Week 9

Ethnography is a study of people and their culture in naturally occurring settings

- Behaviour is observed in an unstructured way by carrying out in-depth discussions and interviews with the people studied
Goal of Ethnography

The goal is to describe the life of the community from the point of view of participants and with as little impact from outside as possible

The researcher is immersed in a particular social setting for a long period of time, sometimes even years

observational part

The terms "ethnography" and "participant observation" are essentially synonymous, although we will consider "ethnography" to be the more inclusive term

Ethnography includes participant observations, but also individual interviews, studying documents, and artefacts from the community

Ethnography also refers to a written account about a particular qualitative research

anthropology

Access to the field of research is a key point for any ethnography

It gives the researcher a chance to carry out the study

1.) Open or public settings (e.g., public parks, downtown sidewalks, etc.)
In an "open" setting may be difficult to make observations and talk to people

2.) Closed settings (those with some kind of boundary or restrictions to access)

overt, covert
open,closed

The people being studied know they are being observed by a researcher

The people being studied do not know they are being observed by a researcher

- Has many ethical concerns and is difficult to implement; overt ethnography is preferable

1- Use friends, contacts, and colleagues

2- Use help of a "gatekeeper"
- Someone who knows key participants and controls access to the setting
- The gatekeeper introduces the researcher to the field

3- Get someone in the organization to vouch for you: a "sponsor"

4- Offer something in return (e.g., a copy of the finished study)

Provide a clear explanation of your aims and methods

Be willing to negotiate the terms of access

Be open about how much time your research would take

In covert research: adopt and support a suitable social role

Similar process to access closed settings:

May need to get sponsors and gatekeepers on side

"Hanging around" may help (e.g. Whyte's Street Corner Society)
- But, it is difficult to achieve acceptance of strangers

Ongoing access can be problematic:

People get suspicious of the researcher's motives

Group members fear that what they say or do will get back to bosses or colleagues

People being studied may decide to sabotage the research

play up your credentials

do not give people a reason to dislike you

play a role and construct a "front"

have a plan for allaying people's suspicions

be prepared for tests of competence and credibility

be adaptable to changing circumstances in the research setting

are participants who are particularly knowledgeable and cooperative

Researcher may ignore other group members

Key informant's view may not be representative of the group as a whole and gets unduly represented in the research

1- complete participation
2- participant-as-observer
3- observer-as-participant
Complete participation
- pros?

Covert operations

The researchers adopts a secret role in the group; does not engage the participants at all

- No risk of reactivity

- But: the researcher has limited information for understanding the actions of the participants

This method gets the closest to participants and their activities but there is a risk of over-identification or developing a strong dislike of the participants
- Either may skew the data
Participant-as-observer

Researcher adopts a role in the group
Participants are aware who the researcher really is

- Risk of reactivity
Observer-as-participant

Researcher observes and interviews from the edge of the group

Risk of reactivity

Risks incorrect interpretation of activity

- complete participation
- participant-as-observer
- observer-as-participant
- complete observer
active role vs passive role: which is necessary?

Sometimes an active role is necessary in order to maintain credibility in the minds of the people studied

However, an active role may be physically dangerous, and may also have ethical implications (e.g., studying crime)

Field notes are detailed notes of events, conversations, and behaviour, and the researcher's initial reflection on them

- key source of data in ethnography

write down observations as soon as possible

- at the end of the day at the latest
- Using a audio recorder is often advantageous, but involves a lot of transcription
- Photography and video recording may be an option in some settings

Mental notes, jotted notes, full field notes

Remember and write later

Brief notes made at the time to refresh the memory when writing detailed notes later

Detailed notes of what was seen, heard, and reflection on situations

- Include comments on possible reactivity

Link observations to concepts
- Theories that may apply

Notes on data, but not the data notes
- Must be kept separate to avoid influencing the data notes

is an ethnography that uses visual materials (photos, pictures, films, or videos) as sources of data, documents, or illustrations of participant stories

- visual material
- Are produced in the process of research

- used as memory aids, like field notes
- data sources in their own right
- prompts for discussion

Realist approach

Reflexive approach

The material presented is taken as the "fact," the actual representation of reality, "window on the world"

Awareness of how the researcher influenced what the materials reveal

The reflexive approach recognizes that the visuals may be "collaborative" with the participants, and may be subject to multiple interpretations by different people
Photovoice
- form of what kind of research?

the technique of asking participants to take photographs themselves and then interpret them

Participants take photographs of their daily experiences and interpret them in terms of their own perspectives and identities

- This transfers a measure of power and control away from the researcher to them

- Can be used with people from marginalized communities.

- The focus is often to create social change

- Photovoice is a form of participatory action research
institutional ethnography

Study of the daily practices in institutions and how those reveal power inequalities or ruling relations in organizations:

- Looks at how institutional discourses relate to people's everyday experiences with these institutions


Institutional ethnography explores how institutional discourses (e.g., texts found in the workplace) relate to people's everyday experiences with institutions

- Examining institutional relationships may reveal larger systems of social control and power in a society

Studying daily activities is important because institutional representations, and in particular written texts:
- systematically exclude localized every-day relations
- conceal the power practices which influence the subordinated groups

Purposive sampling

Snowball sampling

Probability sampling (almost never used)

involves searching for people who are likely to be a rich source of information on the group or setting under study

A viable contact is used to identify others who may be willing to provide information on the topic of the study, who are then used to establish further contacts

A type of purposive sampling

- Theoretical sampling is meant to be an alternative strategy, used "in order to discover categories and their properties and to suggest the interrelationships into a theory"

- Theoretical sampling can involve people, settings, events, time, and contexts

- simultaneously collects and analyzes the data
- decides what data to collect next and where to find them
- develops a theory in the process

the point where new interviewees or settings look a lot like interviewees or settings one has observed before

In theoretical sampling, data collection (observing, interviewing, and collecting documents) continues until the point of theoretical saturation is reached:

- No new or relevant data seem to be emerging regarding a category

- The category is well developed in terms of its properties and dimensions demonstrating variation

- The relationships among categories are well established and validated

The end may be determined by practical or personal factors

It may result from saturation of categories
- There seems to be no new findings brought by the new data
- New data does not result in new concepts or categories, or in an elaboration of existing concepts or categories

Issues with leaving the field: saying goodbye, sharing results?

The interview is probably the most widely used method in qualitative research
- Ethnography usually involves a substantial amount of qualitative interviewing

unstructured and semi-structured (discussed shortly)
includes life-history interviews (studying biography), oral history interviews (studying historical events as reflected in people's lives), focus groups

is less structured and more likely to evolve as a natural conversation

is often conducted in the form of respondents narrating their personal experiences or life histories

can be a part of ethnography or stand-alone

is unstructured or semi-structured

aims to get a story (narrative interviews)

Qualitative interviews:
- Are more open-ended
- Greater interest in the interviewee's perspectives and concerns.
- Tangents are encouraged

Need to be flexible:
- May address topics introduced by the interviewee
- Rich, detailed answers sought
- Interviewee often interviewed more than once

The researcher uses only a brief set of points to introduce topics

- The only thing defined is the broad topic of interest
- Conversational
- No more than a short interview guide
- Starts with a single broader question
- Respondent's answers are in a free form

The researcher has a list of questions or topics to be covered.
- Offers a somewhat longer interview guide
Interviewees are still free to reply in any way they choose
- Questions may be asked out of order
- New questions may be devised and asked on the spot
- There is a clear focus on the topic of interest
- Useful when more than one interviewer
- Useful when there are several interviewees

Open ended questions used in interviews to encourage the responder for deeper analysis

1- What is interesting about this issue? Just what about this thing is puzzling me?

- Always be open to new issues that may arise
- Unstructured: Short list of issues
- Semi-structured: Longer list of actual questions

2- Establish some degree of loose order to the questioning process

3- Broad questions related to the research issues
Language that is understood by the participants
- No leading questions

4- Prompts to ensure sufficient personal information about the individual participant is collected to contextualize the data

Familiarize yourself with the setting to contextualize the data

Have good equipment and know how to use it

Use a quiet and private setting for interviews

Use good interview techniques (active listening)

Be knowledgeable about the topic of the study; clear in asking simple and understandable questions

Be gentle, sensitive, and open, so that the interviewee can freely express their opinion and not be interrupted

Be flexible and steering: flexible enough to respond to the new themes raised by the participant, but steering to redirect discussion

- Introducing questions
- Follow-up questions
- Probing questions
- Specifying questions: factual
- Direct questions: interviewee perceptions
- Indirect questions: perceptions of others
- Structuring questions
- Silence
- Interpreting questions

"Please tell me about when your interest in X first began?"

Rephrase the interviewee's answer and ask them to elaborate on the answer

"When you said that you are motivated, what do you mean by that?"

Short general questions inviting the respondent to reflect more deeply on what they already said without particular reference to details

"What do you mean by this?" "Can you give me an example?" "How so?"

"How do you feel about . . . ?"
"What do most people around here think of the ways that management treats its staff?"

"What did you do then?"

"Do you find it easy to keep smiling when serving customers?"

- Best left until later in the interview, in order not to influence the direction of the interview too much

"Now I would like to move on to a different topic"

A pause will give the interviewee an opportunity to reflect and amplify an answer

Don't pause for so long that the interviewee feels embarrassed

"Do you mean that your leadership role had to change from one of encouraging others to a more directive one?"

Listen- Primary intent is to listen to your interviewee

Avoid- Avoid bringing anxiety to the interviewee
DO NO HARM

Be- Vignette questions can be used to ground interviewees' ideas and accounts of behaviour in particular situations

- Present a scenario and ask what people think and would do

Note the following:
- How the interview went
- Where the interview was conducted
- Other feelings and issues raised during the interview
- What was going on around the interview

- values
- beliefs
- behaviour
- formal/informal roles
- relationships
- places
- emotions
- encounters
- stories

- Use an electronic recorder
- The interviewee should have consent to record
- Transcription
Transcription

Transcribe only the parts you need

Transcription is expensive and slow (5 to 6 hours to do 1 hour)

Training is required

Be careful:
Possible errors (mishearing, fatigue, carelessness)

- Be able to vary the order of questions and clear up inconsistencies in answers

- Flexibility is also important when audio recording equipment breaks down, or when an interviewee refuses permission for recording to take place

- Knowing when to switch off their recording equipment- Often people will speak more freely after the recorder is turned off
* Take notes immediately after the interview

Reflect on how your own interactions with participants have affected
- what was said
- how it was said
- what was left unsaid
Focus Groups

Focus groups are an interview with a group of four or more people who can interact with one another and the interviewer

- The value of focus groups is gaining access to the meanings that develop during the interaction with others rather than in isolation

- May bring out a wide variety of perspectives on an issue

- Brings out why people feel the way they do

A moderator or facilitator

naturalistic

Makes sure the discussion stays on the issue without directing too much

Makes sure all the people participate (no coercion)

Brings out how individuals collectively make decisions and interpretations

Researchers should conduct 10 to 15 groups

More if necessary for demographics that are diverse

Complete focus groups until you hit theoretical saturation
- Researchers can predict what will be said
- No substantial new information coming from the groups

- Depends on the topic and the goals of the research

- Morgan (1998) recommends six to ten people

- Smaller group can have benefits:

Controversial, complex, emotional

Opportunities can arise that do not happen with large groups

people who already know each other or already have had some interaction

- May be appropriate, depending on the goals of the research

- Useful if the research is actually about how social interaction occurs

Pre-existing styles of interaction or status hierarchies may affect the discussion

The group may have taken-for-granted assumptions that are not challenged
ASKING QUESTIONS IN FOCUS GROUPS

Usually, a small number of questions is used
- Opening, clarifying, or refocusing the group

Amount of intervention taken by the moderator depends on:
- the topic of the discussion
how much knowledge the participants have
the goals of the research

- Less control over discussion than interview
- An unwieldy amount of data may be produced
- The data may be difficult to analyze
- Personalities traits in room (dominant, quiet)
- Difficult when sensitive issues, social hierarchy, strongly opposed positions

Advantages:
- Usually smaller (Six to eight people)
- Several responses at once
(Flow is difficult)
- Overcomes geographical issues and sensitive topics
- Visual biases reduced
- Less reactive response to moderator
- Often a safe and friendly environment
*Done at home

- Take longer
- More difficult to establish rapport
- More difficult to probe
- Higher non-response
- Moderator cannot read body language
- Can't identify distracted participants
- Online connection may be lost

- Better for "seeing through the eyes of others"
- Better for learning the "native language"
- Can discover "things taken for granted"
- Better for uncovering deviant/hidden activities
- Can establish context of people's behaviour
- More naturalistic

- Some issues are not observable (e.g., frequency of criminal behaviours)
- Can reconstruct past events and future plans
- Less intrusive
- Longitudinal research easier
- Greater breadth of topics can be covered
- Addresses specific issues (May not come up in ethnographic observation)