Ethnography & Participant Observation Flashcards
What are the two important components of ethnography?
1) The first has to do with the study of people, and how data are collected.
2) The second refers to how this data is recorded and analysed.
What is the main principle of ethnography? What kind of method is it?
Ethnography refers to multiple forms of data-collection. It is in some ways a multi-method approach, and it encompasses a plurality of methods.
Why is participant observation well suited for unpiching difficult-to-define or multifaced political phenomena?
1) Other methods may provide too blunt instrument to fully captrure the diversity and meaning of a concept.
2) Participant observation allows the researcher to observe what people are doing on a day-by-day basis, and how their behavior changes in response to different stimuli or different events.
3) By observing people over a prolonged period of time, it is possible to build up much more reliable impression of what they really think than would be possible after just a brief meeting or interview.
What does “thick description” mean?
It refers to a valid and reliable representation of how subjects under study behave and think politically.
What has been said critically about thick description and particiapant observation?
Ethnographic research compromises a strong emphasis on exploring the nature of social phenomena, rather than setting out to test hypothesis about them. Since ethnography tends to focus on the specific rather than the general. It is therefore often regarded as an inappropriate method to use to test general hypotheses.
Why is previous research and well-developed ideas important for ethnographers?
Ethnographers draw insights from previous research and attempt to apply them to new contexts. Ethnographic studies frequently take well-developed ideas or theories about hierchy, power or division of labour and see whather these ideas or theory apply in different contexts.
What are the 3 interretaled steps of participant observation?
1) Case selection and gaining access to the field site. (The criteria and justification for the choice of case that is selected is very important, since the type of cases you choose to analyse can influence the answers you get to a particular research question).
2) The second step refers to issues related to carrying out research and collecting data.
3) The third step refers to recording observations, and how data collected is written up, coded, and used for analysis.
In what two ways can access issues to a site create problems?
1) If access is not possible, it may introduce possible bias similar in nature to the selection bias. Places where you cannot gain access may be different in important aspects, in comparisions from places where you can gain access.
2) Access issues can also affect the way you carry out research. How you enter the field can shape how you are percieved by informants, and so your point of entery may have long-term consequenses for your research project.
Why is a “gate keeper” important for a closed research setting?
A closed setting may require permission of someone in order to gain access. A closed setting could be non-public, formalized groups or institutions. To be able to carry out research, and to gain access it is likely that you need permission from a gatekeeper (senior management in an ex. organisation).
What does it mean that a researcher has a “covert” role?
They do not reveal the true purpose of their research, or even that they are researchers at all.
What are the 3 main types of roles that a researcher can adopt?
The participant (a fully functioning member of the social setting and its identity is not known to the informants) The participant observer ( a fully functioning member of the social setting, and the informants are AWARE of the researchers identity. The Observer ( Is focused on observation rather than participantion. The researcher acts mainly as an interwier, or carries out unobstutsive observation.
Name a few aspects of the internal validity and participant observation?
One of it is in regards to samples. The sample of informants that the ethnographer primerly reliers on may thereofore be relatively small subsection of the entire population.
It is thereofore important to think of why and whom someone is “used”.
Otherwise a selection bias can arise.
What is a key informant, and what is the danger of it?
A key informant is more helpful and useful than others, and may become more central to the collection of data than others. But overreliance on key informants can create a set of problems, to do with the reliability and validity of the information that is generated.
What does reactivity refer to?
It can be a major source of error in ethnographic research. It occurs when the very presence of the researcher alters in the way informants act.
Therefore acceptance of the researcher is very important, as the more an ethnographer is accepted by the community he or she is studying, the less likely informants are to respond to the presense of the ethnographer.
What are the 2 distinct processes in participant observation?
1) Collecting data through participant observation
2) Recording and writing up the data
