Ethnography PDF

Ethnography https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c1SUHTG6B8 HISTORY AND DEFINITIONS As a research technique intended to describe the cultures of particular social groups, ethnographic techniques were employed by anthropologists such as Malinowski (1922)and Mead (1928), who investigated the sexua...

Ethnography https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c1SUHTG6B8 HISTORY AND DEFINITIONS As a research technique intended to describe the cultures of particular social groups, ethnographic techniques were employed by anthropologists such as Malinowski (1922)and Mead (1928), who investigated the sexual practices of island peoples in the Pacific and Polynesian islands respectively. Banister et al. (1994) cite studies by FannyWright in 1821 on ‘A View of Society and Manners in America’, and HarrietMartineau on ‘Society in America’ in 1827as early examples of ethnographies of‘everyday life’. A good working shorthanddefinition of ethnography is ‘participantobservation’, since anthropologists usedethnography to immerse themselves in the culture of the society under investigation in order to describe life in that culture in depth (O’Connell Davidson and Layder, 1994). William Whyte’s ‘Street Corner Society’(1955) is a classic example of this approach. Whyte's study of the ‘Norton Street gang 'in Boston’s North End focused on a group of young white working class American men. Since then, ethnography has been used widely across many areas of social scienceresearch, including psychology. What of the philosophical underpinnings of ethnography? Contemporary ethnography belongs to a tradition of ‘naturalism’ which emphasizes the importance of understanding the meanings and cultural practices of people from within everyday contexts. Naturalism can be contrasted with positivism, which treats people as objects of scientific investigation, such that the researcher aims to eliminate all traces of his or her ‘subjective’ bias (e.g. emotional responses, political beliefs, prejudices, expectations etc.) and aims to take an objective, detached ‘scientific’ stance Definitions Ethnography is variously defined (in nonpsychology texts) as a form of observation involving qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, and usually a degree of participation by the researcher in the world that they are investigating. What are some of the defining features of ethnographic research? Ethnography focuses on cultural interpretation, and aims to understand the cultural and symbolic aspects of people’s actions and the contexts in which those actions occur. Ethnographic research usually focuses on a specific group of people or a case involving culturally significant practicesor actions. Punch (1998) and Denscombe (2003) identify several important features of the ethnographic approach: a) Ethnography is founded on the assumption that the shared cultural meanings of a social group are vital for understanding the activities of any social group. The task of the ethnographic researchers to uncover those meaning. For ethnographic researchers, routine and mundane aspects of everyday life are considered worthy of investigationas research data. b) Ethnographic researchers are attuned to the meanings that behaviour, actions, contexts and events have from the perspective of those involved. Ethnography seeks an insider’s perspective, aiming to understand a phenomenon from the points of view of those involved – which can be diverse, complex and contradictory. c) A specific social group or case will be studied in its ‘natural’ setting: i.e. not in the research laboratory or in an artificially manipulated or controlled environment. A full ethnography involving participant observation entails the researcher becoming part of this ‘natural’ setting. d) Ethnographic studies tend to be relatively loosely structured, evolving and developing over time in relation to the activities, events and cultural practices and priorities of the group being studied. Research questions, hypotheses and data collection procedures may develop as the study proceeds, although most ethnographic studies do begin with a set of research questions, an overall research design and a strategy for data collection and analysis. Punch (1998) and Denscombe (2003) identify several important features of the ethnographic approach: e) Ethnography is a multi-method form of research including structured or semi-structured questionnaires and/or interviews, non-participant through to full participant observation (PO), diaries, film or video records and official documents (Banister et al., 1994). A sustained period of fieldwork is central to the ethnographic approach, in which the researcher spends substantial periods of time ‘in the field’, working or living alongside the research participants in order to immerse themselves fully in the cultural and social milieu of those under investigation. Fetterman (1998: 35) defines PO as combining ‘participation in the lives of the people under study with maintenance of aprofessional distance’. f) Ethnographic research frequently involves prolonged periods of data collection. This is partly because it usually takes time for the researcher to become sufficiently familiar with the cultural world being studied. Ethnography tends to involve a holistic approach, emphasizing the inter- connectedness between people and social processes. There is a commitment to avoid isolating aspects of a given culture or social process from the wider context in which it exists(Denscombe, 2003). g) Ethnographers have devoted considerable attention to reflexivity: that is, they recognize that as researchers they are part of the social world they are studying and cannot avoid having an impact on the phenomena under investigation. Unlike they are part of the social world they are studying and cannot avoid having an impact on the phenomena under investigation. Unlike many positivists or experimental researchers, ethnographers do not set out to deny their impact on the world they are studying, rather their aim is to understand this in a systematic and rigorous way as an inevitable part of the research process (Aull Davies, 1999).  Self-reflexivity, for Steier, is fundamental to the research process and challenges a researcher to create ways of relating research stories in which they, as teller of the tale, and the constructing processes are not eliminated. Steier suggests that research should be viewed as a translation process in which a researcher attempts to build bridges of understanding between communities that speak a different language. ETHNOGRAPHIC AND OBSERVATIONAL METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH An early example of the use of observational methods in social psychology is the classic Marienthal study of the social and psychological impacts of long-term male unemployment on an Austrian community during the 1930s. The ground-breaking work of Paul Lazarsfeld, Marie Jahoda, Hans Zeisel and their eleven colleagues involved a range of research methods, including semi-structured interviews and systematic observation (Jahoda, Lazarsfeld and Zeisel, 1972) Marienthal had been totally dependent on the textile industry, which collapsed in 1929. The researchers felt that asking the working class population of Marienthal to produce ‘psychological self-observations’ would probably prove distressing. As Marie Jahoda and colleagues (1972: 1) put it some 40 years later, they aimed ‘to find procedures which could combine the use of numerical data with immersion (sich einleben) into the situation … to gain such close contact with the population of Marienthal that we could learn the smallest details of their daily life’. ETHNOGRAPHIC AND OBSERVATIONAL METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH Some of the classic studies in the expanding arena of American social psychology following World War II involved observational methods. Festinger’s participant observation study of a millenarian religious cult group, published as ‘When Prophecy Fails’ (Festinger, Riecken and Schachter, 1956), examined cult members’ responses when their cherished belief that the world would end in a catastrophic flood on a specific date was disconfirmed. In this study Festinger and colleagues intended to test the hypothesis that it is possible for people to hold a belief more strongly after that belief has been disconfirmed, provided that certain conditions are met. A later example of a classic psychology study involving a form of observational method is Rosenhan’s 1973 ‘field stimulation’ project, in which eight people attempted to gain access as patients to mental hospitals in the USA (Rosenhan, 1973). In such ‘field stimulation’ projects, the researcher intervenes directly in a ‘natural’ setting in order to observe what happens.  ‘Field stimulation’ projects differ from classic ethnographies in a number of respects. Firstly, participants in field stimulation studies are more likely to be unaware that they are being observed and studied. Secondly, field stimulation studies are usually more structured than ethnographic research projects, since the researchers are frequently expected to follow a strict series of actions and behaviours as part of a structured manipulation of events. In addition, field stimulation studies are usually associated with a positivist approach, whereas ethnographic research tends to be linked to the ‘naturalistic’ or interpretative tradition.  ‘Learning to Labour’ focused primarily on a group of young white working class men Willis referred to as part of a ‘counterschool culture’: they called themselves ‘the lads’(Willis, 2000).Willis followed ‘the lads’ through their last 18 months in the 5th form of a working class state comprehensive school in the industrial English West Midlands during the mid-1970s. He interviewed boys in the school, as well as teachers, careers advisers and some parents, spending considerable periods of time ‘hanging around’ in the school’s Youth Wing. Willis followed ‘the lads’ into employment, working alongside them for several weeks in predominantly low paid and low status manual factory jobs. What Willis later termed ‘the tragic irony at the heart of their culture’ led these young men to ‘voluntarily’ choose a life of hard manual labour (and later unemployment in most cases) that did them considerable physical, economic and psychological harm. KEY ISSUES RELATED TO ETHNOGRAPHIC AND OBSERVATIONAL METHODS p.52 Representation, engagement and ‘bias’ O’Connell Davidson and Layder (1994: 185) argue that ‘perhaps more than any other method, participant observation requires that we reject the notion of researcher as a detached “objective” scientist who manipulates the subjects of the research by controlling the variables that affect their behaviour’. However, this does not mean that the validity of ethnographers’ interpretations of their data is not a crucial issue. Interpretation and the analysis of observational data The recording, interpretation and analysis of ethnographic data are complex processes that are seldom defined with clarity. Recording material ‘in the field’ poses particular problems for ethnographic researchers. Depending on the topic under investigation, research field-notes can focus on key ‘episodes’, specific individuals or small groups, particular events, or a combination of all of these. It is important to remember that all methods/techniques for recording research information are necessarily selective: even video footage cannot ever record all the subtleties of human social encounters (Griffin, 2007). Such notes might include points on how participants and/or gatekeepers view the researcher, analytic points to feed into the interpretation of the research material, and notes on feelings and reactions of the researcher at different points in the research process. Ethics, access, deception and gaining informed consent Discussions about ethical issues in social research tend to revolve around a number of specific areas (Bryman, 2004; Diener and Crandall, 1978) Whether there is harm to participants Whether there is a lack of informed consent Whether there is an invasion of privacy Whether deception is involved. A totally covert role would mean that the researcher was completely ‘under cover’, and avoids the need to negotiate access to the research site in anything other than the researcher’s ‘under cover’ role. In a totally overt role, all the people the researcher comes into contact with would be aware that she/he was conducting a research study. In most ethnographic studies the researcher is in a relatively overt role with key participants but may come into contact with many people who of necessity remain unaware of her/his activities.  Many ethnographers emulate the practice of Whyte in his classic study ‘Street Corner Society’ (1955) in his approach to negotiating access to the urban working class male gangs in Boston’s North End. Whyte developed a relationship with ‘Doc’, who acted as a sponsor, gate-keeper and key informant. In the process of gaining access to participants or the ‘field’, ethnographic researchers must be prepared to meet potential participants on the latter’s terms: after all, they are on participants’territory. POTENTIALITIES AND LIMITATIONS OF ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODS There is no one design for an ethnographic study. Its flexibility and relatively open structure can enable researchers to generate original insights and innovative methods. However, this very flexible approach can be difficult to handle. Ethnography is particularly valuable in situations in which the phenomenon under investigation is novel, different or unknown; when researchers are interested in a specific culture or social process; especially in complex behavioural settings including organizations or institutions. Doing Ethnographic Research: A Brief Practical Guide 1 Find the time and the money to do an ethnographic study. 2 Are your research question(s) suited to the use of ethnographic methods? Does ethnography have the potential to generate insights that would be unobtainable by other means? You should also decide on your theoretical and epistemological perspectives and analytic approach at this stage. 3 Consider the ethical issues raised by this study, especially questions of informed consent, covert and overt observation, and power relations throughout the research process. Develop your ethical strategy, including contract with participants. 4 Plan your research design based on the period of time available for field-work, the nature of the research topic and the phenomenon under investigation. Plan your strategies for entry to and exit from ‘the field’, as well as what methods you will use during the field-work period. 5 Select your field-work site, potential participants, gate-keepers (if appropriate), who and what not to include in the study. The most common strategy is the ‘big net’ approach, mixing with lots of people then beginning to narrow your focus down to specific situations and individuals. Informality, acting on hunches, and using your intuition are all common features of ethnographic research, though more formal and structured designs arealso used.  6 Entering ‘the field’: How will you describe your study? What will you wear? Develop a safety strategy that might involve working in pairs or phoning a colleague when you enter and leave ‘the field’. The best method is usually to gain access via an intermediary, and another alternative is to ‘hang around’ until you gain the trust of key members of the community you are studying. Note who might avoid you as a result of your contact with gate-keepers, and try to include them in your study. 8 Exiting ‘the field’: develop a strategy for leaving the field, deciding how you will end relationships with research participants, and what your obligations are to them. 9 Analysis: transcribe all field-notes and interviews as close to verbatim as possible. Organize, collate and anonymize your data. Remember that this process commences at the start of the project. Familiarize yourself with the data and look for negative cases as you develop your analysis. Be systematic and rigorous in your analysis. 10 Writing up and other forms of dissemination: decide on your audience(s) and the format for dissemination. Decide on your standpoint(s), narrative form and focus for your dissemination. What do you want to say and to whom, and why? Decide how far and whether you want to write yourself in to the dissemination of the outcomes of the study. Avoid revealing any ‘secrets’ you might have discovered in the course of field- work unless you have a good reason to do so. Ethnography is sometimes described as a process of ‘making the strange familiar and the familiar strange’. Have you done this?