Showing posts with label Ethnography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethnography. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
What it takes...
One general point about Hammersley and Atkinson: the general idea I get from this book about conducting ethnographic research is that there isn´t a formula or even a method to apply: the success of an interview or even of a whole field study counts as much on the state of things (circumstances) as it does on the researcher's savoir fair, on its ways with people and its means to get on with different situations, all based on ad hoc decisions.
Insider accounts
Hammersley and Atkinson Chapter 5: on insider accounts:
There are distinct advantages in combining participant observation with interviews, in particular the data from each can be used to illuminate the other. As Dexter notes from his research on the United States Congress, one's experience as a participant observer can have an important effect on how one interprets what people say in interviews. (: 131)
They also discuss the difficulties in selecting and having access to informants and people to interview. Also the problems in choosing the setting for an interview and deciding between an individual or group interview.
The advantages of the interview is that it can elicit different types of data, required by the changing demands of the research (:156)
As for the answers gathered, they shouldn't be treated as "the truth" about any phenomena, because they are only one person's account of that reality, but neither should be discharged, as they can be a valuable source of information about events and perspectives and practices of those who perform them. (:156)
About informants, they present Dean et al illustration of types: (:137)
(see book for details, it is pretty funny)
1. Informants that are specially sensitive to the area of concern
2. The more-willing-to-reveal informants
There are distinct advantages in combining participant observation with interviews, in particular the data from each can be used to illuminate the other. As Dexter notes from his research on the United States Congress, one's experience as a participant observer can have an important effect on how one interprets what people say in interviews. (: 131)
They also discuss the difficulties in selecting and having access to informants and people to interview. Also the problems in choosing the setting for an interview and deciding between an individual or group interview.
The advantages of the interview is that it can elicit different types of data, required by the changing demands of the research (:156)
As for the answers gathered, they shouldn't be treated as "the truth" about any phenomena, because they are only one person's account of that reality, but neither should be discharged, as they can be a valuable source of information about events and perspectives and practices of those who perform them. (:156)
About informants, they present Dean et al illustration of types: (:137)
(see book for details, it is pretty funny)
1. Informants that are specially sensitive to the area of concern
2. The more-willing-to-reveal informants
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Bibliography
Again, no much news in this side of life.
Reading:
Crabtree, A. (2003) Designing collaborative systems: a practical guide to ethnography London: Springer.
“…the rationalist mentality embedded in methods of description so prevalent in the human sciences keeps us from looking at the essential issues in the workplace, which is to say that the rationalist methodologies gloss over and obscure the real world, real time character of work”. (p.46)
Dey, I. (2004) Grounded Theory. In Qualitative research practice edited by Clive Seale [et al.] London: SAGE p. 80-93
Good historical account of the origins of Grounded Theory, synthetic explanation of Strauss and Corbin's three phase coding system and sufficient critique of the method.
"Concepts can both reduce and enrich data: they reduce in the sense that they summarize a range of observations and they enrich because concepts convey connotations that facilitates connections with other concepts".
“Posing questions isn’t the same as presuming answers”
Hammersley, M. & Atkinson P. (1995) Ethnography:principles in practice 2nd ed.. London: Routledge.
Action
Replied Jirotka's email asking for an appointment
Reading:
Crabtree, A. (2003) Designing collaborative systems: a practical guide to ethnography London: Springer.
“…the rationalist mentality embedded in methods of description so prevalent in the human sciences keeps us from looking at the essential issues in the workplace, which is to say that the rationalist methodologies gloss over and obscure the real world, real time character of work”. (p.46)
Dey, I. (2004) Grounded Theory. In Qualitative research practice edited by Clive Seale [et al.] London: SAGE p. 80-93
Good historical account of the origins of Grounded Theory, synthetic explanation of Strauss and Corbin's three phase coding system and sufficient critique of the method.
"Concepts can both reduce and enrich data: they reduce in the sense that they summarize a range of observations and they enrich because concepts convey connotations that facilitates connections with other concepts".
“Posing questions isn’t the same as presuming answers”
Hammersley, M. & Atkinson P. (1995) Ethnography:principles in practice 2nd ed.. London: Routledge.
Action
Replied Jirotka's email asking for an appointment
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