A presentation outlining an approach to ethnography

1. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Ways of Knowing Culture: On Method
Dr Matt Maycock
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit
28th January 2015

2. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Session overview
• Ethnographic methods and an outline of participant
observation
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of ethnographic
methods (including ethical considerations)?
• Illustrated with the following example:
• PhD research - contemporary slavery in Nepal
• Discussion this weeks readings
• Exercise focusing on the practical application of
ethnography to understanding ageing

3. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Ethnographic Methods
“From one point of view, that of the textbook, doing
ethnography is establishing rapport, selecting informants,
transcribing texts, taking genealogies, mapping fields,
keeping a diary, and so on. But it is not these things,
techniques and received procedures, that define the
enterprise. What defines it is the kind of intellectual effort
it is.... Ethnography is thick
description”
(Geertz 1973: 6, 9-10)

4. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Participant Observation
Participant Observation (PO)
• ‘Deep hanging out’
• Interviews
• Surveys
• Draw and Talk
• Genealogies
etc etc

5. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Some Practicalities of Participant Observation
• live in study site for extended time
• learn local language and dialect
• participate in wide range of daily activities
• use everyday conversation as interview technique
• informally observe while participating
• record observations in fieldnotes
• continually reflect on experiences and data
• use both explicit and tacit information in analysis
(adapted from Dewalt and Dewalt, 2002)

6. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Strengths of Ethnography
• Produces rich and detailed research material
• Validity of research material:
• Research material does not arise from artificial research
setting
• Reported behaviour can be compared with observed
behaviour
• Actions can be seen in relation to specific social contexts
• Area of enquiry is only partially pre-defined
• inductive

7. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Strengths of Participation
• Greater understanding of how life is experienced
• embodied experience
• tacit knowledge
• Development of trusting relationships
• long-term contact
• solidarity of shared experience
• Almost continually open to new data over long
period
• observe different social contexts
• witness unexpected
• continually testing/ confirming appropriate behaviour

8. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Limitations of Participant Observation
• Very expensive
• very time consuming
• both collecting and analysing data
• requires skilled researchers
• Can create substantial amounts of research
material
• Private behaviours v. difficult to observe
• Difficult to replicate
• Inherently conservative

9. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Subjectivity
• Data and their interpretation inevitably shaped by individual
researcher
• centrality of personal relationships
• selection of data to record
• PO data result from interaction
between researcher and researched
• Explore subjectivity
• don’t pretend objectivity
• be aware of biases and how one interacts
• ‘participant objectification’ (Bourdieu)
• Initial findings are about oneself and social conditions that gave one
one’s culture

10. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Ethics
• Informed consent
• initial introductions but continual process
• fully informed consent undermines main strength of PO
• concealing specific foci
• Confidentiality and reciprocating gossip
• Intervening against local practices
• Maintaining integrity across different groups
• degree of candour about own views

11. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
PhD research far-west Nepal, 2013
Masculinity, Modernity and Bonded Labour: Continuity and
Change amongst the Kamaiya of Kailali District, far-west
Nepal (School of International Development, UEA, Norwich)

12. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
PhD fieldwork far-west Nepal 2009
Yearlong fieldwork in Nepal:
• Three month language training and key informant
interviews
• Nine months in two fieldsites
My thesis addressed the the following research questions:
• How have the links between Kamaiya bodies and
Kamaiya masculinities changed following freedom?
• How are working patterns changing following freedom,
and what implications does this have for Kamaiya
masculinities?
• What are the Implications of modernity for Kamaiya
masculinities in family settings?

13. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Methods
• Household survey
• Life History interviews
• Participant observation
• I wore clothes similar to my research participants and made a
conscious effort not to display conspicuous signs of consumption.
• I tried to behave like the men of my age at both fieldwork sites as
far as possible. On occasion this involved doing the work that the
men in Kampur were involved in, although this did not include
driving a rickshaw as the rickshaw drivers found the idea ridiculous.
• I took part in various agricultural and hunting activities.
• I took part in the social life, which posed various difficulties for me.

14. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
My home for nine months…

15. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.

16. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Participant Observation - Going ‘hunting’

17. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Going ‘hunting’

18. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Going ‘hunting’

19. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Going ‘hunting’

20. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Issues of Participant Observation/Fieldwork
• Trying to ‘keep up’ with the men in both fieldwork sites in various
ways was problematic and I was unable to do it in many respects,
particularly in relation to drinking, which was an important daily
occurrence
• Domestic Violence seemed to be most likely after a night at a local
bar many village women did not approve of their husbands going
there, especially as it meant they would be spending a large
proportion of the household’s limited income. Therefore, I did not
want to be a part of daily drinking, and felt very uncomfortable about
being associated with it.
• Not going to a local bar on a consistent basis allowed me to form
relationships with other people in the village, not least the women
and older men, who disapproved of the bar and what went on there.
• Isolation
• Incompetence
• Mental health implications of hearing disturbing narratives

21. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Positionality
• As Reinharz (1997) indicates, researchers have multiple
identities apart from those associated with being a researcher;
mine include being white, Welsh, heterosexual, male and, at
the time, unmarried.
• My positionality through the various identities I brought to the
research – my gender, race, class etc. – influenced both how I
collected data and its interpretation (Mullings, 1999)
• My position constituted both an advantage and a disadvantage.
West (2003) found that being positioned as an ‘outsider’
brought certain benefits in his research with victims of torture
in Mozambique’s war for independence. It allowed some of his
research subjects to discuss issues that they found it difficult to
speak about with members of their community.

22. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Positionality continued and reflexivity
• I had not considered the implications of having a long-term
girlfriend living with me in the field before going to my fieldwork
sites. That I was in a long-term relationship and unmarried caused
some consternation, as it was rare at both sites.
• It was often initially assumed that because I was white, I was a
development worker or involved with the UN in post-conflict work.
• Working with two research assistants provided the opportunity to
approach situations from different perspectives.
• Reflexivity was central to all stages of my research in Nepal. Hollway
and Jefferson (2000) outline how reflexivity can make an important
positive contribution to qualitative research, especially in relation to
the misreading of narratives.

23. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Some implications of my fieldwork…
• I have a long term commitment to these two fieldsites.
After 2009, I visited in 2011, 2013 and 2014 and will
continue to visit the same sites as long as I am able.
• Ethnographic methods have helped me to think differently
about my own identity, the places and people I know
• Having experience of using ethnographic methods is
transferable to other contexts (such as Scottish prisons)
• Sometimes it is hard not to think ‘ethnographically’

24. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Some potential dangers/ issues

25. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Discussion of Readings
Bourgois, P. (1996). In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Dettwyler, K. (1994). Dancing Skeleton: Life and Death in West Africa.
Prospect Heights: Waveland Press
Mol, A. (2004). The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice.
Durham, Duke University Press
• Briefly summarise the reading
• Give an outline of what ethnographic methods are used and how
these methods are described
• Consider some of the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of the
methods used
• Consider how the researcher positions him/herself in relation to the
research subjects being studied, how is rapport established?

26. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Ethnography – commercial applications
• Intel started using ethnography in the early 90s
• Ethnography helped to illustrate the potential for home
commuters, through deeper understandings of domestic
spaces
• The “Anywhere at work” study of fishermen in Alaska
helped Intel focus on mobile computing
• Intel has one of the biggest corporate teams of
anthropologists
• In house anthropologists now focus on a range of
healthcare solutions and technologies
• Intel is studying people in an effort to drive healthcare
solutions and technologies to help people look after
their health in their own home…

27. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.

28. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
The Application of ethnographic methods
Imagine you are a team of ethnographers at Intel with an
interest in health. Work two teams to think about how you
would use ethnographic methods the better understand the
health implications of a new type of health watch:
• What can ethnographic methods contribute to understanding
the health implications of wearing a health watch that other
methods can’t?
• How will you approach participant observation?
• How will ethnographic methods complement other sources of
data collection?
• What issues or challenges do you
envisage?

29. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
Conclusions
• Ethnographic studies have demonstrated that illness
and medical care are socially constructed according to
the cultural context in which we live
• Ethnographic methods can contribute illuminating
insights into health and illness within and between
cultures
• Ethnographic methods are being utilised in an evolving
and diverse range of contexts

30. MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
GU Ethnography group
The next meeting is 11th February 12:30-2
matthew.maycock@glasgow.ac.uk
www.matthewmaycock.com
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