We are conscious that producing reading lists will always be partial, incomplete, and subject to the epistemic power and politics of producing a ‘canon’ and an academic field. We have attempted to produce a comprehensive reading guide for new Institutional Ethnographers with this in mind, but this is not exhaustive. If you would like to add something to the reading guide, please fill in the contact form below

This page is currently under construction and will be added to as we develop further open-access Institutional Ethnography resources for students and practitioners.

Dorothy Smith’s Books:

Dorothy Smith established IE and in collaboration with colleagues and students, primarily based in the US and Canada, developed it into a comprehensive approach to research. These are Smith’s substantive books in which she develops IE:

  • The Everyday World as Problematic: A Feminist Sociology (1987) – University of Toronto Press

  • Texts, Facts, and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of Ruling (1990) - Routledge

  • The Conceptual Practices of Power: A Feminist Sociology of Knowledge (1990) – University of Toronto Press

  • Writing the Social: Critique, Theory, and Investigations (1999) – University of Toronto Press

  • Mothering for Schooling (2005) – with Alison I. Griffith – Routledge Falmer

  • Institutional Ethnography: A Sociology for People (2005) – AltaMira Press

  • Institutional Ethnography as Practice (2006) – edited collection - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

  • Simple Institutional Ethnography: Creating a Sociology for People (2022) – with Alison I. Griffith – University of Toronto Press: Toronto, Canada.

    • This is a short, accessible introduction and the most up-to-date book – a good starting point.

Edited Collections:

  • Campbell, M. & Manicom, A., (eds) (1995) Knowledge, Experience, and Ruling Relations: Studies in the Social Organization of Knowledge – University of Toronto Press

  • Griffith, A.I. & Smith, D.E., (eds) (2014) Under New Public Management: Institutional Ethnographies of Changing Front-Line Work – University of Toronto Press

  • Smith, D.E. & Turner, S.M. (eds) (2014) Incorporating Texts into Institutional Ethnographies - University of Toronto Press

  • Reid, J. and Russell, L. (eds) (2018) Perspectives On and From Institutional Ethnography - Emerald Publishing Limited

  • Lund, R.W.B. & Nilsen, C.E. (eds) (2020) Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region - Routledge

  • Luken, P.C. & Vaughan, S. (eds) (2021) The Palgrave Handbook of Institutional Ethnography – Palgrave Macmillan

Overview of IE and Dorothy Smith’s Work:

  • Mapping the Social Relations: A Primer in Doing Institutional Ethnography (2002) – Marie Campbell & Frances Gregor – Garamond Press: Ontario, Canada.

  • Dorothy E. Smith, Feminist Sociology & Institutional Ethnography (2018) – Liz Stanley –published via Amazon

Additional IE reading lists available via: the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) and the SHIE network.