Ethnography as a research approach has evolved over time. It has developed from its historical roots within the field of anthropology and is now used widely in a range of different contexts. This presentation will be used for the first session of the 2014/2015 Teeside Qualitative Researcher’s Forum and will begin by considering the vast number of approaches which can now be used within ethnography. The session will then focus more specifically upon a few common approaches adopted in research, such as focused and critical ethnography, among others

Park, Vikki

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Citation: Park, Vikki (2014) Ethnography: The Pick of the Crop. In: Qualitative Researchers Forum, 3 September 2014, Teeside University. URL: This  version  was  downloaded  from  Northumbria  Research  Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/18275/Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners.  Single copies of full items can be reproduced,  displayed or  performed,  and given to  third parties in  any format  or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well  as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must  not  be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without  formal  permission  of  the  copyright  holder.   The  full  policy  is  available  online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.htmlThis document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher’s website (a subscription may be required.)Abstract for the session Ethnography as a research approach has evolved over time.   It has developed from its historical roots within the field of anthropology                        and is now used widely in a range of different contexts.    This first session of the Teesside Qualitative Researcher’s Forum will begin by considering the vast number of approaches which can now be used within ethnography.  The session will then focus more specifically upon a few common approaches adopted in research, such as focused and critical ethnography, among others.  Choosing a methodology Interest Question Aim Background Method ? Methodology ? Definitions which agree  with each other  Ethnography is…  observation culture ‘going native’ “A research method in which the researcher immerses him- or herself in a social setting for an extended period of time, observing behaviour, listening to what is said … and asking questions.” Bryman (2012) “Observation and participation … remain the characteristic features of the ethnographic approach” Atkinson et al. (2001) “A research method in which the researcher immerses him- or herself in a social setting for an extended period of time, observing behaviour, listening to what is said … and asking questions.” Bryman (2012) “If ‘methods’ are technical rules that define proper procedures, ‘methodology’ is the broad theoretical and philosophical framework into which these procedural rules fit” Brewer (2000 p.2) “ethnography is both a process and a product” Tedlock (2003 p.165) o    g    r As it transpires ethnography is not as linear in approach as it would appear. It seemed to me to be more of an umbrella term which covers a wide range of approaches.  “Ethnography is not one particular method of data collection but a style of research that is distinguished by its objectives, which are to understand the social meanings and activities of people in a given ‘field’ or setting, and an approach, which involves close association with, and often participation in, this setting.” (Brewer, 2000 p.189) o      g      r By engaging with the literature I found over 30 different ‘types’ of ethnography Participatory  Feminist Narrative Humanistic Visual  Institutional  Descriptive  Performance  Case Study Digital Ergonomic Commercial  Hypermedia  Sensory Global Focused  Performance  Constitutive Reflexive Virtual Ethnomethodology  Structural  Multi-modal Realist Online Interpretative Organisational  Autoethnography Adaptive Critical Mobile Multi-sited Team Scientific Native How to choose the type? • Back to the starting point of the research Process of elimination Team =  Conducted by multiple researchers at one or more research sites Narrative =  - Narrative enquiry - Stories Collaborative = Involving participants in the research process. Participants are often in teams & are co-researchers. Institutional = Explore social relations that structure every day lives. Maps translocal relations that coordinate peoples activities in particular local sites. Focused ethnography = (AKA Micro-ethnography) - Understanding specific societal issues that affect different facets of practice.  - Enables researchers to understand the interrelationship between people and their environments. Focused ethnography My research choice will use focused ethnography, also known as micro-ethnography, to focus particularly upon one distinct issue within a culture (IPL) in specific settings (Adult Critical Care). “Focused ethnography has emerged as a promising method for applying ethnography to a distinct issue or shared experience in cultures or sub-cultures and in specific settings, rather than throughout entire communities.” p.36 “Focused ethnography has emerged as a useful tool in gaining a better understanding of the experiences of specific aspects of people’s ways of life and being.” p.38 Cruz and Higginbottom (2013)  Focused Ethnography Examples The significance of social engagement in relocated older adults Dupuis-Blanchard et al. (2009) The inner door: toward an understanding of suicidal patients Tzeng et al. 2010 The role of nursing unit culture in shaping utilization behaviors  Scott and Pollock (2008) My focused ethnography An ethnographic study of the Inter-Professional Learning culture of NHS staff within the adult critical care clinical setting. IPL in Adult Critical Care Critical Ethnography “Critical ethnography draws on cultural studies, neo-Marxist and feminist theories and research on critical pedagogies.  The aim is to theorize social structural constraints and human agency, as well as the interrelationship between structure and agency in order to consider paths towards empowerment of the researched.” Gordon et al. (2001) “ Critical ethnography is an approach that is overtly political and critical, exposing inequalities in an effort to effect change.”  O’Reilly( 2009 p. 51)  Critical Ethnography Examples Nursing, sexual health and youth with disabilities: a critical ethnography      McCabe and Holmes (2014) Enhancing choice and improving outcomes through the deviation of childbirth risk discourses within a midwifery model of care.  Dove (2013)  Children’s experiences as hospital in-patients: Voice, competence and work. Messages for nursing from a  critical ethnographic study                           Long & Lively (2013) Auto-ethnography Autoethnography is “a form of self-narrative that places the self within a social context”.          Reed-Danahay (1997)  “The auto-ethnography brings the author firmly into the text with a heightened self-consciousness [reflexivity] of the textual production.”  Plummer (2001) p.398 “At its most basic this refers to self-centred ethnographic writing, in which the central narrative threads are the selves of researchers  and/or researched.… [Autoethnography] involves more personal attention being paid to a) why a research topic is chosen in the first place, b) how it gains and takes shape through the research process and c) how researchers, and researched and readers can all become involved in the process of interpreting its findings.”  Crang and Crook (2007) Auto-Ethnography Examples Selling your soul to the devil: an autoethnography of pain, pleasure and the quest for a child.  Neville-Jan (2004)  Autoethnography: a method of research and teaching for transformative education.  Belbase, Luitel, and Taylor(2008) Birth Injury, Disabling Families and Enabling Human Factors  Benson, D.V. (2014) Unpublished Thesis  Participatory Ethnography Participatory Research =  “Rather than passive ‘informants’ or ‘subjects’, research participants are now often encouraged to take an active part in the research process, empowered where possible to contribute, direct, redirect, and guide the research in ways that ensure their own perspective is given due weight.”          O’Reilly (2009 p.59)  In participant ethnography “researcher and participants jointly define certain aspects of the research design, discuss the findings, and sometimes write the final report together.”       Gobo (2008 p.146)  In its simplest terms, participatory ethnography involves participants in the research process.  Participatory Ethnography Examples What is Participatory Research ? Cornwall and Jewkes (1995) ! Using participatory observation to understand older people’s experiences: lessons from the field Tetley (2013)  Participatory Research in Health: setting the context de Koning, K. and Martin, M. (1996)  ! Language & choice of terms is very important ! This article was actually about participant observation NOT participatory.  Summary  O’Reilly (2009 p.3)  • Ethnography is a methodology – a theory, or set of ideas – about research that rests on a number of fundamental criteria. Ethnography is iterative-inductive research; that is to say it evolves in design through the study.   • Ethnography draws on a family of methods, involving direct and sustained contact with human agents, within the context of their daily lives (and cultures), watching what happens, listening to what is said, and asking questions.  • It results in richly written accounts that respect the irreducibility of human experience, acknowledges the role of theory, as well as the researcher’s own role, and view humans as part object/ part subject.   References • Atkinson, P. et al. (2001) Handbook of Ethnography London, SAGE.  • Belbase, S. Luitel, V. C. and Taylor, C. (2008)  Autoethnography: a method of research and teaching for transformative education‟, Journal of Education and Research, 1(1), pp.86-95.   • Benson, D.V. (2014) Birth Injury, Disabling Families and Enabling Human Factors Unpublished PhD Thesis   • Brewer J.D. (2000) Ethnography Buckingham, Oxford University Press p.2  • Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods 4th edition New York, Oxford University Press  • Cornwall, A. and Jewkes, R. (1995) What is Participatory Research? Social Science and Medicine 41 (12) pp.1667-1676  • Crang, M. and Crok, I (2007) Doing Ethnographies London, SAGE  • Cruz, E.V. and Higginbottom, G. (2013) The use of focused ethnography in nursing research Nurse Researcher 20 (4) pp.36-43  • de Koning, K. and Martin, M. (1996) Participatory Research in Health: setting the context In de Koning, K. and Martin, M.  (eds) (1996) Participatory Research in Health London, Zed Books References • Dove, S. (2013) Enhancing choice and improving outcomes through the deviation of childbirth risk discourses within a midwifery model of care Women and Birth 26 (1) S5   • Dupuis-Blanchard, S., Neufeld, A. and Strang, V.T. (2009) The significance of social engagement in relocated older adults Qualitative Health Research 19 (9) pp.1186-1195  • Gobo, G (2008) Doing Ethnography London, SAGE p.146  • Gordon, T., Holland, J. and Lahelma. E. (2001) In Atkinson, P. et al. (2001) Handbook of Ethnography London, SAGE.  • Long, J. & Lively, T. (2013) Children’s experiences as hospital in-patients: Voice, competence and work. Messages for nursing from a  critical ethnographic study International Journal of Nursing Studies 50 (10) pp.1292-1303  • McCabe, J. and Holmes, D. (2014) Nursing, sexual health and youth with disabilities: a critical ethnography Journal of Advanced Nursing 70 (1) pp.77-86  • Neville-Jan, A. (2004) Selling your soul to the devil: an autoethnography of pain, pleasure and the quest for a child‟, Disability & Society, 19 (2), pp.113-127.  References  • O’Reilly, K. (2009) Key Concepts in Ethnography London, SAGE  • Plummer, K. (2001) The Call of Life Stories in Ethnographic Research In: Atkinson, P. et al. (2001) Handbook of Ethnography London, SAGE.  • Reed-Danahay, D. (1997) in Reed-Danahay, D. and Toulis, N. (eds.) Auto/ethnography: rewriting the self and the social. Oxford: Berg, pp.1-17.   • Scott, S.D. and Pollock, C. (2008) The role of nursing unit culture in shaping utilization behaviors  Research in Nursing and Health 31 (4) pp.298-309  • Tedlock, B (2003) Ethnography and Ethnnographic Representation In Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (eds) (2003) Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry 2nd edition USA, SAGE p.165  • Tetley, J. (2013) Using participatory observation to understand older people’s experiences: lessons from the field The Qualitative Report 18 (4) pp.1-18.    • Tzeng, W.C., Yang, C.I., Tzeng, N.S. et al. (2010) The inner door: toward an understanding of suicidal patients Journal of Clinical Nursing 19 (9) pp.1396-1404  

Ethnography: The Pick of the Crop

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