NATURALISTIC, QUALITATIVE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH LOUIS COHEN, LAWRENCE MANION & KEITH MORRISON

STRUCTURE OF THE CHAPTERFoundations of naturalistic, qualitative and ethnographic inquiryPlanning naturalistic, qualitative and ethnographic researchFeatures and stages of a qualitative studyCritical ethnographySome problems with ethnographic and naturalistic approaches

NATURALISTIC METHODS ASK . . .What are the characteristics of a social phenomenon?What are the causes of the social phenomenon?What are the consequences of the social phenomenon?

MAIN KINDS OF NATURALISTIC ENQUIRYCase studyComparative studies Retrospective studies Snapshots Longitudinal studies Ethnography Grounded theory Biography Phenomenology

MAIN METHODS OF NATURALISTIC ENQUIRYParticipant observationInterviews and conversationsDocuments and field notesAccountsNotes and memos

THE QUALITATIVE PARADIGMHumans actively construct their own meanings of situations;Meaning arises out of social situations and is handled through interpretive processes; Behaviour and data are socially situated, context-related, context-dependent and context-rich. Realities are multiple, constructed, and holistic;Knower and known are interactive, inseparable;Only context-bound working hypotheses are possible;Inquiry is influenced by the choice of the paradigm, theory and values that guide the investigation into the problem;Research must include thick descriptions;The attribution of meaning is continuous and evolving over time;People are deliberate, intentional and creative in their actions;History and biography intersect;Social research needs to examine situations through the eyes of the participants;Researchers are the instruments of the research;

THE QUALITATIVE PARADIGMResearchers generate rather than test hypotheses;Researchers do not know in advance what they will see;Humans are anticipatory beings;Human phenomena seem to require even more conditional stipulations than do other kinds;Meanings and understandings replace proof;Situations are unique;The processes of research and behaviour are as important as the outcomes;People, situations, events and objects have meaning conferred upon them rather than possessing their own intrinsic meaning;Social research should be conducted in natural, uncontrived, real world settings with as little intrusiveness as possible by the researcher;Social reality, experiences and social phenomena are capable of multiple, sometimes contradictory interpretations;All factors have to be taken into account;Data are analyzed inductively;Theory generation is derivative and grounded.

PROCESSES OF QUALITATIVE ENQUIRYStudies must take place in their natural settings as context influences meaning;Humans are the research instrument;Utilization of tacit knowledge is inescapable;Qualitative methods sit more comfortably than quantitative methods with the notion of the human-as-instrument;Purposive sampling can explore the full scope of issues;Data analysis is inductive rather than deductive;Theory emerges (is grounded) rather than is pre-ordinate.Research designs emerge over time;Research outcomes are negotiated;The natural mode of reporting is the case study;Idiographic interpretation replaces nomothetic interpretation;Applications are tentative and pragmatic;Trustworthiness and its components replace conventional views of reliability and validity.

TEN ELEMENTS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISMPeople construct their own actions they are deliberate intentional and creative;People attribute to, and construct meanings of, their situations and behaviour; people impose meanings on situations; situations themselves do not necessarily possess intrinsic meaning.Significance of subjective meanings and the symbols and symbol systems (e.g. language and communication) by which they are produced and represented;The need to understand individuals definitions of the situation in their terms, i.e. in any situation there are many definitions of the situation multiple realities; the self is a social product, constructed through interaction with significant others which occurs in relation to multiple reference groups;

TEN ELEMENTS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISMSignificance of negotiation the process by which meanings are constructed;Significance of the natural, social context/environment/ setting in understanding meaning and meaning construction;Situations and people are unique and individual (idiographic);The nature of a career the moving perspective in which people regard their own and others lives, based on the meanings which are being formed; career includes notions of commitment and identity;Research must include thick description detailed accounts of the situation and participants meanings and behaviour;Analysis is emic rather than etic generating meaning through presenting participants subjective accounts rather than utilizing objective research.

ETHNOGRAPHIES CONCERN . . . The production of descriptive cultural knowledge of a group;The description of activities in relation to a particular cultural context from the point of view of the members of that group themselves;The production of a list of features constitutive of membership in a group or culture;The description and analysis of patterns of social interaction;The provision as far as possible of insider accounts;The development of theory.

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHYWhereas conventional ethnography is concerned with what is, critical ethnography concerns itself with what could be.Theoretical basis in critical theory and ideology critique.Concerned to expose oppression and inequality in society with a view to emancipating individuals and groups towards collective empowerment. Research is an inherently political enterprise: ethnography with a political intent.It has an explicit agenda and ethical responsibility to promote freedom, social justice, equity and well-being. It takes power, control and social exploitation as problematic, and to be changed, rather than simply to be interrogated and discovered Its basis echoes Habermass emancipatory interest

CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHYResearch and thinking are mediated by power relations;These power relations are socially and historically located;Facts and values are inseparable;Relationships between objects and concepts are fluid and mediated by the social relations of production;Language is central to perception;Certain groups in society exert more power than others;Inequality and oppression are inherent in capitalist relations of production and consumption;Ideological domination is strongest when oppressed groups see their situation as inevitable, natural or necessary;Forms of oppression mediate each other and must be considered together (e.g. race, gender, class).

FIVE STAGES IN CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHYStage 1Compiling the primary record through the collection of monological dataStage 2Preliminary reconstructive analysis

Stage 3Dialogical data collectionStage 4Discovering system relationsStage 5Using system relations to explain findings

PLANNING A QUALITATIVE STUDYLocate a field of study.Decide research questions (where appropriate)Address ethical issues.Decide from whom to obtain data (sampling).Find a role and manage entry into the context.Find informants:reliability;Importance in giving accounts;Knowledge/knowledgeability;Status;Contacts gatekeepers;Representativeness;Centrality;Relationships to others.

PLANNING A QUALITATIVE STUDYDevelop and maintain relationships in the field: trust; confidence; rapport; discretion; sensitivity; empathy;Collect data in situ and in several contexts (field notes and triangulation);Collect other data (where relevant);Analyze data;Leave the field; decide when, how, how to close relationships.Write the final report.

REFLEXIVITYResearchers are part of the social world that they are researchingThis social world is an already interpreted world by the actorsResearchers bring their own biographies to the research situationResearchers should acknowledge and disclose their own selves in the research, seeking to understand their part in, or influence on, the research.

OBSERVER ROLES

OUTSIDER INSIDER Detached ObserverObserver as participantParticipant as observerComplete participant

CONCERNS IN CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHIESHow do you negotiate your way into a situation; how to minimize threat.Timing the point of entry.Finding a role for yourself. To be a participant observer or non-participant observer?How to maintain naturalism and to avoid people playing to what they perceive are your expectations of them.How to retain your distance from those involved.How to gain access to certain difficult groups.Who to regard as key/important informants.How to record multiple perspectives and multiple realities.

CONCERNS IN CONDUCTING ETHNOGRAPHIESHow to address emic and etic approaches.Who owns the data; how much control do respondents/participants have over the data; when does ownership pass from the respondents/participants to the researcher?How to write up the report.What if the researcher sees what the respondents/ participants do not see?Reactivity of participants (Hawthorne effect).Halo effect.Focusing on the known/familiar only.Consider generalizability.

STEPS IN QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS Step 2: Create a domain analysisStep 3: Establish relationships and linkages between the domainsStep 4: Make speculative inferencesStep 5: SummarizeStep 6: Seek negative and discrepant casesStep 7: Generate theoryStep 1: Establish units of analysis of the data, indicating how these units are similar to and different from each other

SOME DIFFICULTIES IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCHDefinition of the situationReactivityHalo effectImplicit conservatismFocusing on the familiarOpen-endedness and diversityNeglect of wider social contexts and constraints GeneralizabilityWriting up multiple realitiesOwnership of the data