More about Ethnography
Ethnography can be a tricky method to define. Some may wonder about the differences between Ethnography and other observational methods. Most observation-based methods involve the researcher observing the behavior of a group, listening to the group, asking questions and recording the sessions. But what distinguishes ethnography is that it tries to create a link between the cultural background of a group and how this culture influences the behavior of individuals who are part of this group.
The researcher observes the participant, listens carefully, converses and engages with groups of people to gain an understanding of the participant’s culture and behavior without imposing their own conceptual frameworks. Ethnography is by nature a time consuming exercise. As the researcher doesn’t always have the luxury of time, a variant of regular ethnography is employed.
Types of Ethnography
Method
Purpose
Advantages
Disadvantages
Regular Ethnography
To get a detailed anthropological understanding of a group of participants, the patterns in their behavior and cultural influences behind those patterns.
- Detailed data
- Unexpected discoveries that may not have been planned during research.
- Time consuming.
- Requires an experienced and skilled researcher.
- Difficult to compile results because of the huge amount of diverse data.
Rapid Ethnography
To achieve a relatively deep understanding of peoples’ habits, influences and other anthropological data about individuals in a group quickly.
- Quick and specific data
- Focused insights on specific topics of interest for the researcher.
- Not detailed
- Requires an experienced and skilled researcher.
- Difficult to validate specific information collected during limited interaction with a very specific set of participants.
Advantages of Ethnography
1. First hand insights
As the researcher has interacted, experienced as a participant and observed with the participants firsthand, they can be sure of the insights that surface reliably.
2. Detailed data
The length of the time spent with the participants, probing and observations lead to rich and detailed data collection.
3. High reliability
Because the researcher is directly engaged with the group participants and immersed into the group, the data collected is not from external or from individuals outside of the group under consideration. The data collected is highly reliable.
4. Close-interaction
The ethnographic researcher is a participant within a group or culture, and involved closely with the other participants, they can develop perceptions, which can give them a peek into the lives and experiences of the participants within their culture. This also helps the researcher gain a deep understanding of different perspectives of individuals.
Disadvantages of Ethnography
1. Time-consuming
A good ethnographic research study will require a huge time commitment from the researcher’s end. For studies that can go on for years at a stretch, researcher needs to stay part of the group for a long time.
2. Diversity of results
The large number of participants and the extended exposure to their thoughts, preferences, cultural backgrounds and behavior can generate large amounts of diverse data which can pose a challenge to collate.
3. Reliability
As the researcher is solely involved in the group, it’s difficult to validate the reliability of data collected and insights generated.
4. Researcher Bias
As the researcher is engaged first hand with the other participants being studied, they are likely to introduce bias.
5. Participant reservations
If the role of the researcher is well known to the group participants, they may not always be open to sharing their perspectives.
6. Moral dilemma
Sometimes, information shared with the researcher as part of the group could be in confidence and may not be ethically correct to incorporate in the findings.