Ethnography Essentials : Designing, Conducting, and Presenting Your Research

by Murchison, Julian

• ISBN13: 9780470343890
• ISBN10: 0470343893
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-19
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Summary

This volume offers a comprehensive, stand-alone guide to ethnographic research. It introduces students to the excitement and challenges of the field and guides them step-by-step through a single research project. The author emphasizes ethnographic writing and the link between research process and current theoretical thinking about ethnography. Topics covered include choosing a topic, research design, writing a proposal, participant observation, interviews, mapping, kinship and organizational charts, archives and secondary data, sorting and coding data, evaluating and revising your ethnography and much more.

Author Biography

Julian M. Murchison is associate professor of anthropology and sociology at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He conducted ethnographic research in southern Tanzania for nearly two years. He regularly travels to Tanzania with students and supervises their independent research projects and ethnographic writing.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
The Author	p. xiii
The Why and What of Ethnography	p. 1
What is Ethnography?	p. 3
Ethnography: The Engaged, Firsthand Study of Society and Culture in Action	p. 4
A Brief History	p. 4
How Ethnography Has Changed: Doing Contemporary Ethnography	p. 8
Ethnography as Firsthand Research	p. 12
Ethnographer as Research Instrument	p. 13
Collaboration as Research Model: Ethnographer as Student	p. 15
Choosing an Ethnographic Topic	p. 19
Where to Look for Possible Topics	p. 22
Ethnographic Topics: Studying Places, People, or Events	p. 23
The Benefits of a Relatively Specific Focus	p. 23
Thinking About the Nonobvious as Discoverable	p. 26
Cultural Knowledge and Behavior in Action as Research Objects	p. 28
Practical Concerns	p. 29
Considering Ethics from the Start: Your Obligations to Potential Informants	p. 32
Topics You Might Want to Avoid	p. 33
Research Design	p. 37
Turning an Idea or Topic into a Research Question	p. 38
Linking Questions to Methods	p. 40
Key Methods to Consider for the Ethnographic Project	p. 41
What Is Practical or Feasible? Time, Availability, and Ethics	p. 47
Writing a Proposal	p. 51
Identifying and Reviewing Appropriate Literature	p. 52
Statement of the Problem	p. 55
A Clear Research Plan	p. 56
Identifying Your Project's Larger Relevance	p. 58
Human Subjects Review and Approval	p. 59
Ethnography in the Field: Collecting Data	p. 65
A Guide to Collecting Data and Taking Notes	p. 67
The Fleeting Nature of Ethnographic Data	p. 69
"Should I Write it Down Immediately?"	p. 69
The Importance of Detail in the Ethnographic Record	p. 71
Writing Notes Versus Using Recorders	p. 72
The Prospects of Transcription	p. 74
What Is Important and What Is Superfluous: "What Do I Need to Write Down?"	p. 76
The Ethics of Collecting Information	p. 78
Participant-Observation	p. 83
The Apparent Paradox: Participation and Observation	p. 84
Balancing Participation and Observation	p. 87
The Importance of Time	p. 88
Depending on Informants as Teachers and Guides	p. 89
Getting Started	p. 92
Regular Versus Extraordinary Behavior and Conversations	p. 94
Interviews	p. 99
Starting with Informal Interviews and Conversations	p. 101
Informal Conversation as an Avenue to "Real" Culture	p. 104
A Good Interviewer Is a Good Listener	p. 105
How to Record Interview Data	p. 105
Using an Interview Schedule	p. 107
How to Start an Interview	p. 108
Good Versus Bad Interview Questions	p. 109
When to Conduct Formal Interviews	p. 113
Analyzing Along the Way	p. 115
Identifying Key Themes and Questions: Paying Attention to Your Data	p. 116
How to Organize Your Notes	p. 117
What Have You Learned?	p. 118
What Do You Still Need to Do?	p. 119
Has the Research Question Changed?	p. 120
Tweaking the Research Design	p. 121
Getting Feedback from Your Informants	p. 122
Writing at the Midway Point	p. 123
Ethnographic Maps	p. 127
Space and Movement as Key Components of Culture	p. 131
The Importance of Space, Shape, and Distance	p. 131
Large- and Small-Scale Geographic Maps	p. 132
Mapping Interior Spaces	p. 135
Cognitive or Conceptual Maps	p. 138
Representing Movement and Behavior on a Map	p. 141
Tables and Charts	p. 143
Ethnographic Tables	p. 144
Interpersonal Relationships as a Manifestation of Culture	p. 144
Kinship as an Organizing Principle	p. 146
Other Organizational Charts	p. 149
Archives and Secondary Data	p. 157
Cultural Artifacts as Sources of Information	p. 158
Making Ethnographic Use of Archives	p. 161
Contemporary Cultural Artifacts	p. 164
Evaluating and Analyzing Cultural Artifacts	p. 166
Analytical Sources Versus Popular or Primary Sources	p. 167
Analyzing and Writing	p. 171
Sorting and Coding Data	p. 173
Writing from Your Research Data	p. 174
Identifying Key Themes and Questions	p. 175
Identifying Important Research Moments and Experiences	p. 176
Coding and Sorting the Ethnographic Record	p. 178
Dealing with Apparent Contradictions: The Messiness of Ethnographic Data	p. 181
Answering Questions and Building Models	p. 183
Fitting the Pieces Together	p. 184
Moving from Data to Theory: The Inductive Process	p. 190
Remembering the Big Picture and the Big Questions	p. 190
Infusing Theory in Ethnography	p. 192
Choosing the Appropriate Presentation Style	p. 195
Common Ethnographic Conventions	p. 196
The Importance of Ethnographic Detail	p. 202
Matching Style to Audience, Subject, and Analysis	p. 204
A Formal to Informal Continuum of Style	p. 206
Putting the Whole Ethnography Together	p. 211
The Hourglass Shape as a Model	p. 212
Alternative Models for Organizing an Ethnography	p. 213
Incorporating Relevant Literature	p. 214
Incorporating Maps, Charts, and Photographs	p. 215
Demonstrating the Project's Relevance	p. 216
Evaluating and Revising Ethnography	p. 217
Sharing the Ethnography	p. 218
Incorporating Responses and Critiques	p. 220
Glossary	p. 223
References	p. 231
Index	p. 235
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