Doing Ethnography. Amanda Coffey
guide the research endeavour.
The first of these ethnographic principles is to understand the importance of context in seeking to make sense of a culture or social setting. Social actors, events, actions and interactions must be seen and understood in relation to the cultural context in which they are situated. This includes paying attention to the local circumstances, as well as to the historical, spatial, temporal and organizational frames of a setting and of social lives lived of and within that setting. This, then, is a recognition that accounts of settings have to be contextualized in relation to the totality of that setting. This commitment means not making premature assumptions about what or who is important and striving to develop a better understanding of the context in which and through which things are done and things are said. This broader view means that the significance of particular people, actions, events and interactions may only retrospectively become clear. This also means being absolutely apparent that, as social researchers or ethnographers, we cannot ever produce a complete or exhaustive account or analysis of a setting. Rather, by appreciating the complexity of a setting, ethnographers are then able to be selective in their observations and analysis in order to produce a coherent account. Such accounts are always partial and should be acknowledged as such. This commitment to holism – to situating the particular within the broader context while also recognizing that it is rarely or indeed ever possible to gain a complete picture – is central to the ethnographic enterprise.
Attention to process is also a badge of ethnographic research. Process in the ethnographic context can mean two different but related things. The first, drawing on the interactionist tradition, emphasizes that social life is itself fluid and moving, a process rather than a fixed and bounded entity. Thus social life is emergent out of processes of action and interaction. Ethnographers are interested in how interactional processes are enacted and understood in order to give order and meaning to social life. Ethnographers explore patterns, structures and routines through which interaction provides meaning. The second ethnographic commitment to process is with the research process itself, always paying close and reflexive attention to the ways in which research takes place and to the approaches through which the researcher accesses the site of study, builds rapport and trust, and shapes the focus and outcomes of the research.
Most ethnographic research is also usually ‘field’ based, that is undertaken in situ – with/in the research settings and conducted first-hand, by the researchers themselves. This is a commitment again to context, but also to participant experience. The primary instrument of data collection in ethnography is the researcher, who is in various ways engaged in observing, listening, asking, interacting and recording. This also assumes a commitment on behalf of the researcher to the research setting and the people, and usually some kind of prolonged and/or deep engagement. This can be really, properly long-term engagement, sometimes over several years or decades. But it can also mean a matter of weeks or series of hours. There is something here about the quality of the engagement rather than a preoccupation with time spent.
Undertaking ethnographic research also recognizes the dialogic and interactional nature of social life. Ethnographers are committed to identifying and recording the perspectives and understandings of social actors. There is an awareness that social realities are complex and multiple, and may be competing; and that there may be a range of perspectives and many voices. There is an acknowledgement and acceptance that social actors are themselves knowledgeable and skilful incumbents of their own social and cultural worlds. They are the experts here, and the role of the researcher is to recognize and attempt to capture those highly developed sets of knowledges and skills.
The ethnographic approach to research also seeks to make sense of both talking and doing. Alongside a focus on action and activity within a social setting, is an understanding that social actors account for their actions, and in ways that might differ from what actually happens. There is not a superficial concern here with how people might do one thing and say another. Nor are we seeking out inconsistencies between what people do and what they say they do. Rather, taking accounts seriously in ethnographic work provides a way of investigating and understanding both how people make sense of what they do and how they do the things they do. Moreover, by focusing on talking and doing ethnographers are able to explore both action and meaning.
Finally, ethnography is not only a way of seeing or hearing, but also a way of telling. Ethnography includes a commitment and an imperative to re-present and represent social life. Writing – producing the ‘ethnography’ – is a central part of the ethnographic endeavour, not something that simply happens after the research event. Writing is part of the research process and requires the same reflexive attention as other aspects of the research act. Conventionally, the ‘ethnography’ has been conceptualized as a scholarly narrative monograph, in which and through which the ethnographer tells the story of the research setting, usually through literary conventions of narrative prose. However, there are a range of ways in which ethnographers can represent the field and tell the story of the research setting. The principle can thus be extended to a broader range of ethnographic production, whereby ethnographers are concerned to provide representational and reflexive accounts of their research, drawing on a range of conventions and genres, which may include literature, art, film and performance.
Key points
Ethnography is concerned with understanding social worlds through researcher engagement and participation.
Ethnography is a term that is used to describe a research process and a research product.
Modern ethnography emerged out of social and cultural anthropological practice of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; used in order to study small ‘traditional’ societies.
Ethnographic methods are now used by researchers from across a broad spectrum of disciplines and fields of study, to investigate a wide range of settings.
Ethnography has been influenced by and has influenced a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives, including feminism, ethnomethodology, social interactionism and postmodernism.
Key principles of ethnographic research practice include:understanding the importance of context in studying social settings and social lives;attention to process in social life and in research;researcher engagement and participation in the research setting;recognizing the dialogic and interactional nature of social life;a commitment to writing and representation.
Further reading
Atkinson, P. and Hammersley, M. (2007) Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 3rd ed. London: Routledge.
Gobo, G. (2008) Doing Ethnography. London: Sage.
O’Reilly, K. (2008) Key Concepts in Ethnography. London: Sage.
Chapter Two Ethnography and research design
contents
Designing an ethnographic project 16
Identifying suitable topics and problems 17
Fields of study and developing research questions 19
Methods of data generation 20
Analysis and reflection 23
Objectives
After reading this chapter, you will:
have an understanding of the kinds of research topics, problems and settings that might be particularly well suited to an ethnographic approach;
be able to identify some of the methods available for data generation in ethnographic research; and
have an appreciation of the ethnographic research process, including the relationship between data collection and data analysis.
Designing an ethnographic project
Planning an ethnographic research project is both exciting and challenging, precisely because