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Ethnographic Methods

Ethnography is a methodology with more than 100 years of history. It originated in the Western world as a particular form of knowledge about distant cultures (typically non-Western ones) that were previously largely unknown to the outside world, having had only fleeting contacts or brief conversations with some persons. After having entered several disciplines of the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, and psychology), in recent times ethnography has become an important tool in political science as well (where it takes the name of political ethnography), as a part of interpretive methodologies and research. This entry discusses the origins and definitions of this method, its strengths and weaknesses, and its increasing relevance for political science.

Competing Definitions of Ethnography

Defining a term is always difficult because there are as many definitions as there are different points of view. Paul Atkinson and Martyn Hammersley observe that the definition of the term ethnography has been subject to controversy. For some scholars, it refers to a philosophical paradigm to which one makes a total commitment; for others it designates a method that one uses as and when appropriate. But the controversy extends further. Since the 1980s, the meaning of ethnography has been expanded to such an extent that it encompasses forms of research that are extremely diverse from a methodological point of view. Everything is now ethnography: from life stories to analysis of letters and questionnaires, from autobiography to narrative analysis, and from action research to performance to field research lasting from a few days to several years. For example, leading scholars such as James Lull and David Morley have pointed out that what passes as ethnography in cultural studies fails to fulfill the fundamental requirements for data collection and reporting typical of most anthropological and sociological ethnographic research. Ethnography has become an abused buzzword and has been diluted into a multitude of sometimes contrasting and contradictory meanings, becoming synonymous with qualitative studies.

Amid this increasing polysemy of meanings, there are at least three terms that are related to ethnography: participant observation, fieldwork, and case study. However, these should not be confounded. The term case study denotes research on a system bounded in space and time and embedded in a particular physical and sociocultural context. Research is conducted using diverse methodologies, methods, and data sources, such as participant observation, interviews, audiovisual materials, documents, and so on. The term fieldwork emphasizes the continuous presence of the researcher in the field, as opposed to the grab-it-and-run methodologies, such as surveys, in-depth interviews, or analysis of documents and recordings. In this case, too, diverse methodologies and methods may be used. Finally, participant observation is a distinct research strategy. Participant observation and fieldwork treat observation mostly as a mere technique, whereas the term ethnography stresses the theoretical basis of such work stemming from a particular history and tradition.

An Updated Definition

The stretching of the term ethnography has emptied it of its original meaning. Ethnography was born as a technique based on direct observation. By contrast, interviews and surveys are mainly based on listening and asking questions. Of course, it is also essential in ethnography to listen to the conversations of the actors “on stage,” read the documents produced by the organization under study, ask people questions, and so on. Yet what most distinguishes ethnography from other methodologies is the role of the “protagonist” assigned to observation. Ethnographic methodology comprises two research strategies: nonparticipant observation and participant observation. In the former case, the researcher observes the subjects “from a distance” without interacting with them. Those who use this strategy are uninterested in investigating the symbolic sphere, and they make sure not to interfere with the subjects' actions so as not to influence their behavior. Of course, there are many intermediate situations between the two extremes of participant and nonparticipant observation.

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