ethnography qualitative research methods. ethnography history & definition roots traced back to...

Ethnography

Qualitative Research Methods

Ethnography

• History & Definition

Roots traced back to late 19th century anthropologists who engaged in participant observation in the field.

Derived from the words “ethno” which means folk and “graph” derived from writing.

Ethnography


Sociological ethnography is assumed to have originated in the 1920s when a group of Chicago students were instructed to put down their texts and use their eyes and ears

Became known as the Chicago School in the 30s with two strands – 1) concerned w/ the sociology of urban life and the movement between over time, (Park & Burgess’) 2) urban settings including ‘underdog’ occupations and ‘deviant’ roles (Hughes)

Ethnography


Ethnography: highly descriptive writing about a particular group of people

1. both a process (the research) and a product (the writing)

2. Many forms:

- life history - critical ethnography

- autoethnography - feminist ethnography

Ethnography• History & Definition

3. Requires:

- the language of that culture

- first-hand participation & interpretation

- intensive work with a few informants from that setting

Sort of description that can only emerge from spending a lengthy amount of time intimately studying and living in a particular social setting

(Van Maanen, 1982, p. 103-104)

Ethnography


4. Must use the lens of culture to understand the phenomenon being examined

5. Must also depict the researchers understanding of the cultural meaning of the phenomenon

Ethnography


Culture: the beliefs, values, and attitudes that structure the behavior patterns of a specific group of people

Wolcott (1999) says ethnography “must provide the kind of account of human social activity out of which cultural patterning can be discerned.”

Ethnography


Cultural: at a minimum, similarity must be shared by a significant number of members of a social group; shared in the sense of being behaviorally enacted, physically possessed, or internally thought

- intersubjectively shared

- must have potential to be passed on to next generation, to exist with permanency through time and across space(D’Andreade, 1992)

Ethnography


Today many non-anthropologists examine subcultures

Subculture: group having social, economic, ethnic, or other traits distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society

Ethnography


The heart of ethnography is thick description, that was originally coined by Clifford Geertz (1973).

Thick description: explains not just the behavior, but its context as well, such that the behavior becomes meaningful to an outsider

- analyzes the multiple levels of meaning in any situation

Ethnography

• History & Definition/Thick description:

Geertz discusses the role of the ethnographer. Broadly, the ethnographer's aim is to observe, record, and analyze a culture. More specifically, he or she must interpret signs to gain their meaning within the culture itself. This interpretation must be based on the "thick description" of a sign in order to see all the possible meanings. His example of a "wink of any eye" clarifies this point. When a man winks, is he merely "rapidly contracting his right eyelid" or is he "practicing a burlesque of a friend faking a wink to deceive a an innocent into thinking conspiracy is in motion"? Ultimately, Geertz hopes that the ethnographer's deeper understanding of the signs will open and/or increase the dialogue among different cultures.

Ethnography

What can be studied:

- Tribes

- Subcultures

- Public realm

- Organizations

Kinds of data:- Interviews

- Field notes

- Texts

- Visual data

- Transcripts

Ethnography

• Doing Ethnography

Aims of Observational Research:

1.Seeing through the eyes of the people being observed

2.Description: paying attention to the mundane details

3.Contextualism: conveying messages in a complete manner so that understand the wider social and historical context

Ethnography


Aims of Observational Research:

4. Process: viewing social life as involving interlocking series of events

5. Flexible research design: adapting research methods to various situations as they unfold

6. Avoiding early use of theories and concepts

Ethnography


4 Separate Sets of Notes Needed:

1. Short notes made at the time

2. Expanded notes made as soon as possible after the field session

3. A fieldwork journal to record problems and ideas that arise during each stage of field work

4. A provisional running record of analysis and interpretation

(Spradley, 1979)

Ethnography


In order to increase reliability creating contact summary sheets is suggested.

Why Important:

1. Guide planning

2. Suggests new or revised codes/themes

3. Coordinates several fieldworkers work

4. Serves as a reminder of the contact at a later date

5. Serves as the basis for data analysis

Ethnography• Doing Ethnography

Questions for Contact Summary Sheets:

1. What people, events, or situations were involved?

2. What were the main themes or issues in the contact?

3. Which research questions did the contact bear most centrally on?

4. What new hypotheses, speculations, or guesses about the field situations were suggested by the contact?

5. Where should the fieldworker place most energy during the next contact, and what sorts of information should be sought?

Ethnography

• Methodological Issues

Social researchers assumes a “learning role,” so many scientific type questions will not work when conducting social science research.

There are several methodological issues to consider.

Ethnography


1. Defining a research problem

a. avoid early specification of definitions hypothesis

- puts too many constraints on what you’re observing

b. develop animating questions to consider

- narrow and focus

- limit your research topic

Ethnography


2.Choosing a research site

a. “case the joint”

3.Gaining access

a. 2 types of research settings:

- closed or private

- open or public

Ethnography


4. Finding an identity

a. Observers may change the situation just by their presence

- Problematic features of fieldwork identity:

1. whether the researcher is known to be a researcher by all of those being studied, or only by some, or by none

Ethnography


4. Finding an identity/Problematic features of fieldwork identity:

2. how much, and what, is known about the research, by whom

3. what sorts of activities are and are not engaged in by the researcher in the field, and how this locates her or him in relation to the various conceptions of category and group membership used by partcipants

Ethnography


4. Finding an identity/Problematic features of fieldwork identity:

4. what the orientation of the researcher is, and how completely he or she consciously adopts the orientation of

insider or outsider

Ethnography


4. Finding an identity

b. gender may be an issue that should be reflected upon

5. Looking as well as listening

a. explain the situation as you would to a sighted person who is blindfolded

Ethnography


6. Recording observations

a. must decide what is the best format to record note in

b. must decide what to “weed out”

- otherwise your data can be overwhelming

c. analyze as you go/catagorize

Ethnography


6. Recording observations (cont)

d. revisit original data occasionally

- helps redefine categories as/if needed

7. Developing analysis of field data

a. interweave different aspects of research through a funnel

Ethnography


7. Developing analysis of field data/funnel structure

Ethnographic research has a characteristic ‘funnel’ structure, being progressively focused over its course. Progressive focusing has two analytically distinct components. First, over time the research problem is developed or transformed, and eventually its scope is clarified and delimited and its internal structure explored. In this sense, it is frequently only over the course of the research that one discovers what the research is really ‘about,’ and it is not uncommon for it to turn out to be about something quite remote from the initially foreshadowed problems (Hammersley and Atkinson, 1983: 175)

Ethnography


7. Developing analysis of field data

a. testing hypotheses/theories generated in the field

- combines insight with rigor

- 5 ways to test emerging hypotheses/theories

1. comparison of different groups at one time and of one cohort w/ another over the course of observation

Ethnography


7. Developing analysis of field data/5 ways to test emerging hypotheses

2. replication of responses

3. careful revision of negative or deviant cases leading to the abandonment, revision or even reinforcement of the hypothesis

Ethnography


7. Developing analysis of field data/5 ways to test emerging hypotheses

4. use of simple tabulations where appropriate

5. provision of sufficient ‘raw’ data

ethnography qualitative research methods. ethnography history & definition roots traced back to...

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