172 ACCESSING AND GENERATING DATA
all, mutual respect as they came to appreciate their different discourse and cultural styles, as well
as differences in substance.
But how can policy analysts and stakeholders—and researchers, as well—do this if they are
unaware of and/or devalue views at odds with their own simply because those views do not fit
into their conceptual framework? Recognizing the existence of multiple sources of knowledge
(for instance, local knowledges or competing professional knowledges) and holding respect for
them, both of which are central to an ethnographic sensibility, are far more likely to lead to
mutually beneficial solutions than simply denigrating alternative views. For instance, returning to
occupancy standards policies, the goal is not to come to a consensus on what should constitute
maximum density levels based on the number or relation of individuals to one another or based
on what is considered healthy or not. Such a goal sets up a cultural determinism that makes it
unlikely that the various stakeholders would agree on matters of content. Rather, a potentially
more productive approach would be to attempt to identify the concerns underlying the content
issues about which the various stakeholders must come to some consensus if they are to move
forward. Is a property owner worried that more than a certain number of occupants will jeopar-
dize profit? Instead of using a predetermined and potentially discriminatory occupancy standard
as proxy for that concern, policy makers can research that issue with an eye toward adopting
policies that ensure a mutually agreed-upon profit margin. Is a council member concerned that
“liberal” occupancy standards might overwhelm the schools? Then policy debates should address
the question of classroom size and school staffing. Are civil rights advocates concerned that a
two-person-per-bedroom limit will make affordable housing unavailable for their constituents?
Are housing reformers concerned for the moral wherewithal of tenants who are living in quarters
more dense than they believe appropriate?
Each of these concerns should be addressed directly, without using occupancy rates or health
codes as surrogates.^8 But this constructive process requires collaboration among the property
owner, the city councilor, the housing reformer, prospective tenants, and other stakeholders, and
this is likely to come about only when each of them feels that his or her “culture” is respected
(and, ideally, understood at a deeper than superficial level). The closer, deeper attention afforded
by observation will also disclose if the concerns are proxies for racism or other issues, which can
then be engaged directly. A willingness to engage underlying issues and their internal structures
of meaning, rather than focusing on and possibly bogging down in the detailed minutiae of the
contents, requires intense respect for differences of opinion and of belief systems as well as a
profound ability to listen, to really listen hard to someone else’s common sense and logical struc-
ture, and to trust the other. It takes an ethnographic sensibility: a feeling, an excitement, and a
deep appreciation, maybe even a bit of awe, that human groups create the intricate, rich, and
dynamic structures of living we call culture.CULTIVATING AN ETHNOGRAPHIC SENSIBILITYRemembering that first night in Mexico can still evoke warm feelings of security in me. Climbing
into bed with my recently introduced seventeen-year-old host that night in Monterrey began what
has become the foundation of my research interests for nearly two decades: Why are what are
deemed comfortable, healthy, and appropriate sociospatial relations in one cultural context deemed
significantly uncomfortable; physically, emotionally, and psychologically unhealthy; and even
morally inappropriate in another? Why should such seemingly mundane, everyday, and private
domestic arrangements become such a contentious public issue? Without the type of experience
related in the opening story, it is unlikely that I would have spent nearly two decades coming to