PHILADELPHIA Anthropology students rarely get to meet the people whose lives are documented in their professor books. But in September Julia Paley, an assistant anthropology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, will bring students face-to-face with some of her subjects.

Four members of a grassroots health group from Chile who participated in Paley ethnographic study will join her from 3 to 6 p.m., Sept. 12, in a panel discussion on ethnographic research. The session will be in the Class of 1949 Auditorium of Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce St. in Philadelphia.

The Chileans are coming to the United States to speak to academic audiences and to meet with community organizations in Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; New York; and Boston. At Penn, the health group will discuss the ethnographic methods workshop Paley conducted with them and the dilemmas researchers face working in urban neighborhoods.

In 1990, Paley began conducting ethnographic research in their Santiago shantytown after the Pinochet dictatorship ended. She returned several times during the early years of the Chilean democracy, studying how community organizations that fought the dictatorship were responding to the new political landscape and to the end of military rule.

In her book, "Marketing Democracy: Power and Social Movements in Post-Dictatorship Chile," published earlier this year, Paley described how she developed research methods to engage initially reluctant shantytown leaders in a joint intellectual project. Local residents gave her feedback on her dissertation, and she taught a week-long ethnographic-methods class in the shantytown. The resulting ethnography written by community leaders about how a soccer field in their neighborhood became a garbage dump makes up the last section of her book.

"When I first met with community leaders to talk about my research they grilled me on why my study would be of any use to them," Paley said. "I knew that I needed to develop a method that made their questions my questions. Being able to bring them to the United States to talk about the process that led to the book is part of changing how social scientists relate to their subjects."

The four visitors to Penn -- Valeria Garca, Ivn Burgos, Mnica Jeannette Prez and Mariela Huerta -- are members of Llareta, the group dedicated to improving health in the Chilean shantytown.

The Penn session will give students an opportunity to learn new ways to overcome the challenges of conducting social-science research in complex urban societies. The event is co-sponsored by Penn Center for Undergraduate Research Fellowships and other departments and programs.

Before the Chileans visit Penn, Paley will accompany them to Washington, D.C., on Sept. 7 to present a paper written by the health group at a meeting of the Latin American Studies Association. On Sept. 9, Paley will read from and sign copies of her book and participate in a presentation by the Chilean group from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2706 Sycamore St., Alexandria, Va. The group will meet Sept. 11 with community leaders from the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project, a faith-based community organization in Philadelphia.

From Penn, Paley will accompany the Chileans to Harvard University. Their talk will be held Sept. 13 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave. in Boston.

For further information about the Chilean health group itinerary, contact Julia Paley at 215-898-8207 or jpaley@sas.upenn.edu.

EDITOR NOTE: To order a review copy of the book "Marketing Democracy," contact Estrella Fichter at the University of California Press at 510-642-4701 or estrella.fichter@ucpress.ucop.edu. For more information: www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9015.html