Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure5.1
Qualitative data analysis data sort
social activity that follows the service provide a highly condensed version of
the culture's religious life. A fire is a key event that compels the ethnogra-
pher to observe, analyze, and act simultaneously. A participant observer has
conflicting obligations. The ideal stance is simply to observe and record
what happens in such a situation, but as a participant, the researcher has an
ethical obligation to help put out the fire. These obligations need not be
mutually exclusive, however. Typically, the ethnographer simply joins in at
the appropriate level depending on the danger, the amount of experience in
the field with a certain group, and the behavioral norms in that situation. A
fire in a small kibbutz settlement brings everyone running out of their houses
to form a bucket brigade until the heavy fire-fighting equipment arrives.
Involvement in this situation allows simultaneous observation and analysis.
Informal leadership roles become apparent in such a crisis. The event is also
a test of the cooperation on which the community professes to depend. The
