Ethnographic Methods

The return of Redwoman: fieldwork in Highland Papua New Guinea

by Rena Lederman

Pretexts for ethnography: on reading fieldnotes

by Rena Lederman

Understanding Informal Group Behaviour in Information System Implementation: The Ethnographic Research Method

by Amila S. Wilegoda-Wickramage

Waiting Publications: Wilegoda-Wickramage AS, Patel NV

According to the relativist perspective, reality is ontologically complex, unstructured and diverse. Capturing that... more According to the relativist perspective, reality is ontologically complex, unstructured and diverse. Capturing that complexity in natural context than in a contrived environment is a challenge for Information System (IS) implementation research. According to the epistemology, qualitative research methods recognise and effectively capture the nature, behaviour and complex interrelations of individuals. This makes qualitative methods superior to quantitative methods and Agent Based Simulation in complexity theory related studies. According to the literature, Ethnography has been improved by postmodernist views, and capable of capturing the polyphonic nature of ‘phenomenon’, that includes emergence and deferred action. In light of that, this paper aims to justify the use of post-modern ethnography a method to understand, how outcome of information System implementation could be enhanced in the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS)..

Unravelling knowledge practices: the assistances and resistances of ANT

by Sanna Rimpilainen

Co-authored with Terrie Lynn Thompson, University of Alberta, Canada

As work and workplaces become increasingly distributed, professional knowing practices are more complex and now... more As work and workplaces become increasingly distributed, professional knowing practices are more complex and now reflect an interconnected array of people, ideas, technologies, and other objects. Indeed, sociomaterial sensibilities suggest that it takes both human and nonhuman actors to enact any practice. Actor Network Theory (ANT) is part of the contemporary turn to the relational and material and is well suited to studying hybrid and fluid practices, including connectivity between diverse network elements and the effects generated by such connections.

Yet, not only are approaches to studying these gatherings and heterogeneous processes not well developed, the researcher’s toils in this respect are not often evident in ANT accounts. Having engaged with ANT in our own research, we have learned that it is often challenging to actually apply these approaches to one’s own research questions, methodology, and data. This paper focuses on how we drew on ANT to examine knowing practices of professionals in different work settings and how ANT assisted and resisted our efforts in doing this. We explore more nuanced approaches for the popular ANT edict to “follow the actors” and the importance of attending to multiple and contradictory realities enacted in knowing practices.

We draw on two empirical studies to inform our discussion. Thompson’s research examines how the everyday online work-related learning and knowing practices of the contingent workforce (i.e., self-employed workers) are changing as web and mobile technologies become integrated into globally distributed work-learning spaces. Web-enabled and mobile knowledge spaces are diverse, diffuse, often quite messy, and end up evoking questions of inclusion. Using several ANT-influenced heuristics in an effort to “interview” objects, Thompson examined practices in which human entanglements with objects, such as the posting, the delete button and one’s digital footprint work to shape the learning practices enacted in online spaces. ANT was also used to question the politics of such assemblages. Rimpiläinen carried out a longitudinal, ethnographic case-study, following the unfolding processes of educational research and technology development in an interdisciplinary higher education project called Ensemble, which studied case-based learning in order to develop semantic technologies to support that learning. By drawing on ANT as theoretical practice, approaching the topic through critical ethnographic participation, and using multiple methods for data generation and accumulation, Rimpiläinen opened up to scrutiny the practices, the doing of research and technology development, and was able to trace the emergence of a piece of educational technology through the multiple, at times competing and conflicting, knowledge practices enacted in the project.

Deciding to engage with ANT propels the researcher down a path, influencing the questions asked, the way researchers explore phenomena, what is attended to, how one understands and thinks with their data, and how it might be represented. By exploring the philosophical and practical tensions generated in ANT-influenced research, we hope to create an opportunity for conference participants to interrupt their own knowledge practices as researchers and educators.

The Qualitative, the Quantitative, and the Creative

by Allison Mickel

Mickel, Allison. 2012. "The Qualitative, the Quantitative, and the Creative." Anthropology News 53(5): 11.

Contribution to the Anthropology News issue on Methods. Contribution to the Anthropology News issue on Methods.

Some Methodological Issues in Counting Communities and Households

by Richard Wilk

Published as Wilk, Richard and Stephen Miller 1997 "Some Methodological Issues in Counting Communities and Households."  Human Organization 56(1): 64-71.

In this article we discuss some of the limitations of conventional census techniques that assign all individuals to a... more In this article we discuss some of the limitations of conventional census techniques that assign all individuals to a single household in a single community. In areas with high rates of mobility and where people may belong to several households, traditional census methods can lead to very deceptive results that are poor guides for policy making and the delivery of services. The article suggests some ways census methods could be improved, so they can yield more informative and useful results.

Gathering, Translating, Enacting. A study of interdisciplinary research and development practices in Technology Enhanced Learning

by Sanna Rimpilainen

A PhD Thesis

This is an ethnographic case-study of research and development practices taking place in an interdisciplinary project... more This is an ethnographic case-study of research and development practices taking place in an interdisciplinary project between education and computer sciences. The Ensemble-project, part of the Technology Enhanced Learning programme (2008-12), has studied case-based learning in a number of diverse settings in Higher Education, working to develop semantic technologies for supporting that learning. Focussing on one of the six research settings, the discipline of archaeology, the current study has had three purposes. By opening up to scrutiny the practices of research and development, it has firstly sought to understand how a shared research question is answered in practice when divergent research approaches are brought to bear upon it. Secondly, the study has followed the emergence of a piece of semantic technology through these practices. The third aim has been to assess the advantages and disadvantages of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) in studying unfolding, open-ended processes in real time. Through critical ethnographic participation, multiple ethnographic research methods, and by drawing on ANT as theoretical practice, the study has shown the precarious and unpredictable nature of research and development work, the political nature of research methods and how multiple realities can be produced using them, and the need for technology development to flexibly respond to changing circumstances. We have also seen the mutual adoption and extension of practices by the two strands of the project into each others’ domains, and how interdisciplinary tensions resolved, while they did not disappear, through pragmatic changes within the project. The study contributes to the interdisciplinary fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) where studies on the ‘soft sciences’, such as education, are few, and a new field of Studies in Social Science and Humanities (SSH) which is emerging alongside and from within the STS. Interdisciplinary endeavours between fields pertaining largely to the natural and the social sciences respectively have not been studied commonly within either field.

The Religious Racial Integration of African Americans into Diverse Churches

by Gerardo Marti

Recent scholarship asserts that members of racial groups can transcend their ethnic differences, but other research... more Recent scholarship asserts that members of racial groups can transcend their ethnic differences, but other research asserts that ethnoracial identities must be reinforced in order to participate in multiracial churches. Analysis of field notes and interview data from a large, black-white Protestant congregation shows that while the core membership of African Americans come specifically for its ethnic and racial diversity, they also look for markers that affirm a distinctive African-American experience. Ethnic reinforcement attracts highly race-conscious participants who eventually move toward processes of ethnic transcendence and congregational integration. The value for researchers is that distinguishing ethnically transcendent and ethnically reinforcing processes encourages the discovery of subtle, racially specific, and continually reinforced affinities that would otherwise remain hidden in seemingly ethnically transcendent settings.

When Does Religious Racial Integration “Count?” A Caution About Seeking Ideal Ethnographic Cases

by Gerardo Marti

If the particular demographics of attenders, their storied backgrounds, and the peculiar aspects of their social and... more If the particular demographics of attenders, their storied backgrounds, and the peculiar aspects of their social and economic circumstances fail to conform to an “ideal scenario” of “ultimate” diversity, we might find ourselves disappointed. This appears to be one of the most important aspects of Richard Pitt's critique. Pitt desires a different “ideal” case for analysis, a church with black leadership and a clear black dominance that successfully integrates whites. Such an analysis is sorely needed, but this does not reflect the dynamics of Oasis nor does it address what has been one of the most pressing questions among scholars of diversity over the past decade. Given that any black-white integration is rare, I would not so easily dismiss the specifics of this case. Indeed, rather than merely reverse the case, I want to radicalize the critique. It is time to more purposefully examine diversity beyond the “racial divide,” and I suggest here several ways we can expand the research agenda on diverse congregations.

The Adaptability of Pentecostalism: The Fit between Prosperity Theology and Globalized Individualization in a Los Angeles Church

by Gerardo Marti

A main theme in the study of global Pentecostalism is its adaptability to the modern world system; yet, the way in... more A main theme in the study of global Pentecostalism is its adaptability to the modern world system; yet, the way in which adaptability “works” is not well theorized. Hannah Arendt’s analysis of “the private and public realm” and Ulrich Beck’s description of “individualization and selfculture” offer heuristic frameworks for understanding how prosperity theology is well-suited to macro-historical patterns that address the growing individualization of everyday life, especially in relation to uncertain career paths and risk-oriented work structures. Arendt’s and Beck’s theoretical conceptualizations move away from sect-like notions of Pentecostals cultivating a bounded system among the non-Spirit-filled natives. Instead, their theoretical conceptualizations reveal Pentecostalism — especially in its prosperity orientation — to be fully compatible with individualization processes experienced by and demanded from today’s workers. A case study of the ministry of Oasis Christian Center to Hollywood entertainment industry workers illustrates connections between the Prosperity/Word of Faith orientation of the congregation and overarching processes of individualization.

An ethnographic look at the status of health of women living in an urban squatter settlement of Karachi.

by Sabeena Jalal

co authored with Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, Published in Pakistan journal of Gender Studies.

Translation in excess: engaging semiotics and the untranslatable

by Jan Simon Hutta

published in 'GJSS', 2009

Vom Nutzen der Geschichte, vom Wissen der Akteure und vom Nachteil der Multi-Sited Ethnography-Welthandel, Wirtschaftskrise und Standortwettbewerb in …

by Patrick Neveling

Spaces of multilingualism

by Jan Blommaert

Bourdieu the ethnographer: The ethnographic grounding of habitus and voice

by Jan Blommaert

The Educational Process in Chico Bento's Stories: Representations About Education in the Brazilian Rural Universe

by Joao Batista Martins

with Cintia Weber Biazi - Athenea Digital - núm. 17: 179-205 (marzo 2010)

In this work we use Cultural Studies to identify and understand the representations that are transmitted about the... more In this work we use Cultural Studies to identify and understand the representations that are transmitted about the educational process in Chico Bento's stories - a character of a comic strip in Brazil. He is a personage who lives in the Brazilian rural zone and was created by Maurício de Sousa. The trajectory of this work included an ethnography of the magazines about Chico Bento, characterizing the rural universe where he lives, focusing on the educational practices and especially his school
experiences. Since the delimitation of that universe, it was possible to analyze in which ways Chico Bento's creators articulate the relationship between scientific knowledge x popular knowledge, emphasizing the pedagogic practices of the teacher, Miss Marocas.

Inter‐View: Reciprocal Interviewing in Siberian Newsrooms

by Kathryn Graber

2010. Anthropology News 51(4):16

Fieldwork and the Erotic Economy on the Colonial Frontier

by Steven Rubenstein

Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol 29, issue 4, pp 1041-1071.

Ethnography in/of the world system: the emergence of multi-sited ethnography

by Senay Ataselim

Kampffertigkeit: Eine Soziologie praktischen Wissens

by Larissa Schindler