13. Ethnography and Participant Observation

2020 ◽  
pp. 339-363
Author(s):  
Sandra Halperin ◽  
Oliver Heath
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Research Tool ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Political Ethnography ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Social ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Broad Variety

This chapter discusses the principles of ethnography and participant observation: what they are, how (if) they became standardized as a research method, what form of evidence they constitute, and what place they occupy in the study of Politics. Participant observation has emerged as a popular research tool across the social sciences. In particular, political ethnographies are now widely carried out in a broad variety of contexts, from the study of political institutions and organizations to the investigation of social movements and informal networks, such as terrorist groups and drugs cartels. Political ethnography is also becoming a research method of choice in the field of International Relations. The chapter examines the strengths of ethnographic fieldwork, focusing on issues relating to sampling, access, key informants, and collecting observational data. It also addresses the weaknesses of ethnography, especially issues of subjectivity, reliability, and generalizability.

13. Ethnography and Participant Observation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Halperin ◽  
Oliver Heath
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Political Ethnography ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Social ◽  
Terrorist Groups

This chapter discusses the principles of ethnography and participant observation: what they are, how (if) they became standardized as a research method, what form of evidence they constitute, and what place they occupy in the study of Politics. Participant observation has emerged as a popular research tool across the social sciences. In particular, political ethnographies are now widely carried out in a wide variety of contexts, from the study of political institutions and organizations to the investigation of social movements and informal networks, such as terrorist groups and drugs cartels. Political ethnography is also becoming a research method of choice in the field of International Relations. The chapter examines the strengths of ethnographic fieldwork, focusing on issues relating to sampling, access, key informants, and collecting observational data. It also addresses the weaknesses of ethnography, especially issues of subjectivity, reliability, and generalizability.

scholarly journals Konstruksi Sosial Remaja di Tamiang Layang pada Esoterisme Religio Magis Putri Mayang Sari

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-150
Author(s):  
Yuel Yuel
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Religious Education ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Cultural Construction ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World

This study aims to examine the phenomenon of religio magis putri mayang sari among Tamiang Layang Christian adolescents. The research method used is qualitative. The technique of collecting data by means of interviews, observation and documentation. The research subjects were students of SMAN 1 Tamiang Layang, caretakers of the tombs, and parents of students. The results showed that the socio-cultural construction of the Ma'anyan community towards the Puteri Mayang Rite as a social reality is an expression of Ma'anyan appreciation of the world and transcendent values are religio magis. Then, the Ma'anyan adolescent social construction of the Princess Mayang Rite was implemented in Christian Religious Education learning through interactive, inspirational, challenging learning strategies and participant observation as well as in multicultural learning. The social construction of Ma'anyan youth towards the Princess Mayang Rite contains an understanding of religious, social values, a sense of pride in one's own culture (local culture), and tolerance obtains support from educators. The results of the study recommend that Christian Religious Education teachers support the social construction of Ma'anyan adolescents so that they are conveyed in the learning process in the classroom. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji fenomena religio magis putri mayang sari di kalangan remaja Kristen Tamiang Layang. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif. Teknik pengumpulan data dengan wawancara, observasi, dan dokumentasi. Adapun subyek penelitian adalah siswa SMAN 1 Tamiang Layang, juru kunci makam, dan orang tua siswa. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa konstruksi sosial budaya masyarakat Ma’anyan terhadap Ritus Puteri Mayang sebagai realitas sosial adalah ungkapan penghayatan Ma’anyan tentang dunia dan nilai transenden bersifat religio magis. Kemudian, konstruksi sosial remaja Ma’anyan terhadap Ritus Puteri Mayang diimplementasikan pada pembelajaran Pendidikan Agama Kristen melalui strategi pembelajaran interaktif, inspiratif, menantang, dan observasi partisipan serta dalam pembelajaran multikultural. Konstruksi sosial remaja Ma’anyan terhadap Ritus Puteri Mayang mengandung pemahaman tentang nilai religius, sosial kemasyarakatan, ada rasa bangga terhadap kebudayaan sendiri (budaya lokal), dan toleransi memperoleh dukungan dari para pendidik. Hasil penelitian merekomendasikan agar guru Pendidikan Agama Kristen mendukung konstruksi sosial remaja Ma’anyan agar disampaikan dalam proses pembelajaran di kelas.

Narrating Society: Enacting ‘Immigrant’ Characters through Negotiating, Naturalization, and Forgetting

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne Boersma
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Work ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Media And Communication

This article scrutinizes how ‘immigrant’ characters of perpetual arrival are enacted in the social scientific work of immigrant integration monitoring. Immigrant integration research produces narratives in which characters—classified in highly specific, contingent ways as ‘immigrants’—are portrayed as arriving and never as having arrived. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork at social scientific institutions and networks in four Western European countries, this article analyzes three practices that enact the characters of arrival narratives: negotiating, naturalizing, and forgetting. First, it shows how negotiating constitutes objects of research while at the same time a process of hybridization is observed among negotiating scientific and governmental actors. Second, a naturalization process is analyzed in which slippery categories become fixed and self-evident. Third, the practice of forgetting involves the fading away of contingent and historical circumstances of the research and specifically a dispensation of ‘native’ or ‘autochthonous’ populations. Consequently, the article states how some people are considered rightful occupants of ‘society’ and others are enacted to travel an infinite road toward an occupied societal space. Moreover, it shows how enactments of arriving ‘immigrant’ characters have performative effects in racially differentiating national populations and hence in narrating society. This article is part of the Global Perspectives, Media and Communication special issue on “Media, Migration, and Nationalism,” guest-edited by Koen Leurs and Tomohisa Hirata.

Experience of Ethnographic Fieldwork in an English Benedictine Monastery

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Irvine
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Fieldwork Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Peripheral Participation

What is the role of imitation in ethnographic fieldwork, and what are its limits? This article explores what it means to participate in a particular fieldsite; a Catholic English Benedictine monastery. A discussion of the importance of hospitality in the life of the monastery shows how the guest becomes a point of contact between the community and the wider society within which that community exists. The peripheral participation of the ethnographer as monastic guest is not about becoming incorporated, but about creating a space within which knowledge can be communicated. By focusing on the process of re-learning in the monastery – in particular, relearning how to experience silence and work – I discuss some of the ways in which the fieldwork experience helped me to reassess the social world to which I would return.

СОВРЕМЕННОЕ РОССИЙСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО КАК ПРОСТРАНСТВО КОНФЛИКТА

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
V. V. Gorshkova ◽  
A. A. Melnikova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Russian

The article considers the contradictions and conflicts that are characteristic of modern Russian society. The processes of social disintegration are analyzed and interpreted as a result of fundamental social and economic transformations. The problems of economic inequality are presented in the historical perspective in close connection with the previous stages of Russia's socioeconomic development. Significant polarization of the population is one of the most significant conflict factors in modern society, which leads to an increase in protest moods and may in the long term threaten social upheavals. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction with the socio-economic situation does not lead to ideas of the unification and consolidation of society, but find expression in social conflicts. The emergence and development of social conflicts is influenced by a number of factors: economic, ethnic, religious. One of the most important characteristics of society is its social structure. After the collapse of the USSR, the previous social structure was abolished, and a new social reality was formed in Russia. When considering the stratification structure of society, most attention is paid to the middle class, which is considered the backbone of a stable society. The middle class in Russia is in the stage of formation, it is hardly possible to speak of a complete analogy with the middle class of Western society. The share of middle class in society can be estimated in different ways depending on the methodological approaches used by researchers. An important consequence of the transformation of the social structure was the problem of marginalization, since the dismantling of the old social structure and the slow formation of the new one put the social status and place in the division of labor system of many individuals into question. The sharp impoverishment of representatives of prestigious professions led to a reassessment of their situation, especially for the younger generation. When analyzing the origins of social conflicts in modern Russian society, it is necessary to consider the issue of the attitude of the broad masses of the population to power and national elites. It should be noted that power in Russia historically takes shape around specific leaders and does not have an institutional character. The most significant factor shaping the attitude towards the authorities and the elite in general in Russian society are the economic results of the market reforms that have taken place. Only a small part of the population believes that they won as a result of the changes that have taken place, the natural consequence of which is the population's distrust of the authorities and, in general, political institutions.

The Social and Institutional Bases of Distributive Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Freeman
Keyword(s):  
Distributive Justice ◽  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Cooperation ◽  
Economic Production ◽  
Political Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Trade And Exchange ◽  
Cooperative Institutions

This chapter argues that distributive justice is institutionally based. Certain cooperative institutions are basic: they are necessary for economic production and the division of labor, trade and exchange, and distribution and consumption. These background institutions presuppose principles of justice to specify their terms, allocate productive resources, and define fair distributions. Primary among these basic institutions are property; laws and conventions enabling transfers of goods and productive resources; and the legal system of contract and agreements that make transfers possible and productive. Political institutions are necessary to specify, interpret, enforce, and make effective the terms of these institutions. Thus, basic cooperative institutions are social; they are realizable only within the context of social and political cooperation—this is a fixed empirical fact about cooperation among free and equal persons. Given the nature of fair social cooperation as a kind of reciprocity, distributive justice is primarily social rather than global in reach.

scholarly journals Polluting pharmaceutical atmospheres: Compulsion, resistance, and symbolism of buprenorphine in Norway

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-285
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Bartoszko
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Opioid Substitution Treatment ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Counter Narrative ◽  
The Social ◽  
Institutional Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Opioid Substitution

This article offers a counter narrative to the current ethnographic studies on treatment with buprenorphine, in which notions of promised and experienced normality dominate. In some countries, introduction of buprenorphine led to a perceived “normalisation” of opioid substitution treatment, and this new modality was well received. However, in Norway the response has been almost the opposite: patients have reacted with feelings of disenfranchisement, failure, and mistrust. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Norway, this article offers comparative insight into local experiences and subjectivities in the context of the globalisation of buprenorphine. By outlining the ethnographic description of the pharmaceutical atmosphere of forced transfers to buprenorphine-naloxone, I show that the social history of the medication is as significant as its pharmacological qualities for various treatment effects. An analysis of the reactions to this treatment modality highlights the reciprocal shaping of lived experiences and institutional forces surrounding pharmaceutical use in general and opioids in particular.

scholarly journals Are you really using Yarning research? Mapping Social and Family Yarning to strengthen Yarning research quality

2021 ◽  
pp. 117718012110154
Author(s):  
Petah Atkinson ◽  
Marilyn Baird ◽  
Karen Adams
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Research Quality ◽  
Aboriginal Community ◽  
Participant Recruitment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Convenience Sampling ◽  
Missing Feature ◽  
Published Research

Yarning as a research method has its grounding as an Aboriginal culturally specified process. Significant to the Research Yarn is relationality, however; this is a missing feature of published research findings. This article aims to address this. The research question was, what can an analysis of Social and Family Yarning tell us about relationality that underpins a Research Yarn. Participant recruitment occurred using convenience sampling, and data collection involved Yarning method. Five steps of data analysis occurred featuring Collaborative Yarning and Mapping. Commonality existed between researcher and participants through predominantly experiences of being a part of Aboriginal community, via Aboriginal organisations and Country. This suggests shared explicit and tacit knowledge and generation of thick data. Researchers should report on their experience with Yarning, the types of Yarning they are using, and the relationality generated from the Social, Family and Research Yarn.

“How Will You Give Back?”: On Becoming a Compañera as a Feminist Methodology from the Cracks

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162110216
Author(s):  
Firuzeh Shokooh Valle
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Puerto Rican ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Feminist Research ◽  
Feminist Methodology ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Power Inequality ◽  
Depth Interviews

Issues of power, inequality, and representation in the production of knowledge have a long history in transnational feminist research. And yet the unequal relationship between ethnographers and participants continues to haunt feminist research. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork with the cooperative Sulá Batsú in Costa Rica between 2015 and 2019, in this essay I argue that centering solidarity and working through discomfort creates relationships that can reinvent and endure the persistent imbalance of power between researcher and participant. I conceptualize a solidarity-based methodology that is uncomfortable, tossing between "us and them," the objective and the subjective, akin to Gloria Anzaldúa’s “nepantla,” a liminal space of both fragmentation and unification, of both anguish and healing: a methodology from the cracks. In this essay, I reflect upon my experiences as a Puerto Rican feminist researcher focusing on Sulá Batsú, specifically on my relationship with the coop’s general coordinator. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork with the coop, including participant observation, in-depth interviews, and textual analysis of their research, briefs, blog posts, presentations, and promotional literature.

Usurpers of Technology: Train Robbery and Theft in Egypt, 1876–1904

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Xiaoyue Li
Keyword(s):  
Negative Impact ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Grassroots Activism ◽  
Late 19Th Century ◽  
State Regulations ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Wealth ◽  
Everyday Knowledge

Abstract This article examines banditry, embezzlement, and other insider crimes along Egyptian railway lines during a period when British officials exerted centralized control over the Egyptian railway and financial austerity had a negative impact on the rail sector. By exploring the motives and tactics of railway crimes, I posit that criminals, by making claims on and use of the technology outside the purview of state regulations, expressed their heterogeneous desires to redistribute social wealth, repurpose the technological promise of modern railways, and confound intentions of colonial governance. Using new archival materials, this article utilizes a bottom-up approach to examine grassroots activism, everyday knowledge, informal networks, and the social mores and norms that criminals harnessed to discern infrastructural vulnerabilities and elude surveillance from the colonial state. Ultimately, I contend that criminal acts uncovered social crises otherwise hidden under the shadow of the exterior prosperity and stability of late 19th-century Egypt.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document