F9 Ethnography

Question 1

What is ethnography?

Answer 1

Study of people in their natural occuring settings

Question 2

What can we study with ethnography?

Answer 2

• People
• Culture
• Societies
• Organizations
• Social relationships
• Social processes

Question 3

What is netnography?

Answer 3

Ethnography conducted over the internet

Question 4

How do we “do” ethnography?

Answer 4

(1) Seeing - through the eyes of the people being observerd
(2) Artefacts - what people use to do something, what the tell us about what they are doing
(3) Description - attention to mundane details
(4) Contextualism - understand social & historical context

Question 5

What are the advantages of ethnography?

Answer 5

(1) Rich data
(2) Direct observation of events/practices
(3) Non-reliance on self report alone
(4) Better understanding of behaviour

Question 6

What are the disadvantages of ethnography?

Answer 6

(1) Extremely time consuming
(2) Can be unpredictable
(3) Difficult to know the objectivity of it

Question 7

What are some ethical aspects to consider when doing ethnography?

Answer 7

(1) People must be respected
(2) Not a passive source of data
(3) Informed consent form is a must!

Question 8

What are the similarities between action research and ethnography?

Answer 8

Both are performed in close connection with the research subjects

Question 9

What are the differences between action research and ethnography?

Answer 9

(1) Action research has clearer & more pre-defined real-world goal
(2) Ethnography “flows” more with the community it studies / emergent in nature

Question 10

What determines if ethnography is considered successfull?

Answer 10

If the people studied recognizes it

Question 11

What are some common data collection methods for ethnography?

Answer 11

(1) Fields notes
(2) Interviews
(3) Observations

Question 12

What should the field notes capture when doing ethnography?

Answer 12

(1) Substance - recording on events and what is said or happening
(2) Methodology - thoughts on research process
(3) Analysis - reflection on the relation between (1) substance and (2) method

Question 13

What role does self-reflection play in ethnography?

Answer 13

Self-reflection is a way for the researcher to avoid bias (on gender, background, cultural aspects etc) in the research

Question 14

What does “thick description” mean?

Answer 14

That ethnography essentially is a very “thick description” of someone, tying in to the quality marker that good ethnography is when someone from the study group recognize aspects in this description