Ch 10. Ethnography & Participant Observation

Question 1

a study of people and their culture in naturally occurring settings

Answer 1

Ethnography

Question 2

Behaviour is observed in an unstructured way by carrying out in-depth discussions and interviews with the people studied. Goal is to describe the life of the community from the point of view of participants and with as little impact from outside as possible. Researcher is immersed in a particular social setting for a long period of time, sometimes even years. Has its origins in anthropology but is adopted in sociology

Answer 2

Characterstics of Ethographic Study

Question 3

is an observational part of ethnography. A form of ethnography

Answer 3

Participant observation

Question 4

Ethnography includes(4):

Answer 4

• participant observations
• individual interviews
• studying documents
• written account about a particular qualitative research

Question 5

What is a key point for any ethnography?

Answer 5

getting access to the field. Can be open (public parks) or closed settings (restricted)

Question 6

people being studied do not know they are being observed by a researcher

Answer 6

Covert ethnography

Question 7

people being studied know they are being observed by a researcher

Answer 7

Overt ethnography

Question 8

• Use friends, contacts, and colleagues
• Use help of a “gatekeeper.”
• Get someone in the organization to vouch for you (a “sponsor”).
• Offer something in return (e.g., a copy of the finished study).

Answer 8

Ways to get access to a closed setting

Question 9

Provide a clear explanation of your aims and methods.

Be willing to negotiate the terms of access.

Be open about how much time your research would take

In covert research: adopt and support a suitable social role.

Answer 9

What you must do to get access to a closed setting

Question 10

Ongoing access can get problmatic because? (3)

Answer 10

• People get suspicious of the researcher’s motives
• Group members fear that what they say or do will get back to bosses or colleagues
• People being studied may decide to sabotage the research

Question 11

• Play up your credentials.
• Do not give people a reason to dislike you.
• Play a role and construct a “front.”
• Have a plan for allaying people’s suspicions.
• Be prepared for tests of competence and credibility.
• Be adaptable to changing circumstances in the research setting.

Answer 11

What you must do to maintain ongoing access for ethnographic research

Question 12

participants who are particularly knowledgeable and cooperative

Answer 12

Key Informants

Question 13

Drawbacks to using key informants

Answer 13

• researcher may ignore other group members
• key informant’s view may not be representative of the group as a whole and gets unduly represented in the research

Question 14

What are roles ethogrpahic research may take? (4)

Answer 14

1. complete participation: covert operations
2. participant-as-observer: adopts a role in the group, participants are aware
3. observer-as-participant: researcher observes/interviews from the edge of the group
4. complete observer: researcher doesn’t engage at all

Question 15

Sometimes an active role is necessary to maintain credibility in the minds of the people studied. However…

Answer 15

…an active role may be physically dangerous, and may also have ethical implications (e.g., studying crime).

Question 16

detailed notes of events, conversations, and behaviour, and the researcher’s initial reflection on them. It’s important to record these as soon as possible.

Answer 16

Field Notes

Question 17

Types of Notes: (3)

Answer 17

1. mental notes
2. jotted notes
3. full field notes

Question 18

links the observations to concepts/theories. Notes on the data, but not the actual data notes. Must be kep separate to avoid influencing the data notes.

Answer 18

Analytic Memos

Question 19

ethnography that uses visual materials (e.g., photos, films, videos) as sources of data, documents, or illustrations of participant stories

Answer 19

Visual Ethnography

Question 20

Different context of when, where, how, and by whom the visual material was taken

Different meanings may be ascribed to the visual material by the researcher and by different participants

Potential for researcher to influence the perceptions of the visual by the subject

Answer 20

Difficulties with using visual materials stem from interpretation

Question 21

two positions on visual material’s role

Answer 21

1. Realist Approach: material is taken as fact
2. Reflexive Approach: awareness of how researcher influenced what the materials reveal

Question 22

Photovoice takes collaboration with research participants even further by…

Answer 22

…Participants taking photographs of their daily experiences and interpret them in terms of their own perspectives and identities

Question 23

• Transfers a measure of power and control away from the researcher to them
• Can be used with people from marginalized communities
• Focus is often to create social change
  -a form of participatory action research

Answer 23

Elements of Photovoice

Question 24

Study of the daily practices in institutions and how those reveal power inequalities or ruling relations in organizations

Answer 24

Institutional Ethnography

Question 25

Looks at how institutional discourses relate to people’s everyday experiences with these institutions

Studying daily activities is important because institutional representations, and in particular written texts

Answer 25

Chatacterstics of Institutional Ethnography

Question 26

involves searching for people who are likely to be a rich source of information on the group or setting under study

Answer 26

Purposive Sampling

Question 27

a viable contact is used to identify others who may be willing to provide information on the topic of the study, who are then used to establish further contacts

Answer 27

Snowball Sampling

Question 28

What sampling is almost never used in ethnographic research

Answer 28

probablility sampling

Question 29

In theoretical sampling, the researcher (3):

Answer 29

• Simultaneously collects and analyzes the data
• Decides what data to collect next and where to find them
• Develops a theory in the process

Question 30

In theoretical sampling, data collection (observing, interviewing, and collecting documents) continues until the point of theoretical saturation is reached. What is theoretical saturation? (3)

Answer 30

• No new or relevant data seem to be emerging regarding a category
• The category is well developed in terms of its properties and dimensions demonstrating variation
• The relationships among categories are well established and validated

Question 31

the end of an ethnogrpahic research determined by…

Answer 31

practical or personal factors, or from saturation of categories

Question 32

What are issues of leaving the field that one must consider?

Answer 32

saying goodbye
sharing results