What's the right price for babysitting?

a case study in ethno-accounting

Alain Cottereau

pp. 97-112

in: Daniel Cefaï, Martin Endreß, Stefan Nicolae, Bénédicte Zimmermann (eds), Sociology of valuation and evaluation, Human Studies 38 (1), 2015.

Abstract

Through a case study, this paper contributes to answer the call to inquiries set by John Dewey in the conclusion of his Theory of Valuation. To move on to ethnography, some requirements explained by Alfred Schutz have also been followed: the study of choices, transactions, and evaluations must be confronted with real situations in real temporality, not with puppets set in motion by social scientists. The present case study is based upon a thorough ethnography of evaluation in a Spanish Moroccan community milieu, conducted in Andalusia and Morocco from 2007 to 2010. The observation discipline, which leads to an original kind of ethnographic data, has been called ethno-accounting (ethnocomptabilité) by the author, as the point is to take into account what people do actually take into account, instead of claiming to assess things and situations directly.

Cited authors

Dewey John