Ethnography

Introduction

• Ethnography is an approach in social research rooted in anthropological traditions.

• It originated in the 19th century, focusing on descriptive analysis of community and culture, including people’s behaviour, beliefs, and practices, considering culture as a whole.

• Ethnography is influenced by two main intellectual traditions: British and North American.

• The British tradition is linked to social anthropology, with key figures like Bronislaw Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, and Evans Pritchard, who were British or worked in Britain.

• The North American tradition is associated with the Chicago school in sociology.

• Researchers in this tradition actively participated in the field to collect information.

• Sociologists aimed to understand various problems within different societal groups, especially deviant subgroups and unusual urban occupations.

Ethnography

• The term “Ethnos” means people, race, or cultural group and “Graphe” means writing, so ethnography literally means “writing culture.”

• Ethnography primarily emphasizes historical and comparative analysis and description of other cultures, especially non-western societies; this is called ethnology.

• The history of cultural writing was initially provided by travelers and missionaries.

• Later, anthropologists engaged in fieldwork or “in situ observation” to collect primary data and published work supported by theoretical backgrounds or comparative cultural analysis.

• Ethnography became significant in anthropological study in the 20th century.

• During the 20th century, ethnography began to be used in Western sociology to study pre-industrial and cultural groups, as well as the impact of urbanization and industrialization on villages and towns.

• At the University of Chicago, researchers studied human social life, especially in urban industrial society, using methods termed case study or participant observation.

• Anthropological methods influenced sociologists, leading to the emergence of various subfields within disciplines from the 1960s onward.

• Anthropologists also conducted studies in rural and urban areas within Western societies.

• The ethnographic method started to integrate historical analysis and textual approaches within cultural studies.

• Ethnography plays a complex and shifting role in the dynamic tapestry of the Social Sciences in the 21st century.

Nature of Ethnographic Studies

• Ethnographers directly enter the field to understand people’s daily life, including behaviour, relationships, social action, art, and cultural values, which takes a long period.

• David Silverman identifies three initial features of ethnographic research:

  1. Requires an empirical approach where researchers engage in real-life situations and collect data through social research methods.

  2. Need to remain open by promoting open communication with participants rather than fixed plans; researchers observe and interact in real-life settings, keeping moral responsibility and linking work with prior studies for openness.

  3. Grounding observed phenomena in the field, linking facts from observation to historical and cultural contexts, and emphasizing a “cultural whole” in the study.

• Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson highlight features of ethnographic research:

  1. Study every aspect of individuals, including actions and behaviour, in real-life contexts, avoiding artificial arrangements—essentially a direct field study.

  2. Data can be gathered from documents, visual media, archival sources, but participant observation and informal methods are more prominent.

  3. Data collection is flexible and not based on rigid methods; research designs are often not fixed at the start.

  4. Focuses on small sample sizes or groups, allowing in-depth study of participants.

  5. Provides descriptive analysis of human actions and institutional practices based on fieldwork and participant methods like observation and interviews, rather than quantitative analysis.

• Ethnographers follow an open-ended approach, concluding research in natural settings.

• Ethnography and participant observation are used synonymously in qualitative research; participant observation requires negotiation and engagement with people in the field.

• Example: William Whyte’s study of “Street Corner Society” to understand slum society behaviour.

• Building rapport with participants is essential for informal interviews.

• Data recorded through written notes or audio-video equipment are often unstructured or interpretative, requiring significant effort and time for analysis.

• Ethnography uses a systematic, deliberate method to gather information from everyday perspectives, including interpretative analysis and critical perspectives from previous research.

• John W Brewer defines ethnography as the study of people in naturally occurring settings, capturing their social meanings and ordinary activities with the researcher participating directly but without externally imposed meanings.

• Brewer’s strategic plan for ethnographic research includes:
  ● Outline the topic and objectives
  ● Provide rationale for selection of research sites and cases
  ● Identify available resources (money, time, etc.)
  ● Consider sampling availability and scope
  ● Select appropriate data collection methods
  ● Address field problems, especially accessibility
  ● Define the role(s) of the fieldworker in interactions
  ● Identify form of analysis
  ● Identify form of presentation

• All aspects of cultural anthropology are based on fieldwork with first-hand information through constant monitoring and interaction with participants.

• Ethnography provides a highly analytical approach to cultural matters, collecting data on daily activities and behaviour through observation and formal/informal interviews.