Sara Sheridan Quotes

I come from a specific tradition of sociology, which is urban ethnography.

most people prefer to carry out the kinds of experiments that allow the scientist to feel that he is in full control of the situation rather than surrendering himself to the situation, as one must in studying human beings as they actually live.

I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it.

People keep asking how anthropology is different from sociology, and everybody gets nervous.

I view my job more almost as a field biologist or anthropologist, where I'm collecting practices. I'm collecting techniques.

I consider myself something of a self-taught anthropologist.

When someone's acting for a scene, they can fool the camera. But in everyday life, unless you're watching and censoring yourself every minute, or spending all your time in the company of ladies, what you feel is bound to show in your eyes.

Everyone takes surveys. Whoever makes a statement about human behavior has engaged in a survey of some sort.

It's not rocket science. It's social science.

I love watching people, and that's what I do; just go for a walk at about 4 o'clock, and go down a busy street, where you see people coming out of school and you get a glimpse of their lives, what they're talking about.

Sometimes an ethnographic inquiry will lead to new ways to use an existing technology or will generate new technologies.

No longer do companies study consumers' psyches only by asking people what they think about technology and how they use it. Now they conduct observational research, dispatching anthropologists to employ their ethnographic skills by interviewing, watching and videotaping consumers in their natural habitats.

I'm not a computer guy. I'm like an anthropologist. I'm fascinated with people's obsessions. I've learned to wear them.

Traditional market researchers are cold and calculating and scientific.

You come to know the aches and vanities and tastes and intrigues of an entire neighborhood at a drug store.

Most anthropologists are doing straightforward ethnography, and should.

There's so many different people that I'm fascinated by. Different kinds of characters that I meet in, like, everyday life, that I'm like, 'I don't know how you exist. Like, you're so fascinating.'

They do not merely collect texts; they must also gather data about the context and the informant and, above all, write an analysis of the items based upon the course readings and lecture material on folklore theory and method.

We are working to understand the tastes of people born in the 1980s and 1990s - it is very different from my generation. We do our own research. Marketing research companies, I think, are relatively academic.

I had always looked down on sociology as this arriviste discipline. It didn't have the noble history of English and history as a subject. But once I had a little exposure to it, I said, 'Hey, here's the key. Here's the key to understanding life and all its forms.'

It's not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it's the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

I connect with just plain old everyday people. Human behavior fascinates me, the people who are the nuts and bolts of this country who help hold up the world.

When I walk around, I look at people and observe people.

I don't want to become a serious, annoying sociologist. I try to regard sociology as a part of everyday life.

I love to see what real human behavior looks like. I've always envisioned my job as just observing and noting that and, for the purposes of my work, just cutting out the boring parts.