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Summary Participant observation - a guide for fieldworkers
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By: lottewildeboer • 5 year ago
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Chapter 1 - What is participant observation?Participant observation is a method in which a researcher takes part in
the daily activities, rituals, interactions, and events of a group of people
as one of the means of learning the explicit and tacit aspects of their life
routines and their culture.
● Explicit: explicit culture is a part of what people are able to
articulate about themselves.
● Tacit: aspects of culture largely remain outside our awareness or
consciousness.
Qualitative research has its goal in understanding of the nature of
phenomena, and is not necessarily interested in assessing the magnitude
and distribution of phenomena.
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Key elements of the method of participant observation:
● living in the context for an extended period of time
● learning and using local language and dialect
● Actively participating in a wide range of daily, routine, and
extraordinary activities with people who are full participants in that
context
● Using everyday conversation as an interview technique
● Recording observations in feld notes
● Using both tacit and explicit information in analysis and writing.
Participant observation provides several advantages:
1. It enhances the quality of the data obtained during feldwork
2. It enhances the quality of the interpretation of data, whether those
data are collected through participant observation or by other
methods (It is thus both a data collection and analytical tool).
3. It encourages the formulation of new research questions and
hypotheses grounded in on-the-scene observation.
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,Chapter 2 - learning to be a participant observer (theoretical
issues)
Skills needed for participant observation: learning to be an observer and
learning to be a participant: fttin in, ‘active seeing’, short-term memory,
informal interviewing, recording detailed feld notes, patience.
Purte parttcicpatcdn:
● going native and becoming the phenomena: when a researcher
sheds the identity of investigator and adopts the identity of a full
participant in the culture, is generally associated with a loss of
analytical interest and often results in the inability of the
researcher to publish his/her materials.
Continuum
● nonparticipation (no membership role): occurs when cultural
knowledge is acquired by observing phenomena from outside the
research setting. It does not employ participant observation.
● Passive participation (no membership role): exists when the
researcher is on the spot, but acts a a pure observer (the
researcher does not interact with the people). more a role of a
spectator or bystander. At this level, those being observed may not
even know that they are under observation.
● Moderate participation (peripheral membership role): occurs when
the ethnographer is present at the scene of action, is identifable as
a researcher, but does not actively participate or only occasionally
interacts with people in it. The researcher is in the scene, but
acting as an observer.
● Active participation (active membership): when the ethnographer
engages in almost everything that other people are doing as a
means of trying to learn the cultural rules for behavior.
● Complete participation (full membership): the ethnographer
becomes a member of the group that is being studied. Not the
same as going native!!: “a temporary event in which the researcher
suspends other roles, in order to more fully integrate with the
phenomenon, but continues to record observations in feld notes
and adopts an analytical stance at least partially during the
research period”.
Determining the degree of participation and level of membership is
sometimes done by the researcher and sometimes done by the
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, community. It should be emphasized that Spradley and Adler & Adler
identify types of categories, the balance between observation and
participation achieved by an individual researcher can fall anywhere
along the continuum.
The key point is that researcher should be aware of the compromises in
access, objectivity, and community expectations that are made at any
particular place along the continuum.
● Narrative ethnography: combines the approaches of writing a
standard monograph about the people being studied (the Other)
with an ethnographic memoir centering the anthropologist (the
Self).
The balance between observation and participation can be infuenced by
a number of factors:
● personal characteristics (gender, age, class, ethnicity, insecurity)
● participation in illegal activities
Some researcher limit their participation when: losing objectivity, get put
into a dangerous situation. Other choose to do covert research (not
making clear you do research).
Limitations to PO:
● Situations in which ethnographers study shamanistic use of
hallucinogens or other drugs or high risk secual practices.
● Face ethical dilemma’s.
Chapter 3 - Doing participant observation (becoming a
Participant)
● Covert entry: the researcher does not make explicit that he is
engaged in a research project. May be a reasonable choice in
research that involves nonparticipation of passive participation (not
ethical).
Initial approaches for gaining entry:
A. In research outside the researcher's home country either a special
visa for research or a formal research permit may be required.
B. After taking care of issues at the national level, the next step is to
identify local leaders and organizations who represent the
community in which the research will take place, or who have
access to the setting in which the research will take place: the local
gatekeepers.
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