Ethnography

What is the definition of ethnography?

• means 'writing about a way of life'

• Researchers that use this method believe that the only way to get a valid picture of a group’s way of life is to study them at first hand

• by living among them and recording them on a day-to-day basis.

• This is the research method that has become known as 'Participant Observation'

• and this is the main research method used in Ethnographic Sociology

What is the theory that underpins ethnography?

• Favoured by Interpretivists,

• as they use methods/approaches that generate detailed, in-depth data

• which reveal the meanings individuals attach to behaviour (micro)

• They attempt to establish ‘social reality’.

1) Whyte – Street Corner Society 

2) Griffin – Black Like Me 

3) Craine – Black Magic Roundabout  

Strengths

1) Practical

2) Ethical

3) Theoretical

LIMITATION

1) Practical

2) Ethical

3) Theoretical