RM2 QUALI Literature - Verloo (2020) Ethnography

Verloo (2020) Ethnography

“A method of seeing the city from within by living, seeing, and interpreting it along its inhabitants”

Ethnography 1

Qualitative research, engagement with daily experiences, perspectives and practises of urban actors

Ethnography 2

Long-term immersion and participant observation to see how processes shape everyday life

Ethnography 3

Eye-level perspective reveals hidden processes and lived power dynamics

Ethnographic epistemology

Constructivist - reality created between researcher and field, researcher entering it changes reality

‘Thick’ descriptions

Detailed, vivid accounts of what the researcher can see, smell, hear and feel in the field

Fieldwork

Process of collecting, recording and reflecting on lived experiences through participant observation

Fieldwork components

1. Fieldnotes

2. Diary

3. Logbook

4. Participant observation

Types of fieldwork

1. Deep hanging out (prolonged immersion)

2. Appointment ethnography (shorter, structured engagements)

Data interpretation 1

Goal is to explain how and why social phenomena unfold the way they do

Data interpretation 2

Observations → ‘thick’ descriptions → analyses

Data interpretation 3

Triangulation used to enrich understanding and avoid over interpretating

Reflexivity

Transparency about how knowledge is produced, methods used, voices heard and how interpretations emerged

Positionality

How researcher’s identity and standpoint can impact access, trust and interpretation