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In this paper we argue that what is missing from many ethnographic accounts is a recognition that dilemmas inevitably emerge for the researcherbeforethey make contact with the research setting,duringthe process of ethnographic research, and subsequently in the lengthy time taken to unravel the theoretical importance of the researchafterthe fieldwork has ended. Using a comparison of two ethnographies as case studies, and by recourse to a realist methodology, such dilemmas are, we argue, overdetermined by many non-observable social structures that influence the everyday research process. We argue that specificmechanismsdetermine both the process and the outcome of the ethnographic journey in thebefore,duringandafterstages of research. For example we demonstrate how biography and the wider process of institutional knowledge production are two key resources that influence research practice. We use the termpragmatic realismas a means to reflect upon some of the connections between the dilemmas of research and real structures in these three stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]