{"id":614,"date":"2015-07-13T09:15:19","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T09:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/?p=614"},"modified":"2015-08-11T12:02:52","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T12:02:52","slug":"participant-observation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/2015\/07\/13\/participant-observation\/","title":{"rendered":"Participant Observation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify\" align=\"LEFT\"><strong><span style=\"color: #99cc00\">Participant observation\u00a0is central to ethnography.<\/span><\/strong> It is the method by which the researcher both participates &amp; observes in the studied environment.<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The methodology of participant observation is exceptional for studying processes, relationships among people and events, the organization of people and events, continuities over time, and patterns, as well as the immediate sociocultural contexts in which human existence unfolds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">(Jorgenson, 1989; p12)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Participant observation\u00a0entails spending time with research subjects in their\u00a0 \u2018natural\u2019 settings as they perform day-to-day activities, and getting involved in their daily lives.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The researcher observes behaviours, listens to comments and conversations of subjects, and engages in conversations and interviews and records this information as <span style=\"color: #99cc00\"><a style=\"color: #99cc00\" title=\"The Ins and Outs of Field Notes\" href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/2015\/06\/25\/the-ins-and-outs-of-field-notes\/\">field notes <\/a><\/span>for later analysis. Participant\u00a0observation is:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<ul>\n<li>\u2018holistic\u2019 (aiming for a comprehensive picture)<\/li>\n<li>Contextualised (linking to the wider picture)<\/li>\n<li>\u2018emic\u2019 (understanding the views &amp; interpretations of the researched)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">The levels of participation\/observation undertaken\u00a0fluctuates and is\u00a0on a continuum (ie you aren&#8217;t either &#8216;observing&#8217; or &#8216;participating&#8217; with no in between, you will perhaps do slightly more of one and less of the other at any given time). The continuum can be shown like so:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><a href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/47\/2015\/07\/theoretical-social-roles-for-fieldwork.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-616 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/47\/2015\/07\/theoretical-social-roles-for-fieldwork-300x194.png\" alt=\"theoretical social roles for fieldwork\" width=\"450\" height=\"294\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Most ethnographers will normally stay around the centre of the spectrum, as there are disadvantages both to becoming too attached to your participants, and by becoming too detached, although they offer different advantages in terms of the ability to contextualise findings more thoroughly through detailed field notes\u00a0and make the familiar &#8216;strange&#8217; (observer) and gaining a fuller understanding of the participants daily lives and perceived reality (participant). It is up to you to decide where you would like to sit on the spectrum at different times in your observation.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify\">Reflexivity<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Reflexivity<\/span> whilst collecting data leads the researcher to examine their own place, biography, self and relation to the research subject, and how these issues shape the data collection and analysis.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify\">Further Reading<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">Please see Jorgenson D (1989) <em>The Methodology of Participant Observation<\/em>, Sage Publications for a detailed\u00a0overview of participant observation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u00a0<a title=\"An Overview of Ethnographic Methods\" href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/2015\/07\/10\/an-overview-of-ethnographic-methods\/\">\u2190 Back to Ethnographic Methods<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Participant observation\u00a0is central to ethnography. It is the method by which the researcher both participates &amp; observes in the studied environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-ethnography","column","threecol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/813"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ethnographicencounters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}