Brewer. John D. (2000) Ethnography (Buckingham: Open University Press)

Once upon a time, not so long ago, when flophouses were flophouses and Inuit were Eskimos, we had social scientific method. Sociologists read books in order to learn how to be sociologists and then simply got on with the job, sometimes badly. Now we have social science methodology, which is where you establish the epistemological and ontological arguments which underpin your method.

methodology ---> procedural rules = methods ---> knowledge

Method and Methodology

Little Ethnography = fieldwork, defined as follows:

"Ethnography is the study of people in naturally occurring settings or 'fields' by means of methods which capture their social meanings and ordinary activities, involving the researchers participating directly in the setting, if not also the activities, in order to collect data in a systematic manner but without meaning being imposed them externally." (p.10)

Roots in UK Social Anthropology and Chicago School Sociology.
Sociology dealing with concepts which have common sense meanings, which sociology may affirm or challenge.

Ethnology differs from journalism in the following ways:

• Researcher's commitment to greater depth of thought

• More sustained periods of investigation

• More rigorously reflexive

'Big' and 'little' ethnography
Big = ethnology understood as the qualitative method
Little= ethnography understood as fieldwork

Most contemporary writing on ethnography combine both.
The top British ethnographic writers are M. Hammersley, P. Atkinson and R. Burgess.

Relevant term - auto-observation, see Adler, P. A. and Adler, P. (1998) Observational Techniques, in N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln [Eds] (1998) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials (London: Sage)

Naturalism:

• Social world is not reducible to an external reality, but is created, recreated, perceived and interpreted by people themselves

• Knowledge of social world must give access to actors' own accounts

• People live in bounded social contexts and are thus best studied in their natural settings

Imperatives that follow from naturalism:

• Researcher must ask for meanings in a way which allows people to use their own words

• Researcher must ensure people describe meanings in depth because they are complex

• Researcher needs to address the social context in which meaning making takes place

"...the principle methodological justification for ethnography comes from naturalism and the humanistic model of social research." (p.37) although "there is not a single philosophical or theoretical orientation that can lay unique claim to supply the rationale for ethnography..." (p.39)

The double crisis of ethnography
The 'crisis of representation'

Problems with 'thick' description, which humanists use to achieve "a 'realist' narrative of the social world from the inside" (p.39/40) with scientific ethnographers holding similar views. Against this, anti-realism. Naive realism as 'the doctrine of immaculate perception' and scepticism of claims of detachment, objectivity, theoretical neutrality and the centrality of language. The answer (perhaps overstated) is reflexivity.

Reflexivity includes being reflexive about the data, by taking a critical attitude towards factors such as location, sensitivity of the topic and the social interaction between the researcher and researched (autoethnography and Carolyn Ellis don't even get mention in the book!) - "identifying contingencies in the portrayal" (p.44) of a social phenomenon.

The 'crisis of legitimacy'

Challenge to validity (or internal validity), reliability and generalizability of data.
Responses:
Hammersley (1990) 'Subtle realism'
Altheide and Johnson (1998) 'analytical realism'
Bhasker (1989)  and Porter (1993; 1995) 'critical realism'
Brewer (1994) 'ethnographic imagination'

Post postmodern ethnography
Subtle Realism - validity = plausibility, credibility and evidence tests. In addition to validity, relevance

Analytical Realism - five processes to be addressed by ethnographer

• the relationship between the observed and the larger context;

• the relationship between the observer, the observed and the field;

• the perspective of interpretation of the ethnographic data

• the role of the reader/audience

• the representational, rhetorical or authorial style of the ethnographer

Critical Realism - similar to Gidden's structuration, but with a stronger empirical thrust

• make apparent the underlying assumptions and values of the research

• identify its methodological basis

• make explicit the theoretical issues which the research hopes to illuminate

• make explicit the ontological status the social structures are given

The Ethnographic Imagination
"...the postmodern critique of ethnography ... can be used to develop a set of guidelines for good ethnographic practice in this reflexive, postmodern moment." (p.51). Three assumptions of ethnography:

• Field data interpreted reflexively can be used to represent a social world within the confines of ethnographic text

• Micro-social events can be linked to broader social processes where the grounds for such generalizations are made clear

• People's understandings of their own social lives must be taken into account in order to fully understand the social world

Guidelines linked to this:

• Establish the wider relevance of the setting;

• Establish the wider relevance of the topic;

• Identify the grounds on which empirical generalizations are made (e.g. the representativeness of the setting or its function as a special case study);

• Identify the features of the topic addressed in the study and those not;

• Identify reasons for topic focus and the implications for research for this decision;

• Identify the theoretical framework in operation;

• Identify the broader values and commitments brought to the work;

• Establish integrity by outlining:

  • the grounds on which knowledge claims are justified (eg. length of fieldwork, level of rapport with people involved in study);

  • the researcher's pertinent background and experiences;

  • experiences during the stages of research, including limitations;

  • the strengths and weaknesses of the research strategy/design.

• Establish the authority of the data by:

  • discussing problems arising at all stages;

  • clarifying the codification procedures and its origins (researcher, and hence analysis thereof, or people involved in research);

  • discussing alternative ways of data organisation;

  • sufficient data quoted to permit reader validation;

  • discuss power relations and issues pertaining to gender, class, etc.

• Demonstrate the data's complexity by:

  • discussing exceptions and contradictions within data and its codification;

  • discussing the impact of context on what people involved actually say.

The Research Process in Ethnography

Ethnography as a process but one which nonetheless requires careful research design, albeit one that is open to amendment as required.

A design plan should incorporate the following considerations:

• outline/features of topic, including aims and objectives;

• choice of field and how field/informants selected;

• resources the implications of such for research;

• sampling of time/events in field;

• method(s) of data collection;

• negotiating access to field and issues of trust;

• fieldworkers role;

• the nature of analysis;

• the way in which the analysis is reported.

Data collection techniques

Triangulation (multiple methods) in order to extend range of data. These include:

Participant Observation
In this instance, observant participation, whereby the researcher is already a member of the community which she/he is researching. Use of field notes. Not sufficient as a method in itself.

Interviewing

Krieger's 1983) 'polyphonic interviewing' & Denzin's (1989) 'interpretative interactionism aim to give subjects greater voice, "but what they really describe is alternative ways of presenting interview data." (p.67)

* Feminist interviews - redrawing power relations in order to get better access to the subject's voice based on critique of masculinized approach to interviewing. Draw attention to need for emotional engagement.

Feminist ethnography, see: Harvey, J. (1994) Researching major life events,  in Studies of Qualitative Methodology, 4, p.137-70

* Oral history interviews.

Personal Documents

Studies of Natural Language - in the Tasneem Project, CDA

Vignettes (possible - e.g. what would you do if the mosque was closed?)

Case Study

In a sense, all ethnography is case study

Stake (1998: 88-9)

• intrinsic

• instrumental - for probable use in the Tasneem Project research: "facilitates understanding of something else, whether it be a theoretical debate or a social problem" (p.76) - facilitates understanding of cyber Muslim networks (Bunt, 2005).

• collective

Generalization

Inference of a statement from the data which is then applied beyond the data which it is based. Generalizations are theoretical in most instances, but for details of generalizing to populations see page 77ff.

Other issues

Access

The fieldworker role

Gold (1958) - complete participant; participant-as-observer; observer-as-participant; complete observer. Better seen as ideal types.

Developing a role and establishing trust

Recording data

Ethics

Handling identity in the field

I have not detailed much about these issues because most of them present unique problems with me being a participant in my own community and with that community being located in a 3-D virtual reality.

© Tasneem Project 2005

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