Qualitative Methods - 8. Ethnography

How we study people in naturally occurring settings

Observations

Gaining access

- Closed vs. open seetings/ Private vs. public - Vovert vs. overt access / be transparent about your role as a researcher or not

Naturalistic vs. constructionistic ethnography

- Decribe realities vs. understand how realities are constructed - Understand meanings vs. understand the construction of meaning - What's going on vs. How can they accomplish this - Field notes as snap shots of the field vs. transcripts to reveal the unexpected details of the field

Benefits of netnography

- Efficiency: Cheap and efficient way of collecting data - Number of participants: Large number can be studied - Historic view: Trace back several years, thereby gives an opportunity to understand the history/development of a topic or community

Characteristics of ethnographic research

- No generalization of the findings - Acknowledging the context of the situation - Discover and uncover relationships - Investigation of very few cases, maybe just one case, in detail - Exploration of social pgenomena rather than testing hypotheses - Ethnographies focus on describing the culture of a group in very detailed and complex manner - Data collection mainly interviews, texts, observations

Developing analysis of field data

- Positivist approach: does not exist since ethnography is not a valid method - Naturalist approach: Ethnography represents the people's world, grounded theory - Constructionist approach: Ethnography provides insights into people's own accounts, relational -> ethnomethodology and conversation analysis

Format / structure of netnography

- Research site: Online communities - Data: Textual data incl. video, audio and pictures - Research method: Less intrusive, little influence by researcher, individuals reveal information unasked and voluntarily online - Data collection: Directly from online communities

What is ethnography

- Systematic study of people and cultures - Examination of the behaviour of the participants in a specific social situation and understanding their interpretation of such behaviour

How we can analyse people in naturally occurring settings

- Thick description - Toward an interpretive theory of culture

Core aspects of methodological issues

1. Defining a research question 2. Choosing research site 3. Gaining access 4. Finding an identity 5. Recording observations 6. Developing analysis of field data

Participant observation

A research method in which investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities: - Main element of conducting ethnographic research - Systematic noting and recording of events, artefacts and behaviours of informants as they authentically occur

Institutional Ethnography

A research technique in which the personal experiences of individuals are used to reveal power relationships and other characteristics of the institutions within which they operate.

Defining a research question

Decomposing the topic, narrowing down the processes to be studied

Setting for conducting ethnographic research

Field based: Conducted in a setting in which real people actually live, work, act, socialize, etc.

Recording observations

First step into analysis: What to include, what not and how to place cameras and what sort of recordings to include (field notes, audio- or video-recordings

Finding an identity

Shadowing: following the people in their ordinary activities throughout space and time

Aim of participant observation

To understand the ways in which people act and communicatively interact

Choosing research site

What is a relevant case for your study

Netnography

a branch of ethnography that studies the behavior of online cultures and communities

Often participant observations are complemented with...

interviews