Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to put the entire picture together in my formal etic, or social scientific, role
(see also Fetterman, 1981b, for other case examples.)
Analysis has no single form or stage in ethnography. Multiple analyses and
forms of analyses are essential. Analysis takes place throughout any ethno-
graphic endeavor, from the selection of the problem to the final stages of writ-
ing. Analysis is iterative and often cyclical in ethnography (Goetz & LeCompte,
1984; Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007; Taylor & Bogdan, 1988). The researcher
builds a firm knowledge base in bits and pieces, asking questions, listening,
probing, comparing and contrasting, synthesizing, and evaluating information.
The ethnographer must run sophisticated tests on data long before leaving the
field. A formal, identifiable stage of analysis, however, does take place when
the ethnographer physically leaves the field. Half the analysis at this stage
involves additional triangulation, sifting for patterns, developing new matrices,
and applying statistical tests to the data. The other half takes place during the
final stages of writing an ethnography or an ethnographically informed report.
