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ETHNOGRAPHY

ETHNOGRAPHY. Geography 23350: Qualitative Methods Week 4 Dr Malcolm Fairbrother 29/10 /2009. Outline. Purser 2009 Defining Ethnography Why (Not) Ethnography? Other Examples of Ethnography Dilemmas in Ethnography Origins of Ethnography Instructions for the Practical. (1) Purser 2009.

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ETHNOGRAPHY

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  1. ETHNOGRAPHY Geography 23350: Qualitative Methods Week 4 Dr Malcolm Fairbrother 29/10/2009

  2. Outline • Purser 2009 • Defining Ethnography • Why (Not) Ethnography? • Other Examples of Ethnography • Dilemmas in Ethnography • Origins of Ethnography • Instructions for the Practical

  3. (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

  4. (1) Purser 2009

  5. (1) Purser 2009

  6. (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)

  7. (2) Defining Ethnography • immersion in (often unfamiliar) social settings • “thick description” (vivid, narrative) • emphasis on people’s subjective “lived experience” • variants and approaches: • active participation (e.g., as a worker) • casual participation (e.g., hanging around a place) • non-participant observation (possibly covert) • combination with (formal/informal) interviews • application to broader theoretical work • common (though not universal) interests: • the marginalised, the weak, the deviant, the illegal

  8. (3a) Why Ethnography?

  9. (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

  10. (3b) Why Not Ethnography?

  11. (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

  12. (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

  13. (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

  14. (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

  15. (7) Practical • see handout… • choosing a site: be creative! • I’ll be in my office (2.17N) until 2:00PM, then back here • SoGS office: 0117 928 9954 • be back by 4:30, with your fieldnotes!

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