1. Ch. 10: Observing People in Natural Settings
Neumann, pp

2. WHAT IS FIELD RESEARCH?
Field researchers directly observe and participate in natural social settings
Examine social world “up close”
Field researchers work w/ qualitative data
There are several kinds:
Ethnography
Participant observation
Informal “depth” interviews
Focus groups

3. Ethnography ethno: people or folk graphy: to describe something
ethnography: a detailed description of insider meanings and cultural knowledge of living cultures in natural settings

4. Cultural knowledge
Cultural knowledge includes assumptions, symbols, songs, saying, facts, ways of behaving, and objects (e.g., furniture, electronics, etc.)
It has two parts: explicit and tacit
tacit knowledge: unspoken cultural norms, revealed when they are breeched

6. STUDYING PEOPLE IN THE FIELD
Field researchers use a variety of techniques, but share common principles:
naturalism: the principle that we learn best by observing ordinary events in natural setting, not in a contrived, invented or researcher-created setting
flexibility: field research is less structured than quantitative research and follows a nonlinear path

7. 8 Stages of a Field Research Study
Preparing
Starting the research project
Being in the field
Developing strategies for success in the field
Observing and taking field notes
Conducting field interviews
Leaving the field
Writing the field research report

8. 1. Preparing for a field study
Increase self-awareness
Conduct background investigation
Practice observing and writing

9. 2. Starting the research project
Get organized
Select a field site
Gain access
Enter the field

10.  Entering the field Presentation of self Amount of disclosure
Selecting a social role
field site: any location or set of locations in which field research takes place. It usually has ongoing social interaction and a shared culture.
gatekeeper: someone with the formal or informal authority to control access to a field site.

11. 3. Being in the field Learn the ropes Build rapport
Negotiate continuously
Decide on a degree of involvement

12. 3. Being in the field (cont’d)
While “learning the ropes,” you learn how to “normalize” the social research
normalize: how a field researcher helps field site members redefine social research from unknown and potentially threatening to something normal, comfortable and familiar
“Degree of involvement” ranges from detachment to “going native”
going native: when a field researcher drops a professional researcher role and loses all detachment to become fully involved as a full field site member

13. 4. Strategies for Success in the Field
Build relationships
Perform small favors
Appear interested and exercise selective inattention
Be an earnest novice
Avoid conflict
Adopt an attitude of strangeness

14. 4. Strategies for Success in the Field (cont’d)
Learn to “act,” and maintain an “appearance of interest”
appearance of interest: a micro strategy to build or maintain relationships in a field setting in which a researcher acts interested even when he or she is actually bored and uninterested
Adopt an “attitude of strangeness”
attitude of strangeness: a perspective in which the field researcher questions and notices ordinary details by looking through the eyes of a stranger

15. 5. Observing and collecting data
Researcher is data collection instrument, who observes:
The physical setting
People and their behavior
Sometimes “nothing”
Researcher “samples” by focusing attention on different kinds of people or events:
Routine
Special
Unanticipated

16. 6. Interviewing in field research
Types of questions in field interviews:
Descriptive questions
Structural questions
Contrast questions
informant: a member in a field site with whom a researcher develops a relationship and who tells the researcher many details about life in the field site.

17. 7. Leaving the field
Plan for and anticipate the disengaging and exiting process
Exit process depends on field setting and nature of relationships
A small ritual – a party or handshake – helps to signal the social break
Anticipate the effect exiting may have on members

18. 8. Writing the field research report
More than in other reports, a field research report depends on the researcher’s writing skill to convey the feeling of the field site, to describe the people in the field, and to recount events in proper depth

19. FOCUS GROUPS
focus group: a qualitative research technique that involves informal group interviews about a topic