantages of relational patience, perspectival patience, and the patience required to fully appreciate omissions, rarities, and secrets of the group.

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Author Biography

Scott Grills, Brandon University, Canada

Scott Grills is a Professor of Sociology at Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada. He is the co-author of Management Motifs: An Interactionist Approach for the Study of Organizational Interchange (2019) and co-editor of Kleine Geheimnisse: Alltagssoziologische Einsichten [Little Secrets: Everyday Sociological Insights] (2015). He served as the President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction in 2010/11 and as Vice-President in 2007/08. Earlier publications include those in the areas of interactionist theory, deviant behavior, the sociology of music, political processes, and the sociology of doubt. His current ethnographic research attends to management processes and the entrepreneurial activities of new Canadians.

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