Typically includes participant observation interviews

Typically includes participant observation & interviews

Average anthropology ethnography = 1 year

The people you talk to are called “informants”

Insider informants are useful because they have implicit knowledge of a subject

As an ethnographer you can’t fully accept the word of insider information


Sometimes people say something, but do the opposite- as people we can be very
contradictory

Maybe the person is telling you what you want to hear, which is why participant
observation = key

Limitation of ethnography = ‘a case of the particular’ – if it’s based on a specific place
how is it generalizable to other situations?

Multi sited ethnography – where it happens across many different sites

Ex/ Tourism, Migrations

Digital Ethnographies – virtual & online worlds

Ex/ ‘Second Life’
Secondary Data/Textual Analysis

Non primary sources

Research by other agencies, individuals etc.

Ex/ The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Content analysis – Quantitative approach to textual analysis

Ex/ ProQuest – US newspaper and magazine database

Word Search for ‘politically correct’ - 1990 = 700, 1991= 2,500, 1992 =2,800
Key Terms

Case study: in-depth analysis of a single event, situation, or individual

code of ethics a set of guidelines that the Canadian Sociological Association has
established to foster ethical research

Controlled group: an experimental group that is not exposed to the independent
variable
Correlation: when a change in one variable coincides with a change in another variable, but
does not necessarily

Dependent variable: a variable changed by another variable

Empirical evidence: evidence corroborated by direct experience and/or observation

Ethnography: observing a complete social setting and all that it entails

Experiment: the testing of a hypothesis under controlled conditions

Field research: gathering data from a natural environment without doing a lab
experiment or a survey

Hawthorne effect: when study subjects behave in a certain manner due to their
awareness of being observed by a researcher

Hypothesis: an educated guess with predicted outcomes about the relationship
between two or more variables hypothetico-deductive methodologies methodologies based on
deducing a prediction from a hypothesis and testing the validity of the hypothesis by whether it
correctly predicts observations

Independent variable: a variable that causes change in a dependent variable

Interpretive approach: a sociological research approach that seeks in-depth
understanding of a topic or subject through observation or interaction


Interview: a one-on-one conversation between a researcher and a subject
Literature review a scholarly research step that entails identifying and studying all existing
studies on a topic to create a basis for new research

Operational definitions: specific explanations of abstract concepts that a researcher
plans to study

Participant observation: immersion by a researcher in a group or social setting in order