Ethnography

Ethno – ‘race, culture’ + -graphy ‘study’

Week 7

Cath lambert

The ‘moments’ of ethnography?

• 1900-1950 Traditional• 1950-1970 Modernist or Golden Age• 1970-1986 Blurred Genres• 1986-1990 Crisis of Representation• 1990-1995 Postmodern; experimental and new

ethnographies• 1995-2000 The methodologically contested present• 2000 + the fractured future

See Denzin and Lincoln (2005) The Handbook of Qualitative Research, SAGE

Bronislaw Malinowski with natives on Trobriand Islands, ca 1918

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The Story of Ethnography

Anthropological studies

The Chicago School and urban ethnography. Exemplified by William Whyte Street Corner Society (1943)

Paul Willis (1976) Learning to Labour

The ‘moments’ of ethnography?

• 1900-1950 Traditional• 1950-1970 Modernist or Golden Age• 1970-1986 Blurred Genres• 1986-1990 Crisis of Representation• 1990-1995 Postmodern; experimental and new

ethnographies• 1995-2000 The methodologically contested present• 2000 + the fractured future

See Denzin and Lincoln (2005) The Handbook of Qualitative Research, SAGE

Doing ethnography

• Defining and accessing ‘a field’ of site of study• Time ‘in the field’• Getting in, staying in: the role of ‘gatekeepers’• Building relationships and rapport• Being in/out• Getting out of the field• Representations

The Ethnographic Tool Kit

• Participant Observation • Interviews – all kinds• Questionnaires/surveys• Visual methods• Documentary analysis

Participant Observation

• How to ‘participate’ and ‘observe’?• The practicalities: access, participating and

observing, note-keeping and analysing (see Burgess, 1984)

See Crang and Cooke (2007, chapter 4)

Interviews: generating stories

• Types of interviews– Individual/group and focus groups– Structured/ unstructured– Life-histories (see Plummer, 1990)– Photo-elicitation/ walking interviews– Email/ online interviews

• Strengths and limitations• Questions of ethics and epistemology

‘The main group was studied intensively by means of observation and participant observation in class, around the school and during leisure activities; regular recorded group discussions; informal interviews and diaries … I followed all twelve boys from the main group … into work … short periods of participant observation were devoted to actually working alongside each lad in his job, and were concluded with taped interviewed with the individual and selected interviews with foreman, managers and shop stewards’.

Paul Willis (1997: 5)

Analysis and Writing: Ethnography as Text

Thematic/discourse/narrative analysis

Use of qualitative data programmes (e.q. N-Vivo)

‘For those engaged in the doing and the reading of mainstream educational ethnography, more often than not, it is the “ethno” and not the “graphy” that seems to be the focus of attention’

Britzman (2000:27)

‘Sociologists tells stories as if they weren't storytellers, and as if storytelling were a less rigorous and honest pursuit than theirs’.

Game and Metcalfe (1996:65)

Ethics and Emotions

• A critical review of the ethical issues• The ‘human’ aspects of fieldwork• What right do we have?• Sociological Guidelines – British Sociological

Society http://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/27107/StatementofEthicalPractice.pdf

1) The purpose of the statement is to make members aware of the ethical issues that may arise throughout the research process and to encourage them to take responsibility for their own ethical practice. The Association encourages members to use the Statement to help educate themselves and their colleagues to behave ethically.

2) The statement does not, therefore, provide a set of recipes for resolving ethical choices or dilemmas, but recognises that it will be necessary to make such choices on the basis of principles and values, and the (often conflicting) interests of those involved.

British Sociological Association Statement of Ethical Practice

• CONSENT

• COVERT RESEARCH (don’t do it)

‘31) There are serious ethical and legal issues in the use of covert research but the use of covert methods may be justified in certain circumstances. For example, difficulties arise when research participants change their behaviour because they know they are being studied. Researchers may also face problems when access to spheres of social life is closed to social scientists by powerful or secretive interests.

32) However, covert methods violate the principles of informed consent and may invade the privacy of those being studied. Covert researchers might need to take into account the emerging legal frameworks surrounding the right to privacy. Participant or non-participant observation in non-public spaces or experimental manipulation of research participants without their knowledge should be resorted to only where it is impossible to use other methods to obtain essential data.

33) In such studies it is important to safeguard the anonymity of research participants. Ideally, where informed consent has not been obtained prior to the research it should be obtained post-hoc.’

British Sociological Association Statement of Ethical Practice

Sociological value of findings undermined by lack of good ethical practice. Tearoom Trade by Laud Humphreys is more often used as a case study in bad ethics than for its research findings (which are interesting).

1. Ethical: social responsibility and importance of recognising powers and privileges of researcher and working to make research process equal and transparent.

2. Epistemological: knowledge is not sound unless produced in accountable ways by researchers who locate themselves in the research process. Not about ‘objective’ data but situated, partial knowledges which demonstrate how they came into being.