Geography 23350: Qualitative MethodsWeek 4

Dr Malcolm Fairbrother29/10/2009

ETHNOGRAPHY

Outline1) Purser 20092) Defining Ethnography3) Why (Not) Ethnography?4) Other Examples of Ethnography5) Dilemmas in Ethnography6) Origins of Ethnography7) Instructions for the Practical

(1) Purser 2009• context: immigration and the U.S.

labour market• two sites to investigate the

subjective experience of day labouring

• finding: the pursuit of dignity, and comparisons to the undignified

• gender: what it means to be a man• methods: hanging around and

watching, interviews

(1) Purser 2009

(1) Purser 2009

(2) Defining Ethnography“social research based on the close-up, on-the-ground observation of people and institutions in real time and space, in which the investigator embeds herself near (or within) the phenomenon so as to detect how and why agents on the scene act, think and feel the way they do”(Wacquant 2003: 5)

(2) Defining Ethnographyimmersion in (often unfamiliar) social settings“thick description” (vivid, narrative)emphasis on people’s subjective “lived

experience”variants and approaches:

1. active participation (e.g., as a worker)2. casual participation (e.g., hanging around a

place)3. non-participant observation (possibly covert)4. combination with (formal/informal) interviews

application to broader theoretical workcommon (though not universal) interests:

the marginalised, the weak, the deviant, the illegal

(3a) Why Ethnography?

(3a) Why Ethnography?• access to marginalised populations

necessity—maybe no other way to study them

• rich description of social life more “human” than a data frame

• capturing subjective experience get a sense of how subjects experience

and perceive the world• eliciting sensitive/intimate information

may be able to win subjects’ trust through repeated contacts/interactions

(3b) Why Not Ethnography?

(3b) Why Not Ethnography?• causality

hard to assess what factors make things different

not enough units to do statistics• representativeness/generalisability

site/“sample” may not be typical• perspective

may be hard to see broader context may be swayed by subjects’

perspectives

(4) Other Examples of Ethnography• Bernstein: sex workers and their clients• Bourgois: drug trade in Harlem• Burawoy: Chicago factory (and others)• Kunda: tech workers• Malinowski: Pacific Islanders• Sallaz: casinos in California and S Africa• Wacquant: boxers in Chicago• Whyte: American “slum” (Boston)• Willis: working class boys in Britain

(5) Dilemmas in Ethnography• getting access and building trust• biases, misunderstandings, and

inaccurate interpretations• risk of misrepresenting (sometimes

powerless) subjects• ethnographer’s influence on the field

site• disclosure/presentation/relationship to

subjects (and other ethical concerns)• how to approach going into the field,

and how to apply findings to theory

(6) Origins of Ethnography• anthropology

fieldwork in overseas, pre-industrial societies

links to natural history, colonial rule• sociology

Chicago School of urban research questions about social change and

(dis)integration in fast-growing industrial cities

(7) Practicalsee handout…choosing a site: be creative!I’ll be in my office (2.17N) until

2:00PM, then back hereSoGS office: 0117 928 9954be back by 4:30, with your

fieldnotes!