critical theory, critical race theory and queer theory among others – recognizes and celebrates a diversity of perspectives. Postmodern approaches to understanding and theorizing value the importance of the understanding of context for making sense of behaviours and meanings. Moreover, postmodern approaches raise important questions about power and authority in social research and the production of knowledge. There comes with postmodernism a critical questioning of hegemony and an inherent belief in providing opportunities to ‘give voice’. There is also the recognition that social worlds are multiple, layered and polyvocal, and that there are many voices to be heard; also that social worlds are dialogic, constructed by social actors who bring with them different histories, biographies and experiences. Hence there is a fundamental articulation of social worlds as socially constructed and represented, where the self gets positioned and repositioned within and through social and cultural contexts. Thus, in relation to postmodern ethnography, there is a focus on exploring and recognizing the contexts through which social worlds are constructed and lives lived, as well as on providing more nuanced vehicles for documenting social worlds and taking into account the multiple voices that are present and must be heard. Postmodern approaches to ethnography have placed a particular emphasis on the products of ethnography and on finding alternative ways of representing and reporting social data, in order to better give voice to, and to work with rather than on, social actors in research settings. In so doing, postmodern ethnographers have also posed questions about power and authority in our research encounters, as well as about the authoritative text of the scholarly ethnographic monograph.
Principles and practices
There are a diversity of perspectives and theoretical positions from which ethnography has been derived and developed. Despite this, and while recognizing that ethnography can incorporate a variety of methods for data collection, analysis and representation, there are a number of principles and practices which most ethnographers would endorse. Such principles and practices are partly to do with the ways in which ethnographic researchers go about conceptualizing problems, but also focus on the underlying theoretical and methodological frameworks which guide the research endeavour.
The first of these ethnographic principles is to understand the importance of context in seeking to make sense of a culture or social setting. Social actors, events, actions and interactions must be seen and understood in relation to the cultural context in which they are situated. This includes paying attention to the local circumstances, as well as to the historical, spatial, temporal and organizational frames of a setting and of social lives lived of and within that setting. This, then, is a recognition that accounts of settings have to be contextualized in relation to the totality of that setting. This commitment means not making premature assumptions about what or who is important and striving to develop a better understanding of the context in which and through which things are done and things are said. This broader view means that the significance of particular people, actions, events and interactions may only retrospectively become clear. This also means being absolutely apparent that, as social researchers or ethnographers, we cannot ever produce a complete or exhaustive account or analysis of a setting. Rather, by appreciating the complexity of a setting, ethnographers are then able to be selective in their observations and analysis in order to produce a coherent account. Such accounts are always partial and should be acknowledged as such. This commitment to holism – to situating the particular within the broader context while also recognizing that it is rarely or indeed ever possible to gain a complete picture – is central to the ethnographic enterprise.
Attention to process is also a badge of ethnographic research. Process in the ethnographic context can mean two different but related things. The first, drawing on the interactionist tradition, emphasizes that social life is itself fluid and moving, a process rather than a fixed and bounded entity. Thus social life is emergent out of processes of action and interaction. Ethnographers are interested in how interactional processes are enacted and understood in order to give order and meaning to social life. Ethnographers explore patterns, structures and routines through which interaction provides meaning. The second ethnographic commitment to process is with the research process itself, always paying close and reflexive attention to the ways in which research takes place and to the approaches through which the researcher accesses the site of study, builds rapport and trust, and shapes the focus and outcomes of the research.
Most ethnographic research is also usually ‘field’ based, that is undertaken in situ – with/in the research settings and conducted first-hand, by the researchers themselves. This is a commitment again to context, but also to participant experience. The primary instrument of data collection in ethnography is the researcher, who is in various ways engaged in observing, listening, asking, interacting and recording. This also assumes a commitment on behalf of the researcher to the research setting and the people, and usually some kind of prolonged and/or deep engagement. This can be really, properly long-term engagement, sometimes over several years or decades. But it can also mean a matter of weeks or series of hours. There is something here about the quality of the engagement rather than a preoccupation with time spent.
Undertaking ethnographic research also recognizes the dialogic and interactional nature of social life. Ethnographers are committed to identifying and recording the perspectives and understandings of social actors. There is an awareness that social realities are complex and multiple, and may be competing; and that there may be a range of perspectives and many voices. There is an acknowledgement and acceptance that social actors are themselves knowledgeable and skilful incumbents of their own social and cultural worlds. They are the experts here, and the role of the researcher is to recognize and attempt to capture those highly developed sets of knowledges and skills.
The ethnographic approach to research also seeks to make sense of both talking and doing. Alongside a focus on action and activity within a social setting, is an understanding that social actors account for their actions, and in ways that might differ from what actually happens. There is not a superficial concern here with how people might do one thing and say another. Nor are we seeking out inconsistencies between what people do and what they say they do. Rather, taking accounts seriously in ethnographic work provides a way of investigating and understanding both how people make sense of what they do and how they do the things they do. Moreover, by focusing on talking and doing ethnographers are able to explore both action and meaning.
Finally, ethnography is not only a way of seeing or hearing, but also a way of telling. Ethnography includes a commitment and an imperative to re-present and represent social life. Writing – producing the ‘ethnography’ – is a central part of the ethnographic endeavour, not something that simply happens after the research event. Writing is part of the research process and requires the same reflexive attention as other aspects of the research act. Conventionally, the ‘ethnography’ has been conceptualized as a scholarly narrative monograph, in which and through which the ethnographer tells the story of the research setting, usually through literary conventions of narrative prose. However, there are a range of ways in which ethnographers can represent the field and tell the story of the research setting. The principle can thus be extended to a broader range of ethnographic production, whereby ethnographers are concerned to provide representational and reflexive accounts of their research, drawing on a range of conventions and genres, which may include literature, art, film and performance.
Key points
Ethnography is concerned with understanding social worlds through researcher engagement and participation.
Ethnography is a term that is used to describe a research process and a research product.
Modern ethnography emerged out of social and cultural anthropological practice of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; used in order to study small ‘traditional’ societies.
Ethnographic methods are now used by researchers from across a broad spectrum of disciplines and fields of study, to investigate a wide range of settings.
