Ethnography

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research differs in several aspects when compared to quantitative research, which deals
more with numbers, statistics, and 'objective' data gathering, where the gatherer of the data is not
directly involved in the gathering of the data.

Qualitative research stresses :

• Direct discovery and exploration :

▪ Fieldwork : Doing it yourself, instead of sending other people to perform the data-
gathering exercise. Where data collection and analysis aren't two mutually separate
processes.

• Open ended and experiential.

▪ Experience of field work, and experience of subjects play a role in how the data is
gathered/interpreted.
▪ Subjectivity is a valid part of the research.
▪ Objectivity is 'prblematized' – Meaning that objectivity is not the only way tos tudy
things. There is an inevitability that the researcher will interact, and modify in some
way, the researched.

• Discovery: Where you figure/learn things, allow yourself exposure to new thoughts.

• Inductive :
▪ Not deductive reasoning. Take a small example, a ground-level example, and extrapolate
to get the social conditions.
▪ Compare several different social realities if possible.

• Test 'common' ideas – Test to see if ideas that we things are commonplace and regular hold
good, or are regarded in the same way in the society being studied. Like family/religion etc.

• Social realities – Non standard. Complex, and filled with contradictions. Cannot be easily
explained, and will lose depth if simplified.

• Description and interpretation : Where the description is given as much importance as

interpretation, since the description is the situation being studied, and will reflect what all has
been observed, gathered, etc.

• No assumptions: Not an extensively hypotheses based researching technique. The researcher

goes into the field with no preconceived notions of how the culture works, etc. Which does not
mean he goes in completely blind. He does do reading, research etc. before he does field work,
but lets new ideas replace and reform his old ideas.
▪ Whereas, quantitatively, they often have to reduce social realities into smaller variables,
 which are 'independent' variables. The process of doing this, often has to sever the
variable from several other variables, and suppress the links between this and several
other variables. These links often make up a large portion of the social picture, so this
method is liable to create a distorted image of what the reality is like.

Basic Principles

• Sustained and iterative contact :

▪ Builds rapport
▪ Opportunities for triangulation – Verifying stories/facts with more than one source, or
adding information to a particular story/fact.
▪ Uncovers new angles/meanings to a particular event/story.

• Working skepticism : Questioning what everyone takes for granted. (Like family, etc. Same as
'Testing common ideas')

• Open endedness : Start with a bare-bones skeletal framework, and fill it in with learned details,
not previous assumptions. More structure can be formed from the emerging picture, as more
fieldwork is done, and interviews/data is gathered. Let the data lead you, more than the other
way around.

• Nor descriptive : Analytic – Meaning it isn't hypotheses driven, but exploratory.

Components

• Observation + Participant observation

▪ Participant observation is where you involve yourself in the process being studied, so as
to gain more perspective, etc.
▪ Testing what people say, against what they do.

• Interviews
▪ Beyond 'face value' accounts. Interpret, and try for a deeper understanding.
▪ Iterative interviews
▪ Open ended, unstructured. Usually lengthy.

• Group discussions/Focus groups

▪ Useful in getting more common stories, like stories about cultural history, or any other
history of the village, or stories relating to a particular area/thing.
▪ Problem : Dominant speakers might tend to over-power the other people in the group,
which might not give the whole picture, but only a few people's views. Also, in
heterogeneous groups, one particular segment of people might be less inclined to talk.
Say women will be less likely to talk in the presence of men.
 • Building access
▪ Good account of why the research is taking place should be given to the people who are
being researched.
▪ Figure out how what is interesting to you is also interesting to them, or could be
interesting, since a lot of issues are interesting to both parties.
▪ Adopt a 'student' role while researching. Allow them to 'teach' you.

• Careful Recording
▪ Observant.
▪ Interview notes – Along with observations, have interview notes, as an additional way of
documenting.

Bias

The various ways bias can enter a study are :

• Biased Sample :
▪ Speaking only to one segment of society. (The other could be hostile, less easy to talk to,
etc.), ensuring that we don't get both sides of the story.
▪ Covering limited area, or using other shortcut methods (Like spot-interviewing, instead
of the building-rapport style of interviewing, which means the answers will have no
context, and hence will be biased)
▪ Solution : Try and minimise the bias in the sample. Try and get as representative a group
as possible.

• How direct is data : Getting second/third hand data increases the risk of the observers bias
entering into his narration of the facts.

• Location of interview :
▪ Socially : If the interviewer is socially at a very different place than the interviewee,
then there will be reluctance to be completely candid. (Account for it, and can be tried
and reduced by rapport-building)
▪ Spatial : People will probably be reluctant in discussing more private issues in public,
for example. Many other sorts of spatial bias can enter into it.