ethnography

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ethnography

ethnography: see anthropology; ethnology.

ethnography

the direct observation of an organization or small society, and the written description produced. Often the method of observation involves PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION. The ethnographic method (sometimes also referred to as FIELDWORK) is a basic method in SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, It is also a method used in some areas of sociology, e.g. COMMUNITY STUDIES. Usually a researcher gathers data by living and working in the society or social setting being researched, seeking to immerse himself or herself as fully as possible in the activities under observation, but at the same time keeping careful records of these activities.

In anthropology, an emphasis on the importance of the ethnographic method was initially associated with the functionalist school, which encouraged an analysis of the internal structure and function of single societies rather than historical or comparative studies (see FUNCTIONALISM). However, there is no inherent reason why ethnographic and comparative approaches should not be seen as complementary or why ethnography should simply be associated with one theoretical school.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

ethnography

[eth′nä·grə·fē]

(anthropology)

The branch of ethnology that deals with the description of races or ethnic groups, without attempting to analyze or compare them.

References in periodicals archive ?

Fassin shares his experience in his fieldwork and how those experiences lead to the second component of ethnography, which is writing.

If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography

The articles in this special issue showcase the possibilities of ethnography. The collection is masterfully introduced by Werth who articulates ethnography's enduring contributions to scholarship on crime, il/legality, and its governance.

Afterword: Why Ethnography?

There are some fascinating papers here, illustrating many of the issues raised by public ethnography. There is attention to both components of that phrase: to what 'going public' can involve, as well as to what is the distinctive contribution of ethnography.

Fassin, Didier (Ed.). If Truth Be Told: The Politics of Public Ethnography

Big data analytics and, of late, AI (artificial intelligence) enable analysis of unstructured data at a scale like never before.This is digital ethnography. Web True.0 builds an elegant, strong case for it in a highly accessible, storytelling way, narrated over some nine chapters, each with a different case history.

A Retake on Research

180), Kullberg offers a thorough intellectual history of literature and ethnography in Martinique that combines analyses of well-known texts and figures with others that she rescues from critical neglect.

Christina Kullberg: The Poetics of Ethnography in Martinican Narratives: Exploring the Self and the Environment

Apart from hitting the reader from time to time with unexpected quotes from the higher authorities of postmodernism that are not always woven well into the text, this work is an important contribution that raises new perspectives in the history and ethnography of the Chinese diaspora in Borneo and beyond by approaching it through the anthropology of collective trauma processing.

The Hakkas of Sarawak: Sacrificial gifts in Cold War era Malaysia

-Commemoration ceremony held in Ankara Ethnography Museum on November 10,1939, just one year later since the modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal AtatE-rk.

General Staff shares footage showing first anniversary of AtatE-rk's death

The most moving part of this ethnography is the dilemma that two mothers share with us about how they are strongly educated and encouraged by the medical professionals to limit or not breastfeeding due to their HIV status, while they are living in a culture where not breastfeeding means you are a "bad mother." Their situation is further complicated by the culture of decisions, such as feeding, being made by their mother-in-law or mother who may not have a clue about her medical condition, and the family would be stigmatized if anyone found out.

Ethnographies of Breastfeeding: Cultural Contexts and Confrontations

was the last newsroom ethnography (Domingo, 2014): In his study, David Ryfe (2012) convincingly suggested that to understand journalism today, we must look beyond the newsrooms struggling to innovate, putting them in the context of the many other social actors (bloggers, activists, media start-ups) that collectively shape the news.

Making News at The New York Times

Starting with the inner rooms of the house (an ethnography of rooms as she calls it), the author takes us on a journey outwards 'through concentric circles' of movement and place making.

Catherine Allerton: Potent Landscapes. Place and Mobility in Eastern Indonesia

critiques the traditionally hegemonic position heavily guiding disciplinary ethnography, one that has its adherents to view their accounts as the exclusive authorities on phenomena irrespective of the narratives created by the actual research subjects.

Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem

This article introduces institutional ethnography as a valuable approach to sociological inquiry for health and nursing research in New Zealand.