3 Ethnographic Interpretation and Representation Free Online FlashCards

What is participant observation?

Participant observation combines taking part in everyday activities with careful watching and listening.

What three kinds of information should fieldnotes distinguish?

Separate what was observed, what participants said, and what the researcher infers. This helps prevent assumptions from being presented as facts.

How does iterative ethnographic analysis work?

Researchers revisit fieldnotes, compare episodes, look for patterns and exceptions, then use emerging questions to guide further observation or conversation.

Why can’t an action’s meaning be inferred from its appearance alone?

An action’s meaning depends on its situation and on how those involved understand it; an eye movement might be a twitch, wink, or signal.

What does thick description do?

Thick description links observable details to relevant relationships, histories, shared understandings, and participants’ accounts, making the reasoning behind an interpretation visible.

What is cultural relativism?

It is a commitment to understand beliefs and practices in their cultural and historical contexts rather than immediately judging them by the researcher’s standards.

What is an emic perspective?

An emic perspective concerns meanings and distinctions expressed by participants.

Why include variation and counterexamples in an ethnographic interpretation?

Researchers should look for different interpretations and cases that challenge a proposed pattern; variation can qualify an interpretation rather than simply invalidate it.

What does reflexivity examine in ethnographic research?

Reflexivity examines how the researcher’s presence, relationships, assumptions, and institutional role shaped access, interactions, and interpretation.

How can representational choices distort an ethnographic account?

Ethnographic writing selects which words, scenes, context, and concepts readers encounter. Researchers should avoid portraying a community as uniform or treating one vivid incident as proof of a general rule.

What responsibilities guide ethical ethnographic representation?

It requires attention to consent, privacy, potential harm, and publication effects. Researchers should protect identities when appropriate and consider opportunities for participants to respond.

How can researchers preserve detail while avoiding unsupported certainty?

Write notes soon after fieldwork and record uncertainties to preserve detail without presenting assumptions as facts.