Ethnography

Alicia de la Peña January 2013
Ethnography

What is Ethnography?
 Is the work of describing a culture (Spradley, 1979).
Is equal to participant obsevation; it is the written
accounts of these observers (Warren & Karner,
2005).
Is a detailed and actual description of some natural
settings (Babbie, 2004).
Is a research process and products in which a
researcher attempts to provide propositional
answers to questions about social life and
organizations (Berg, 2009)
Alicia de la Peña Enero 2013

Reflective vs Critical Ethnography
In a reflective ethnography the researcher understand
that he/she is a part of the social world(s) that he/she
investigates.
The reflexion process implies that the researcher uses
an internal dialogue to examine repeatedly what
he/she knows and how he/she came to know this.
He/she reports findings as facts and constructs
interpretatins.
In a critical ethnography the researcher makes value-
laden judgements of meanings and methods in an
effort to challenge research and policy.
A critical ethnography seeks positive change and
empowerment of participants.

Steps to conduct an Ethnographic Research
1. Accessing a Field Setting appropiate for answering
the researcher’s general question.
a. Access is negotiated and renegotiated through the research process.
b. Access is based in relationships.
c. Is important to gain permissions/consent of the subjects.
d. Subjects must be protected from harm and injury.
e. Knowledge about the people being studied and familiarity with their routines
and rituals facilitate entry.
f. Understanding a group’s argot (specialized language) assists in gaining entry
and in understanding what is going on.
g. Make use of friends, social networks and any other referral into the group.
h. Negotitate access with a highly visible and respected individual who helds a
position of rank, authority or respect among others in the group.
i. Identify the Gatekeeper (people inpositions to grant or deny access).
j. Identify Guides and Informants (indigenous persons found among the group
and in the setting to be studied).

2. Become invisible:
a. An invisible researcher has the ability to be present in
the setting, to see what’s going on without being
observed, to capture the essence of the setting and
participants without influencing them (Stoddart, 1986).
b. Decide if the researcher will be an announced
researcher (overtly) or a secret researcher (covertly).
c. Consider that you may learn more than you want to
know
d. Get certificates of confidentiality
e. Identify possible forms of risks/danger (ambient and
situational are the most common).

3. Once in the field…
a. Wander around the location, take field notes, map
the field…
b. Develop relationships with inhabitants.
c. Track (follow the guides), observe, eavesdrop and
ask questions.
d. Construct the ethnographic account (accurate,
complete and detailed field notes):
① Verbal exchanges
② Practices
③ Connections

Four elements of full and detailed field notes:
1 Cryptic jottings (brief statements, sketches and
short notes).
2 Detailed descriptions.
3 Analytic notes.
4 Subjective reflections (personal observations and
comments about feelings developed as a result of
having observed an special event).

General Suggestions:
① Record key words and key phrases while in the field.
② Make notes about the sequence of events.
③ Limit the time you remain in the setting.
④ Write the full notes inmediately after exiting the field.
⑤ Get your notes written before sharing them with others.
⑥ Standardize field note pages
⑦ Make use of hypermedia: photographs, music, videos,
interview data to produce a more richly and complete
report.
⑧ Consider conducting an online ethnography.

https://www.ethosapp.com/

Analyzing ethnographic data
1. Inductive content analysis (requires to code the data and to
convince the audience by suggesting the frequency of a given
theme or pattern).
2. Ethnographic narrative accounts (researcher relies on clear
patterns to convince an audience of its accuracy).
3. A narrative is a thick description that provides a complete
picture of the observed events, the actors involved, the rules
associated to certain activities, and the social contexts in which
these elements arise.
4. Use typologies (a method to classify similar events, actions,
objects, people or places into discrete groupings).
5. Use sociograms to identify the degree of affinity that members
of agroup have toward one another.
6. Use metaphors.
And finally: disengage physically and emotionally from the setting
and the subjects.

Belk, R. W., Sherry, J.F., and Wallendorf, M. (1988).
Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 4: 449-470.

» Paper goal: to illustrate the use of a qualitative
research method (Naturalistic Inquiry) at a
single consumption venue and present data
regarding significant settings, actors, events,
processes and objects central to that venue.
The findings provided
the authors theoretical
insights to be tested in a
follow-up project named
“The Consumer Behavior
Odyssey”.

» What is a naturalistic inquiry?
Is the interpretation of data collected in situ.
» Process:
0. Prior Swap Meet research
1. Selection of an interactional site (Rede Mesa Swap
Meet).
2. Data collection: 4 days of observation and
interviewing. Complemented with autodriving of
photos and videos; and memoing (evening
debriefing to discuss themes and impressions).
3. Data recording: field notes, journal material,
photographs, videotapes, audiotapes.

3.a) Fieldnotes: elaborated,
redacted transcriptions of the
researcher’s daily efforts used
to capture and represent the
phenomena accurately and
detailed.
The goals of fieldnotes:
• Comprehensiveness
• Accuracy
• Timeliness
Data Recording Tools:
3.b) Personal journal: to
record personal impressions
and biases, emotions,
attitudes, individual motives
and speculation.

4. Research team: three researchers with different backgrounds
in social science theory (psychology, sociology and anthropology)
with skills in video photography, etnographic fieldwork,
participan-observation methods, group depth interviewing, and
photography.
5. Purposive sampling design.
6. Data Analysis: using a constant comparative method in which
new data are constantly compared to prior interpretations.
7. Data coding: reflective and marginal remarks, pattern coding,
memoing, periodic site analysis (internal audit). As a result
authors gathered thematic notations, conoceptual grouping
based on clustering of observations, metaphors and
triangulation of interpretations.

8. Identify emergent themes and hypotheses
9. Test hypotheses and use methods to enhance verosimilitude
(members check and audits)
12 Strategies to improve data quality:
1. Check for sampling bias
2. Check for researcher bias
3. Triangulate across data sources and methods
4. Weight the evidence according to data trustworthiness
5. Examine contrasts and comparisons
6. Examine outliers
7. Seek extreme cases
8. Rule out spurious explanations

9. Replicate findings
10. Check out rival explanations
11. Look for negative evidence
12. Obtain feedback from informants
Advantages of the method
1. Richer description of consumer behavior phenomena
2. Better opportunity to generate original theoretical insights
3. Greater oopennes to the insights of consumers
4. Greater access to consumers as they become interested and involved
5. Certainty that the findings correspond to the consumption reality
6. Findings take into account the complexity of people’s lives
7. Use of multiple methods of data collection and data analysis
8. A more intrinsically enjoyable research process

Limitations of the method
1. Greater time is required for data collection
2. The presence of a team of researchers is essential
3. Time consuming data analysis
4. Requires greater sensitivity
5. The method has not yet received substantial use or
scrutinity in consumer research

Celsi, R.L., Rose, R.L. and Leigh, T.W., (1993). Journal of
Consumer Research, 20, 1: 1-23.

Researchers’ Goals:
1. To use a sociocultural approach to explore voluntary high-
risk consumption.
2. To explore the context and phenomenology of the high-risk
experience.
3. To observe, record and interpret the phenomenological
experience.
4. To examine the dynamics of motivation, risk and benefits
attained through participation.
Before the ethnography:
1. Literature review
2. Model of high-risk leisure consumption

The Team:
Researcher one tasks:
 Participant observer: training and safety classes, rites of
passage, ground/air observation and finally: 650 skydives.
 Gained initial entry to the skydiving center
 Established a relationship with informants
 Obtained permissions from gatekeepers
Researcher two and three tasks:
 Non participant observers
 Triangulation

Data collection and analysis
 Learn about skydiving culture in situ and through secondary
data sources.
 35 in depth interviews, with key elements of the skydiving
society.
 Hypotheses themes and inferences were developed.
 Constant comparative method of data analysis.
 Transcript ellaboration.
 Each author independently coded the data for thematic
content.
 Triangulation
 Member checks

Chang Coupland, J. (2005).Journal of Consumer
Research, 32, 1: 106-118.

The Goals:
1. To investigate what are invisible brands.
2. To identify the process by which brands become
invisible.
3. To use the evolutionary theory of camouflage as a
mean to understand how brands blend into the
background.
An invisible brand is a brand that is considered mundane
and blends into the household environment.

The Method:
1. Two households were selected in an upper-middle-
class suburb.
2. 16 months of observation, interviews and 14 visits.
3. Key informants provided data in a written survey of
sentence completions and a drawing tasks.
4. The author went grocery shopping and made
interviews during dinner preparation time and during
meals.
5. 900 pages of text and 500 photos.
6. Model: the process of brand invisibility in everyday life.
7. Three metaphors based on the theory of camouflage.
8. Analysis: invisible brands and brand loyalty.

Ethnography

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