Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
topics that enabled me to use my time more efficiently and effectively. Such
information also stimulated a barrage of specific, detailed questions, followed
by more survey questions, and leading once more to detailed questions—until
I had constructed a satisfactory conceptual framework.
Ethnographic research requires the fieldworker to move back and forth
between survey and specific questions. Focusing in on one segment of a per-
son's activities or worldview prematurely may drain all the ethnographer's
resources before the investigation is half done. The fieldworker must maintain
a delicate balance of questions throughout the study; in general, however, sur-
vey questions should predominate in the early stages of fieldwork and more
specific questions in the middle and final stages.
Specific Questions
Once survey questions reveal a category of some significance to both field-
worker and native, specific questions about that category become most useful.
The difference between a survey question and a specific or detailed question
depends largely on context. The question “What do librarians do?” is a grand
tour question in a library study, but it would be a specific question in a uni-
versity study.
In my library study, specific questions focused on the differences among
divisions within the library and among types of librarians in each division—
for example, between the curator in public services and the original cataloger in
technical services. More refined specific questions concerned the differences
between two members of the same division and department, such as those
between an original cataloger and a copy cataloger in the catalog department.
Specific questions probe further into an established category of meaning or
activity. Whereas survey questions shape and inform a global understanding,
specific questions refine and expand that understanding. Structural and
attribute questions—subcategories of specific questions—are often the most
appropriate approach to this level of inquiry. Structural and attribute questions
are useful to the ethnographer in organizing an understanding of the native's
view. For example, a series of structural questions in the library study included
the following: “What are the major parts of the library?” “How is this place
organized?” and “What kinds of departments or divisions exist in the library?”
The responses to these questions provided the insider's perspective on the
library's structure. I learned about three major divisions: public services, tech-
nical services, and administrative services. Probing further, I elicited a detailed
description of the departments within these divisions. Following up with
another structural question, I asked, “What types of librarians work in each of
