Ch 10. Ethnography & Participant Observation Flashcards
a study of people and their culture in naturally occurring settings
Ethnography
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
Characterstics of Ethographic Study
is an observational part of ethnography. A form of ethnography
Participant observation
Ethnography includes(4):
- participant observations
- individual interviews
- studying documents
- written account about a particular qualitative research
What is a key point for any ethnography?
getting access to the field. Can be open (public parks) or closed settings (restricted)
people being studied do not know they are being observed by a researcher
Covert ethnography
people being studied know they are being observed by a researcher
Overt ethnography
- 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).
Ways to get access to a closed setting
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.
What you must do to get access to a closed setting
Ongoing access can get problmatic because? (3)
- 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
- 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.
What you must do to maintain ongoing access for ethnographic research
participants who are particularly knowledgeable and cooperative
Key Informants
Drawbacks to using key informants
- 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
What are roles ethogrpahic research may take? (4)
- complete participation: covert operations
- participant-as-observer: adopts a role in the group, participants are aware
- observer-as-participant: researcher observes/interviews from the edge of the group
- complete observer: researcher doesn’t engage at all
Sometimes an active role is necessary to maintain credibility in the minds of the people studied. However…
…an active role may be physically dangerous, and may also have ethical implications (e.g., studying crime).
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.
Field Notes
Types of Notes: (3)
- mental notes
- jotted notes
- full field notes
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.
Analytic Memos
ethnography that uses visual materials (e.g., photos, films, videos) as sources of data, documents, or illustrations of participant stories
Visual Ethnography
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
Difficulties with using visual materials stem from interpretation
two positions on visual material’s role
- Realist Approach: material is taken as fact
- Reflexive Approach: awareness of how researcher influenced what the materials reveal
Photovoice takes collaboration with research participants even further by…
…Participants taking photographs of their daily experiences and interpret them in terms of their own perspectives and identities
- 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
Elements of Photovoice
Study of the daily practices in institutions and how those reveal power inequalities or ruling relations in organizations
Institutional Ethnography
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
Chatacterstics of Institutional Ethnography
involves searching for people who are likely to be a rich source of information on the group or setting under study
Purposive Sampling
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
Snowball Sampling
What sampling is almost never used in ethnographic research
probablility sampling
In theoretical sampling, the researcher (3):
- Simultaneously collects and analyzes the data
- Decides what data to collect next and where to find them
- Develops a theory in the process
In theoretical sampling, data collection (observing, interviewing, and collecting documents) continues until the point of theoretical saturation is reached. What is theoretical saturation? (3)
- 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
the end of an ethnogrpahic research determined by…
practical or personal factors, or from saturation of categories
What are issues of leaving the field that one must consider?
saying goodbye
sharing results
