District of Columbia Fire Fighters' Project: A Case Study in Occupational Folklife

Abstract

This monograph presents the results of an ethnographic study of urban fire fighters in a casebook format. The primary document of the monograph is an ethnography of fire fighting culture that was generated as a result of eighteen months of participant observation of fire fighters in Washington, D.C., from 1978 to 1980. The original design of this research project was to produce an ethnography that would document the fire fighters&#39; inside view of their work culture and then to present the findings to the members of the culture for their use. The ethnography itself (entitled <I>Good Fire/Bad Night</I>) is included in virtually its original form. It is preceded by a general introduction and accompanied by a critique of the entire public sector project written by the program coordinator, Captain David A. Ryan, DCFD. In addition to this material, concluding chapters place the ethnography in a theoretical framework, focusing on the way in which the expressive aspects of work culture (techniques, customs, and verbal expressions) comprise an informally controlled body of knowledge (the "canon of technique performance") against which all collective and individual actions are measured in the culture. A glossary and bibliography complete the monograph.19