geography 23350: qualitative methods week 4 dr malcolm fairbrother 29/10/2009 ethnography
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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)
interviewsapplication 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!
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