Doing Ethnography

Ethnographic methodology seeks to understand, describe and explain the symbolic world (of beliefs, languages and conventions) lying beneath the social action of groups, organizations and communities. The ethnographer immerses himself or herself in the everyday lives of the participants, taking part in their rituals, ceremonials and routines. Observing, listening and participating gradually bring underlying cultures to light, revealing their meanings, symbols and tacit knowledge. The aim of the book is to set out the coordinates and foundations of a research practice which has recently attracted renewed interest. Although ethnography has been long and unjustly criticized as anti-methodological, devoid of standard procedures, and without codified rules, it is in fact based upon an array of conventions and strategies deployed according to the theoretical perspective adopted. There is no single, universal ethnographic approach, of course; but nor does arbitrariness reign in the discipline. In this regard the book sets itself the audacious tasks of walking the knife-edge between a ‘non-postmodern constructivist ethnography’ and a ‘non-realist phenomenologically-oriented ethnography’. The book systematically describes the various phases of an ethnographic inquiry (the research design, access to the field, collection, organization and analysis of the data, and communication of the results). As it does so, it provides numerous examples while also offers suggestions and advice for the novice ethnographer.