What Can We Learn From Ethnography?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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One of the main advantages associated with ethnographic research is that ethnography can help identify and analyse unexpected issues . ... Because of its subjective nature, an ethnographic study (with a skilled researcher) can be very useful in uncovering and analysing relevant user attitudes and emotions.

What is the moral of ethnography?

The basic ethical principles to be maintained include doing good, not doing harm and protecting the autonomy , wellbeing, safety and dignity of all research participants. Researchers should be as objective as possible and avoid ethnocentricity. Any deception of participants should be fully justified.

What can you learn from ethnography?

Ethnography is the description of cultures and the groups of people who live within them. It can be useful in personal adaptation, personal success, and to better understand other cultures.

What would ethnography study focus on?

Ethnography focuses on interpretation, understanding and representation . Methodological principles such as naturalism, understanding and induction draw on different philosophical backgrounds and, therefore, produce different types of ethnography.

Why is ethnography so important?

One of the main advantages associated with ethnographic research is that ethnography can help identify and analyse unexpected issues . ... Because of its subjective nature, an ethnographic study (with a skilled researcher) can be very useful in uncovering and analysing relevant user attitudes and emotions.

What is ethnography and why is it important?

Why are ethnographies important? Ethnographies as texts offer excellent insight into how social anthropologists undertake their fieldwork , what it is like to experience daily life in an environment that may be initially unfamiliar, and the political, economic and social dynamics involved in collecting ‘data’.

What is religious ethnography?

Ethnography has long been a primary methodological approach used to study religious practice, specific religious communities, and local forms of religiosity . ... Durkheim, the apical ancestor of the social scientific study of religion, bequeathed an understanding of religion rooted in identifiable communities.

Who is considered to be the father of ethnography?

Origins. Gerhard Friedrich Müller developed the concept of ethnography as a separate discipline whilst participating in the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733–43) as a professor of history and geography.

What are some of the problems associated with ethnographic research?

Ethnographers enhance the external reliability of their data by recognizing and handling five major problems: researcher status position, informant choices, social situations and conditions, analytic constructs and premises, and methods of data collection and analysis .

What is an example of ethnography?

Generally, an ethnographic study involves a researcher observing behaviour either in person or via cameras pre-installed in participant homes, work places, etc. Think of the show Gogglebox where viewers observe the reaction to other people watching TV – that’s ethnography.

How is ethnography done?

  1. Identify Research Question. Determine what problem you are seeking to better understand. ...
  2. Determine Location(s) for Research. ...
  3. Formulate Presentation Method. ...
  4. Acquire Permissions and Access. ...
  5. Observe and Participate. ...
  6. Interview. ...
  7. Collect Archival Data. ...
  8. Code and Analyze Data.

What are the types of ethnography?

There are several types of ethnographic research, namely; business, educational and medical ethnographic research . All based on different fields of human endeavor and each type is defined by specific characteristics.

What is a good definition of ethnography?

ethnography, descriptive study of a particular human society or the process of making such a study . Contemporary ethnography is based almost entirely on fieldwork and requires the complete immersion of the anthropologist in the culture and everyday life of the people who are the subject of his study.

Why was ethnography created?

Introduction: ethnography and anthropology

Ethnography is the practice developed in order to bring about that knowledge according to certain methodological principles , the most important of which is participant-observation ethnographic fieldwork. ... This is how anthropologists understand the world.

Is considered to be father of ethnography of communication?

Dell Hymes proposed the ethnography of communication as an approach towards analyzing patterns of language use within speech communities, in order to provide support for his idea of communicative competence, which itself was a reaction to Noam Chomsky’s distinction between linguistic competence and linguistic ...

What is ethnography and its characteristics?

Ethnography can be briefly defined as the systematic study of people and cultures . ... It is a means to represent graphically and in writing the culture of a group. Ethnography is a qualitative research method where researchers observe and/or interact with a study’s participants in their real-life environment.

Amira Khan
Author
Amira Khan
Amira Khan is a philosopher and scholar of religion with a Ph.D. in philosophy and theology. Amira's expertise includes the history of philosophy and religion, ethics, and the philosophy of science. She is passionate about helping readers navigate complex philosophical and religious concepts in a clear and accessible way.