Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
periodic symbolic interpretations gave way to full-blown theoretical proposi-
tions about the entire social system. Eventually, we both recognized that we
were losing sight of the program and the individuals in the study. Highly
trained, formally educated key actors can be instrumental in research, but the
fieldworker should solicit their contributions with great care, emphasizing the
concrete and tying abstractions down to reality.
Key actors can help synthesize the fieldworker's observations. In a univer-
sity department under study, I observed a series of faculty meetings in which
no one could make a decision about any issue for months. I had come to expect
some ambiguity, argument, and dissension, but I could not make sense of this
prolonged period of instability; these faculty members were usually much
more decisive. I shared my description of the faculty as a ship adrift, sailing
aimlessly without a rudder, with a key actor (an emeritus faculty member from
the department). He helped me to make sense of what I had observed and
experienced by providing a wider context. He explained that I was experienc-
ing the “interregnum.” The former chair had been deposed, and the department
had a leadership vacuum. Without this information, I could not have com-
pleted my picture of department interactions.
Key actor and ethnographer must share a bond of trust (see Figure 3.2).
Respect on both sides is earned slowly. The ethnographers must take the time
to search out and spend time with these articulate individuals. The fieldworker
learns to depend on the key actor's information—particularly as cross-checks
with other sources prove it to be accurate and revealing. Sometimes, key actors
are initially selected simply because they and the ethnographer have personal-
ity similarities or mutual interests. Ethnographers establish long-term rela-
tionships with key actors who continually provide reliable and insightful
information. Key actors can be extremely effective and efficient sources of
data and analysis.
At the same time, the ethnographer must judge the key actor's information
cautiously. Overreliance on a key actor can be dangerous. Every study requires
multiple sources. In addition, the fieldworker must take care to ensure that key
actors do not simply provide answers they think the fieldworker wants to hear.
The ethnographer can check answers rather easily, but must stay on guard
against such distortion and contamination. Another, more subtle problem
occurs when a key actor begins to adopt the ethnographer's theoretical and
conceptual framework. The key actor may inadvertently begin to describe the
culture in terms of this a priori construct, undermining the fieldwork and dis-
torting the emic, or insider's, perspective (for further discussion of the role
of key informants, see Dobbert, 1982; Ellen, 1984; Freilick, 1970; Goetz &
LeCompte, 1984; Pelto, 1970; Spradley, 1979; Taylor & Bogdan, 1988;
Wolcott, 2008a).
