Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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The First Step
An Overview
A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
—Lao-tzu
Ethnography is about telling a credible, rigorous, and authentic story.
Ethnography gives voice to people in their own local context, typically relying
on verbatim quotations and a “thick” description of events. The story is told
through the eyes of local people as they pursue their daily lives in their own
communities. The ethnographer adopts a cultural lens to interpret observed
behavior, ensuring that the behaviors are placed in a culturally relevant and
meaningful context.The ethnographer is focused on the predictable, daily pat-
terns of human thought and behavior. Ethnography is thus both a research
method and a product, typically a written text.
Ethnographers are noted for their ability to keep an open mind about the
groups or cultures they are studying. However, this quality does not imply any
lack of rigor. The ethnographer enters the field with an open mind, not an
empty head. Before asking the first question in the field, the ethnographer
begins with a problem, a theory or model, a research design, specific data col-
lection techniques, tools for analysis, and a specific writing style.The ethnog-
rapher also begins with biases and preconceived notions about how people
behave and what they think—as do researchers in every field. Indeed, the
choice of what problem, geographic area, or people to study is in itself biased.
Biasesservebothpositiveandnegativefunctions.Controlled,biasescanfocus
and limit the research effort. Uncontrolled, they can undermine the quality of
ethnographic research. To mitigate the negative effects of bias, the ethnogra-
pher must first make specific biases explicit. A series of additional quality
controls, such as triangulation, contextualization, and a nonjudgmental orien-
tation, place a check on the negative influence of bias.
An open mind also allows the ethnographer to explore rich, untapped
sources of data not mapped out in the research design.The ethnographic study
allowsmultipleinterpretationsofrealityandalternativeinterpretationsofdata
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