Material Practices of Ethnographic Presence

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76
Author(s):  
Stefan Laube
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Ethnographic Methods ◽  
Material Matter ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Material Things ◽  
Reflexive Analysis

Ethnographic research is a thoroughly material matter, but the involvement of material things in performing ethnographic methods is hardly investigated. Referring to my own research in various fields of digitalized work, I offer a reflexive analysis of the material production of ethnographic presence. In particular, I reflect on how clothing, field notes, and a camera contribute to making ethnographic research noticeable for and accessible to participants. Taking a practice theory perspective, the article conceptualizes ethnographic presence as a situated performance based on the dramaturgical and embodying contributions of material things. My analysis challenges the idea of openness as an ideal of research ethics that could be realized independently of the material and situated circumstances of fieldwork. It also shows that the material making of ethnographic presence offers particular methodological benefits including epistemic partnerships, insights from staged behavior, and the facilitation of ethnographic data collection.

Conducting Comparative Participant Observation

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-87
Author(s):  
Corey M. Abramson ◽  
Martín Sánchez-Jankowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Causal Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Following the argument for the importance of comparative participant observation for approaches descendent from the conventional scientific tradition (CST), this chapter outlines how the behavioralist foundations summarized in chapter 1 translate to procedures and techniques for charting causal mechanisms in comparative ethnographic research. The chapter begins by examining the practices and techniques of the behavioralist approach in detail and describes the mode of research design, sampling, data collection, analysis, and explanation associated with this approach, giving examples from prior empirical works. The chapter then turns to longstanding concerns about ethnographic reliability and replication and explains how this approach addresses them. In doing so, it shows how behavioralist criteria align with, and diverge from, other methodological approaches to the collection, analysis, and extension of ethnographic data. The chapter concludes by explaining the contributions that can be made by repositioning participant observation within the spectrum of approaches to understanding causal processes in the social sciences.

scholarly journals Ethnography as an Inquiry Process In Social Science Research

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Ganga Ram Gautam
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Ethnographic Methods ◽  
Inquiry Process ◽  
Ethnographic Data

This article is an attempt to present the concept of ethnography as a qualitative inquiry process in social science research. The paper begins with the introduction to ethnography followed by the discussion of ethnography both as an approach and a research method. It then illustrates how ethnographic research is carried out using various ethnographic methods that include participant observation, interviewing and collection of the documents and artifacts. Highlighting the different ways of organizing, analyzing and writing ethnographic data, the article suggests ways of writing the ethnographic research.

Ethics in Social Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Informed Consent ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Medical Interventions ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Social Researcher ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collection Phase

It is right that social researchers consider the ethical implications of their work, but discussion of research ethics has been distorted by the primacy of the ‘informed consent’ model for policing medical interventions. It is remarkably rare for the data collection phase of social research to be in any sense harmful, and in most cases seeking consent from, say, members of a church congregation would disrupt the naturally occurring phenomena we wish to study. More relevant is the way we report our research. It is in the disparity between how people would like to see themselves described and explained and how the social researcher describes and explains them that we find the greatest potential for ill-feeling, and even here it is slight.

scholarly journals Cyber-ethnography of cannabis marketing on social media

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina C. Jenkins ◽  
Lauren Kelly ◽  
Kole Binger ◽  
Megan A. Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Medical Cannabis ◽  
Specific Targeting ◽  
Digital World ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
One Year ◽  
Primary Form

Abstract Background Since 2012, several states have legalized non-medical cannabis, and cannabis businesses have used social media as a primary form of marketing. There are concerns that social media cannabis exposure may reach underage viewers. Our objective was to identify how cannabis businesses cultivate an online presence and exert influence that may reach youth. Methods We chose a cyber-ethnographic approach to explore cannabis retailers on social media. We searched cannabis retailers with Facebook and Instagram presence from Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, and identified 28 social media business profiles. One year of content was evaluated from each profile. In-depth, observational field notes were collected from researchers immersed in data collection on business profiles. Field notes were analyzed to uncover common themes associated with social media cannabis marketing. Results A total of 14 businesses were evaluated across both Facebook and Instagram, resulting in 14 sets of combined field notes. A major theme was Normalization of Cannabis, involving both Broad Appeal and Specific Targeting. Conclusions It is concerning that Normalization of Cannabis by cannabis businesses may increase cannabis acceptability among youth. In a digital world where the majority of youth are spending time online, it is important for policymakers to examine additional restrictions for cannabis businesses marketing through social media.

Decolonizing Cultural Probes in Ethnographic Research: Perspective of African Scholars

2021 ◽  
pp. 002193472110210
Author(s):  
Akpovire Oduaran ◽  
Okechukwu S. Chukwudeh
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Perspective ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
The People ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Conceptual Paper

The epistemological positioning that frequently validates the application of cultural probes in eliciting detailed exploration of phenomenon has not been sufficiently interrogated. Yet the epistemological assumptions behind the value of cultural probes continue to be drummed up and foisted on Africa’s emerging ethnographic researchers who actually need to be a bit more critical in its adoption and application. This conceptual paper explores the extant literature on data collection based essentially on cultural probes as espoused in habitus. It is proposed that profound amounts of decolonization of the spirit, content, and process of data gathering is urgent and critical at this stage. Until this is done objectively, African ethnographic researchers should “look at the gift horse in the mouth” before they can properly configure what is right or wrong for the people of Africa who should be in the hot pursuit of the ownership, production and utilization of relevant and sacrosanct knowledge aimed at rapid socio-economic and political development of the continent.

scholarly journals Boundary Spanning Roles and Power in Educational Partnerships

AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842110168
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Wegemer ◽  
Jennifer R. Renick
Keyword(s):  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Boundary Spanning ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Task Orientation ◽  
Boundary Spanners ◽  
Educational Partnerships ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Reflexive Analysis

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) offer promising approaches to improve educational outcomes. Navigating boundaries between contexts is essential for RPP effectiveness, yet much work remains to establish a conceptual framework of boundary spanning in partnerships. Our longitudinal comparative case study draws from our experiences as graduate student boundary spanners in three long-term partnerships to examine boundary spanning roles in RPPs, with particular attention to the ways in which power permeates partnership work. Using qualitative, critically reflexive analysis of meeting artifacts and field notes, we found that our boundary spanning roles varied along five spectrums: institutional focus, task orientation, expertise, partnership disposition, and agency. Our roles were shaped by the organizational, cultural, relational, and historical features of the partnerships and contexts of interaction. We aim to promote the development of effective RPP strategies by leveraging the perspectives and positionality of graduate students in order to advance understanding of boundary spanning roles.

Streets, scum and people: Discourses of (in)civility in postwar Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 326-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azra Hromadžić
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Political Inclusion ◽  
Material Things ◽  
Post War ◽  
The City

Building on more than ten years of ethnographic research in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article documents discourses and practices of civility as mutuality with limits. This mode of civility operates to regulate the field of socio-political inclusion in Bosnia-Herzegovina; it stretches to include self-described “urbanites” while, at the same time, it excludes “rural others” and “rural others within.” In order to illustrate the workings of civility as mutuality with limits, the focus is on interconnections and messy relationships between different aspects of civility: moral, political/civil, and socio-cultural. Furthermore, by using ethnography in the manner of theory, three assumptions present in theories of civility are challenged. First, there is an overwhelming association of civility with bourgeois urban space where civility is located in the city. However, the focus here is on how civility works in the context of Balkan and Bosnian semi-periphery, suspended between urbanity and rurality. Second, much literature on civility implies that people enter public spaces in ways that are unmarked. As is shown here, however, people’s bodies always carry traces of histories of inequality. Third, scholarship on civility mainly takes the materiality of urban space for granted. By paying careful attention to what crumbling urban space looks and feels like, it is demonstrated how civility is often entangled with, experienced through and articulated via material things, such as ruins. These converging, historically shaped logics, geographies and materialities of (in)civility illustrate how civility works as an “incomplete horizon” of political entanglement, recognition and mutuality, thus producing layers of distinction and hierarchies of value, which place a limit on the prospects of democratic politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina and beyond.

Market-Oriented Ethnography: Interpretation Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 484-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric J. Arnould ◽  
Melanie Wallendorf
Keyword(s):  
Marketing Strategy ◽  
Market Segmentation ◽  
Brand Management ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Ethnographic Methods ◽  
Strategy Formulation ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Ethnographic Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Data

The authors show how ethnography can provide multiple strategically important perspectives on behaviors of interest to marketing researchers. They first discuss the goals and four essential characteristics of ethnographic interpretation. Then they review the particular contributions to interpretation of several kinds of ethnographic observation and interview data. Next they discuss how interpretations are built from ethnographic data. They show how multilayered interpretations of market phenomena emerge through systematic analysis of complementary and discrepant data. Finally, the authors articulate three representational strategies that are used to link multilayered interpretations to marketing strategy formulation. They suggest that ethnographic methods are appropriate for apprehending a wide variety of consumption and use situations with implications for market segmentation and targeting; product and service positioning; and product, service, and brand management.

scholarly journals Crossing Borders in Search of the Mother-Daughter Story: Interdependence across Time and Distance

2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-639
Author(s):  
Ruth Ann Belknap
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mothers And Daughters ◽  
Analysis Techniques ◽  
Mexican Culture ◽  
Mother Daughter Relationship ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Distance Data

Although studies have identified the importance of the mother–daughter relationship and of familism in Mexican culture, there is little in the literature about the mother–daughter experience after daughters have migrated to the United States. This study explores relationships between three daughters in America and their mothers in Mexico, and describes ways in which interdependence between mothers and daughters can be maintained when they are separated by borders and distance. Data collection included prolonged engagement with participants, field notes, and tape-recorded interviews. Narrative analysis techniques were used. Findings suggest mother–daughter interdependence remains. Some aspects may change, but the mother–daughter connection continues to influence lives and provide emotional and, to a lesser extent, material support in their lives.

scholarly journals Music as a Therapeutic Assistant: Strategy to Reduce Work Stress

10.3823/2299 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dereck Sena de Lima ◽  
Jamilton Alves Farias ◽  
Aurilene Josefa Cartaxo Gomes de Arruda ◽  
Cesar Cavalcanti da Silva ◽  
Maurício Caxias de Souza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Work Stress ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Ethics Committee ◽  
Quantitative Approach ◽  
Health Unit ◽  
Basic Health ◽  
Descriptive Research ◽  
Nursing Professionals

Objective: to understand the influence of music as a therapeutic assistant in reducing work stress of nursing professionals in a basic health unit. Method: it is an exploratory and descriptive research with a quantitative approach, developed with 9 nursing professionals from UBS Integrated Nova Esperança in João Pessoa, Paraíba. Data collection began after approval of the Research Ethics Committee of the Health Sciences Center of the Federal University of Paraíba, nº. 0508/16, CAAE: 58741916.6.0000.5188. Results: we identified that 33.3% of nursing professionals presented signs of stress, of the 33.3% who presented stress, 100% demonstrated to be in the resistance phase, 100% of the nursing professionals evaluated the musical strategy in a positive way. Conclusion: the musical strategy received extremely positive evaluations by the participants of the research, about 100% of professionals said that listening to music can reduce work stress.

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