Ethnography and participant observation

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Ethnography and participant observation

• 4th February 2008
• Marta Trzebiatowska

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Lecture outline

• What is ethnography?
• Gaining access to the research site
• Overt/covert research
• Doing fieldwork the researchers roles
• Sampling
• How to take fieldnotes and what to do with them
• Leaving the research setting
• Bryman (2004), Ch 14

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Definitions

• Ethnography an umbrella term for a family of
  qualitative research methods
• Often used interchangeably with participant
  observation
• The ethnographer immerses herself in a chosen
  setting for a prolonged period of time
• Watching, participating, asking questions
• Ethnography is both the method and the outcome
• F.ex. An ethnography of a primary
  school/convent/nightclub etc.

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Ethnography and fieldwork getting out there

1. Developing a research problem (what will you
   study and why?)
2. Choosing a setting (where?)
3. Participants (who?)
4. Access (how?)
5. Fieldwork observation, field notes interviews,
   and focus groups (what?)

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Access

• Why it may be hard to get in
• Personal attributes (age, gender, skin colour,
  nationality, class, sexual orientation)
• Research topic
• First impression
• Covert, overt, or semi-overt research?

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Access (cont.)

• Adjusting to the field
• Power relations
• Fairy Godmother (OReilly) is it always a
  blessing?
• The power of neutral information
• Learning from own mistakes and trying again
• Official/unofficial route
• Time
• Learning the language
• N.B. The process of gaining access never stops

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Gaining access an example

• Whyte (1955) Street Corner Society
• A study of young men in Cornerville
• A public setting/difficulties getting in
• Whyte befriended Doc, who turned into his key
  informant and gatekeeper

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Covert/overt research

• Most ethnography nowadays is semi-overt
• Covert the ethnographer does not reveal their
  true identity
• Overt the participants are aware of the
  researchers motives and they grant their consent
  for the data to be used

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Covert research an example

• Humphreys, L. (1970) Tearoom Trade Impersonal
  Sex in Public Places. Chicago Aldine
• Participant observation in public toilets
• Humphreys was a watch queen
• Obtained the mens personal details and
  subsequently interviewed them

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Doing fieldwork the researchers roles

• Feeling strange and insecure
• I was afraid of everything at the beginning. It
  was just fear of imposing on people, of trying to
  maintain a completely different role than anyone
  else around you. Am I going to be rejected?
  Am I really getting the data I need? (Wintrob
  (1969) cited in Hammersley and Atkinson, 1995
  114)
• Different roles (Gold, 1958)
• Complete participant (covert)
• Participant as observer (overt)
• Observer as participant (overt)
• Complete observer (overt)
• This distinction is not always useful you are
  never simply an observer

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Going native

• When the ethnographer becomes a member of the
  studied group/ loses the sense of being a
  researcher
• May be dangerous but it happens
• Religious conversion, romantic involvement with a
  research participant, taking on the views of the
  group studied

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Hunter Thompson (1967) Hells Angels

• By the middle of summer (1965) I became so
  involved in the outlaw scene that I was no longer
  sure whether I was doing research on the Hells
  Angels or being slowly absorbed by them. I found
  myself spending two or three days each week in
  Angel bars, in their homes, and on runs and
  parties. In the beginning I kept them out of my
  own world, but after several months my friends
  grew accustomed to finding Hells Angels in my
  apartment at any hour of the day or night. Their
  arrivals and departures caused periodic alarm in
  the neighbourhood and sometimes drew crowds.
  (Thompson, 1967 283)

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Research bargains

• Fieldwork constant interaction
• Impossible to sail through without any problems
• Fronts what you say, how you dress etc.
• Mistakes and close calls are part of the
  process and your data use them to learn and
  enhance your research experience
• Humility is the key

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Examples of uncomfortable research

• Fielding, N. (1981) The National Front
• An ethnography Fielding befriended several
  activists, conducted participant observation and
  analysed the ideology of the movement
• Patrick, J. (1973) A Glasgow Gang Observed.
  London Eyre Methuen
• Patrick joined a gang but left when the level of
  violence escalated

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Ethnographic fieldnotes

• When? What? How?
• When? ASAP, best during an observation but not
  always possible
• How? Rushed and fragmented, key words, pictures
  and drawings, even elaborate notes need refining
• CONSISTENCY! If in doubt, write it down

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Ethnographic fieldnotes (cont.)

• What?
• Impossible to record everything
• Sophistication comes with time
• Detailed can be good
• Especially if we are dealing with conversations
  and emotional situations

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Types of fieldnotes

• Jottings brief phrases to be developed
• Description everything you recall about the
  occasion (time, place, people, surroundings,
  animals, smells, sounds etc.)
• Analysis what have you learned so far?
• Reflection what was it like for you?

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Sampling

• Whatever is available
• or
• Convenience and snowball sampling
• Or
• Theoretical sampling gathering data in
  accordance with the emerging theory
• From a general research question to a hypothesis

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When does the ethnographer stop?

• Data saturation OR the field disintegrates
• Can be difficult because
• Your participants do not wish you to leave
• You find it hard to leave the setting
• You may feel relieved,
• Or sad,
• Or guilty
• Oritz, S. (2004) Leaving the Private World of
  Wives of Professional Athletes, Journal of
  Contemporary Ethnography, 33(4)
• Hunter Thompson (1965) Hells Angels

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Aftermath

• Keeping in touch a moral obligation?
• Feeding the data back to the participants
• Follow-up research