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Summary Article KOM - Jorgenson - Participant Observation
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A summary of an article for the Qualitative Research Methodology Exam (2020/2021). This summary is written in English.
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GAINING ENTRÉE TO A SETTING (40-52)Selecting a setting. The more you know about a setting, the easier it is to make an informed
decision about whether or not it will be possible to investigate the topic of interest. Partly for
this reason, participant observers commonly explore a variety of possible settings at least
casually while anticipating whether or not the setting is appropriate for the research problem.
The decision to participate in a setting sometimes is based on opportunity and convenience.
Selection of a setting for participant observation is contingent on (1) whether or not you can
obtain access to the setting, (2) the range of possible participant roles you might assume, and
(3) whether or not this role (or roles) will provide sufficient access to phenomena of interest.
Features of settings. Some occasions will be open to almost anyone, while other occasions
will be closed to just anyone. Similarly, some situations within a setting will be readily visible
to almost everyone, while other situations will be largely invisible to all but a few people.
These characteristics of field settings, as implied here, vary by degree, and they occur in
various combinations.
Visible to invisible. The visibility of particular aspects of human life depends on where you
are located, as well as on your previous knowledge and experience.
- A setting is visible when information about it is available to a general public.
- Some human settings are almost entirely invisible from the standpoint of outsiders.
These settings are hidden, concealed, and obscured from the view of outsiders. This
knowledge even may be a secret protected by insiders. Locating these settings is
extremely difficult without prior experience with more visible aspects of these human
scenes. This knowledge may be acquired by gaining the trust and confidence of an
insider willing to talk with you.
Open to closed. A human setting is more or less open if access to it requires little negotiation.
Whether or not a setting is open or closed to participant observation is only partly related to
its visibility. Simply because a setting is highly visible, as in the case of hospitals or
corporations, certainly does not mean that it is open to public inspection. Likewise, because a
setting is only partly visible to outsiders does not mean that it is closed to participant
observation. E.g. human activities in settings such as public parks, beaches, streets, and areas
for spectator sports tend to be readily visible and open to any observer with sufficient
knowledge of American culture to know where to look.
Goffman (1959) distinguishes between “frontstage” as opposed to “backstage” regions of
human settings. While some settings, such as public dining rooms, are almost entirely front
stage, other settings, such as non-public bathrooms or the bedroom of a home, largely are
backstage regions.
Politics. Most human settings are to some extent political. In other words, they involve the
use of power by people. In human settings people are ranked by values associated with the
positions they occupy and the roles they perform. Human settings generally are stratified:
Differential amounts of prestige are attached to people based on their status and role. Power
and prestige usually are related: People with more prestige tend to have greater power than
people accorded less prestige. Power and prestige within human settings commonly are the
source of conflict and disagreement, sometimes among rival factions.
, Failure to notice and respond appropriately to these aspects of human settings may create
serious difficulties for the participant observer.
Entrée strategies. When the researcher openly requests permission to observe, the strategy is
called overt. This direct approach to entrée is preferred because it raises few ethical
problems, is less difficult than other approaches, and, when granted, tends to provide adequate
access to phenomena of interest. The other basic strategy for gaining entrée—especially to
settings closed to outsiders—is covert. In this case, the researcher assumes some participant
role without informing people in the setting that research is under way.
Overt strategies. Under most circumstances, overt access is gained by seeking permission
from the highest possible authority, and gradually convincing them, as well as other people in
the setting, that the researcher can be trusted. In seeking permission to participate and
observe, the researcher should present the appropriate authority (board, director, and so on)
with a copy of a proposal to do participant observational research.
Because possible grounds for denial may be difficult to foresee, it is extremely useful to
discuss these issues informally with authorities prior to presenting the formal proposal. A
most useful strategy for gaining access is to gain the trust and confidence of an authority in
the setting. In addition, it is helpful to have the support of people whose opinions are valued
by the authority, or people whose opinions the authority must respect for perhaps purely
political reasons—such as when the supporting party has some legislative or economic
control over the setting.
Covert strategies. Aside from being dishonest, covert strategies violate the norm of informed
consent because people are unable to agree to participate in the research. However, it may be
necessary to receive a ‘real’ view of the observed data.
Comprehensive and selective observation. Selecting a setting for study and identifying
situations to be observed within a setting are decisions about what phenomena will be
observable.
Theoretical or judgmental sampling is a form of nonprobability sampling that depends on
the researcher's ability to make decisions about what to observe based on constraints such as
opportunity, personal interest, resources, and, most important, the problem to be investigated.
The researcher develops a logic for selecting particular phenomena for study. As in
probability sampling, the researcher generally is able to estimate the likelihood that these
observations are appropriate and representative of the phenomenon studied. Unlike
probability sampling, the researcher is unable to sample or estimate error by recourse to a
simple statistical formula.
“Snowball” sampling is especially useful when the phenomenon of interest is obscured,
hidden, or concealed from the viewpoint of an outsider. The basic idea of snowball sampling
is to obtain sufficient information from a known instance of the phenomenon to be able to
identify and locate subsequent instances for observation. As the name suggests, phenomena
for observation tend to grow like a snowball through this procedure.
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