Ethnography

Ethnography is the art and science of describing a group or culture. Its strength is description. Ethnography provides the reader with a detailed picture of what’s going on, from the perspective of natives of the given culture. It also provides an insight into the processes associated with implementing a program, processes that lead to specific outcomes. One of the primary methodological tools involves fieldwork. Ethnographers immerse themselves in a culture in order to observe and record people’s behavior in their natural setting. The time spent observing may range from a few months to a few years; there must be enough time to observe patterns of behavior over time. This is a form of RELIABILITY.

Ethnographers attempt to elicit the insider’s or emic perspective of reality while in the field (see EMIC/ETIC DISTINCTION). The ethnographer may or may not agree with the insider’s perspective or agree that it conforms to an objective perspective of reality. The aim is to be nonjudgmental, recognizing that there are real consequences for a person’s perception of reality, regardless of the scientific merit of that perception. The ethnographer recognizes multiple realities or perceptions of reality based on people’s roles in society. For example, the view of the same police officer may be significantly different for an upper-middle-class elderly woman and for a lower-socioeconomic African American male. The ethnographer documents multiple and often conflicting emic or insider perspectives. Most ethnographers build on that knowledge and, using an external or etic perspective, explain the relationship between these emic perspectives of reality.

Ethnography takes more time than other forms of research because it involves fieldwork—time on site with people in their natural environment. Ethnographers spend time in the field in order to place into context the data they collect. Adaptations can be made concerning the amount of time devoted to fieldwork, but there is a direct relationship between time spent in the field and the quality of the data. Ironically, it is often more efficient to be inefficient: Spending more time in the field saves time revisiting poorly understood issues after a study has been completed.

This immersion in the lives of other people allows ethnographers to more accurately interpret people’s behavior. This is called cultural interpretation. Clifford Geertz (1975), borrowing Gilbert Riles’ notion of THICK DESCRIPTION, provided a classic in ethnography. It is the example of the wink or blink and how it captures the significance of cultural interpretation in ethnography. The same mechanical movement of an eyelid quickly closing and then opening again might be a wink in a dark and smoky bar or a blink in a dusty furniture repair shop. It is the cultural context that defines how that same mechanical behavior is interpreted (Fetterman, 1998).