Ethnography

Sinead Ryan, G. (2017). An introduction to the origins, history and principles of ethnography. Nurse Researcher (2014+), 24(4), 15–21. https://search.proquest.com/docview/1883339670?accountid=142373

Ethnography Overview:

• Definition: First-hand exploration of a social or cultural setting through participant observation.

• Characteristic Features: Observation and participation.

• Methods: Can use observation, focus groups, interviews, or a combination.

• Categories: Informed by historic, social, and/or cultural changes; Informed by philosophical values.

Origins and Historical Context:

• Original goal: Study primitive or industrialized people and cultures.

• Researchers spent months or years on detached observations.

• Often influenced by researchers' preconceptions and prejudices.

Holistic Approach:

• Involves looking beneath the surface, considering wider issues and interactions.

• Reflexivity: Ethnographers need to be self-aware of their values and beliefs affecting research.

Chicago School and Symbolic Interactionism:

• Emphasized openness to people, data, places, and theory.

• Symbolic Interactionism: Human interaction shapes individual humanity, learning institutional patterns through shared language and symbols.

Types of Ethnography:

• Critical ethnography, ethnomethodology, feminist ethnography.

• New forms: digital ethnography, netnography, online ethnography, virtual ethnography.

• Internet and online interactions enable global communication.

Philosophical Paradigms:

• Positivist: Objective reality.

• Post-Modern/Constructivist: Reality created through interactions, perceptions, and experiences. Multiple realities subject to continuous change.

• Critical Ethnography: Informed by critical theory, focuses on injustice, inequality, and control. Emphasizes reflexivity and social change.

• Feminist Ethnography: Challenges gendered assumptions, emancipates women.

Realist Ethnography:

• Differences between positivist and constructivist approaches.

• Culture as an interaction between the mind and social experience.

• Focuses on why phenomena occur, not just what is happening.

• Acknowledges perceptions and experiences as a starting point for further inquiry.

Post-Modern/Constructivist Ethnography:

• Most commonly used.

• Values thick descriptions, often criticized as subjective and possibly biased.