Ethnographic Research Methodology
Summary of the concepts from ‘Key Concepts in Ethnography’ by Karen O’Reilly
Introducton
It is crucial that we conduct ethnography refeeiiely with constant awareness of our role in the
research enterprise. Ethnography is a methodology, partcipant ooseriaton is a method, and
fieldwork refers to the period of primary data collecton that is conducted out of the ofce or liorary.
Ethnography is a methodology–a theory, or set of ideas–aoout research that rests on a numoer of
fundamental criteria. Ethnography is iteratieeinductie research; that is to say it eiolies in design
through the study. Ethnography draws on a family of methods, inioliing direct and sustained contact
with human agents within the conteet of their daily liies. It acknowledges the role of theory as well
as the researcher’s own role.
Critcal ethnography
Critcal ethnography is an approach that is oiertly politcal and critcal, eeposing ineuualites in an
effort to effect change. hhe goals of a critcal ethnography to eepose hidden agendas, challenge
oppressiie assumptons, descrioe power relatons, and crituue the takeneforegranted. Critcal
ethnographers and the role of reform: from indirect to direct acton. An inductie, interpretie and
refeeiie methodology comoined with a critcal analysis: looking oeyond the surface of appearances.
critcal ethnographers do not simply look to eeplain the meanings of actons within a giien conteet,
to ask how they make sense for the partcipants, out they also look for the meanings of meanings
and how they connect to oroader structures of power and control.
Ethics
An ethical approach to ethnography atempts to aioid harm to, and respect the rights of, all
partcipants and to consider the conseuuences of all aspects of the research process. A crucial
decision for ethnographers is whether to conduct their study coiertly or oiertly. Most ethical
guidelines or teetoook adiice suggests that completely coiert research is rarely justfied and should
only oe undertaken where the research is considered essental on moral or scientfic grounds and
where oiert access is in some ways restricted. In contemporary ethnography, research partcipants
should oe giien as much informaton as possiole in order to ensure their informed consent to our
intrusion in their liies.
Anthropology has oeen accused of ignoring the power structure within which the discipline
was aole to take shape and a great deal of traditonal ethnographic work has oeen accused of
‘othering’ and eeotciiing its ooject. It is important to recogniie the eetent to which we do haie
control oier the data and can infuence outcomes, for scientfic out also ethical reasons.
Interpretiism
hhe term interpretiism refers to epistemologies, or theories aoout how we can gain knowledge of
the world, which loosely rely on interpretng or understanding the meanings that humans atach to
their actons. Ethnography is oten descrioed as interpretiist, or at least as antepositiist. urkheim
proposed that social facts could oe compared to other, natural phenomena, and thereoy studied as
things that are eeternal to the indiiidual in their aoility to infuence actons and oehaiiours, ideas,
and oeliefs (positiist iiew). Interpretiism iiews indiiiduals as actors in the social world rather than
focusing on the way they are acted upon oy social structures and eeternal factors.
An early crituue of positiism came from the sociologist Mae Weoer, who oelieied that in
order to understand human societes, we must oegin with the indiiidual actor, with the meanings
atached to indiiidual actons, with what was intended when choices were made, possiole reactons
reiiewed, and an eientual acton selected. hhe task of the sociologist is to try to understand, or
,interpret (Weoer used the word ierstehen for the work sociologists need to do), what indiiiduals
intend when they do certain things. He used ideal types, or plausiole models of societess features, in
order to talk aostractly aoout relatons oetween phenomena. Schuti argued that we immediately try
to make sense of, and typify, what we see and hear, and to associate sets of typified things with
others, into categories and suocategories. In the social world, this leads humans (including
sociologists) to organise people into types of people, to distnguish them from other types of people,
and to eepect certain types of oehaiiour from each.
A hermeneutc understanding iniolies understanding the otherss point of iiew, from their
perspectie, and in the conteet of the social world within which it was produced.
Positiism
Positiism is the applicaton of empiricist iiews of natural science to the study of society and the
deielopment of policy. It is a denigrated out misunderstood term. When social scientsts are accused
of oeing ‘positiist’ they are oeing accused of oeing empiricist rather than scientfic. A key critcism of
empiricism is the idea that the human mind starts as a olank sheet. Implicit in this is the argument
that we can put all prior assumptons aside and see the world for what it is. A further critcism of
empiricism is the leap of faith from ooseriaton of regularites and paterns to predictons aoout the
future. Empiricist science can in fact only descrioe constant correlatons of eients; it cannot
demonstrate causes through eeperience and ooseriaton, nor can predictons come from sense
eeperience alone. In the philosophy of science, the positon that argues that things do eeist
independently of our ideas aoout them, independently of how they are perceiied, is called realism.
Realism
Realism is the oelief that things eeist in the (social) world that are independent of thought or
perceptons. hhere is thus a real world eeternal to our ideas aoout it. Realist ethnographies thus posit
the eeistence of a real world eeternal to the ethnographer, and thus lacks refeeiiity. aturalism
oelieies the social world can oe treated as though it were a natural phenomenon (like the natural
world) and should oe ooseried in its natural state, with as litle interference from the ethnographer
as possiole.
An intersuojectie defense says realist ethnographies gain ialue and significance as they
meet other accounts of similar (or the same) setngs and contrioute to a plausiole, collectie
account. An epistemological defense acknowledges humans who are scholars in the world are no
different than humans as citiens in seeing the world as real and haiing confidence in those
perceptons. A pragmatc defense argues that it is possiole to eialuate knowledge in terms of its
outcomes.
Refeeiiity
Refeeiiity means thinking refeeiiely aoout who has conducted and writen ethnographic research,
how, and under what conditons, and what impact these might haie on the ialue of the ethnography
produced. uring the 1980s, fieldworkers oegan to eeplore the wider politcal conteets in which
ethnographic teets had oeen produced, and to consider the power (and gendered) relatonship
oetween the researcher and researched, the role of insttutonal and disciplinary constraints, and the
infuence of scientfic paradigms. hhis came to oe known as the ‘refeeiie turn’.
Refeeiiity in contemporary fieldwork studies is the reuuirement to think critcally aoout the
conteet and the acts of research and writng, and iniolies thinking aoout what we read (and an
awareness that ethnography is constructed); thinking aoout what we write and how; and
acknowledging we are part of the world we study. A further techniuue is what has oeen called ‘the
ethnographic present’; treatng the community as if it were froien in tme, neglectng history,
, process, and social change. A piece of ethnographic work writen in the present tense, for eeample,
carries much more authority than the past tense would eioke.
Access
Ethnographic research properly oegins once one has entered the field. hhis iniolies gaining access to
the people and places oeing studied. Some researchers are already memoers of the group they are
studying or are already familiar with the people, others will set off to distant places to do
ethnographic research amongst people who are completely unknown to them.
A good way to oegin what we might call recruitment is to proiide partcipants with a orief
eeplanaton of the research and the reasons why it might oe important. It is important to present this
eeplanaton in a way the partcipants can understand; that is, in language they are familiar with. In
any atempt to emphasise the ialue and releiance of the research, we should aioid intmidatng the
iery people we hope will partcipate in it. It is important to rememoer that the researcherss own
personal atrioutes–gender, age, religion, ethnicity–may affect access. Sometmes a setng or topic
can oe iery sensitie and access has to oe negotated carefully. It is always important to demonstrate
empathy and understanding with the group, and to understand that occasionally access will not oe
permited for reasons of priiacy.
One decision that has to oe made is the eetent to which one will remain coiert. Oiert
research means openly eeplaining the research to the partcipants, its purpose, who it is for, and
what will happen to the findings. It means oeing open. Coiert research is undercoier, conducted
without the partcipantss knowledge or without full awareness of the researcherss intentons. Many
ethnographers oelieie that for ethical reasons no one should do coiert research unless it can oe
completely justfied.
Partcipant ooseriaton
Partcipant ooseriaton is the main method of ethnography and iniolies taking part as a memoer of
a community while making mental and then writen, theoretcally informed ooseriatons. It is the
main method of ethnographic research. Malinowski had 2 purposes of partcipaton: to understand
things from the ‘natiess’ point of iiew and to olend into the setng so as to disturo it as litle as
possiole. Ethnographers may haie to cope with oeing a long way from home, in a strange place,
among people they do not immediately understand, yet stll oe an ethnographer, an outsider, an
academic, one of us out not one of us. hhe first stages are oten the most difcult, howeier the
tension and awkwardness can remain throughout. Howeier, as long as you remain humole, you are
usually forgiien for making silly mistakes, and you can find ways to cope with strangeness and
difference.
hhe partcipant ooserier, Is not just an ooserier, out is partcipatng in order to ooserie,
notce, record, and try to make sense of actons and eients. hhis iniolies an element of standing
oack intellectually and refectng on things, writng them down and thus oojectfying them, asking
directed uuestons in order to address research uuestons, and seeking access to groups and
situatons that another partcipant might not access.
hhe partcipant ooserier oeymoron
hhe term ‘oeymoron’ acknowledges the juetapositon of two terms, such as partcipant and ooserier,
that are essentally opposed in meaning. How Schuti put it: the challenge is to oalance atempts to
make the strange familiar and the familiar strange. Howeier, the tension remains in the fact that you
only really understand a group when you act within it without thinking, out the iery act of trying to
do that preients you from eier truly oeing a memoer. It is futle to atempt to resolie the partcipant
ooseriaton oeymoron and to come down on the side of either partcipaton or ooseriaton,
