{"id":9337,"date":"2016-09-15T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T18:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=9337"},"modified":"2016-09-15T11:38:08","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T18:38:08","slug":"engaging-ethnography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/engaging-ethnography\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging Ethnography"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding ethnographic methodologies<\/strong><\/p>\n

The goal of ethnographic research is so that \u201cwe may arrive at a closer understanding of the worlds that other people live in\u201d (36). Visually, “photographs, videos and other images\u2026 do not necessarily take on the status of being knowledge about the research question or findings in themselves, but rather can be understood as routes to knowledge and tools through which we can encounter and imagine other people\u2019s worlds (39). As someone who seeks to share the good news of Jesus with others, my first responsibility is to understand other people and their contexts.<\/p>\n

To summarize an ethnographic anthropologist I know quite well, ethnography is an approach to understanding others by not just describing what<\/em> they\u2019re doing, but describing what they think<\/em> they\u2019re doing (Kip Lines, personal interview, summarizing Clifford Geertz). That is, entering into a context as an insider, seeking insider knowledge. As Pink explains, \u201cwhen researching everyday life as ethnographers, we do this from inside, we become immersed in its flow and, indeed, our own actions and feeling become part of the very contexts that we are researching\u201d (35).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe become part of the very contexts we are researching\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the delicious ironies of doing ethnographic research is the concept of reflexivity<\/em><\/strong>; that is, as we do research, we also reflect on who we are and how we affect the research, and how the research affects us, in a continual, circular pattern. As we spend time listening, recording, photographing as ethnographers, we are changed and re-formed through our interactions with research participants and the environment of the research. Indeed, Pink challenges that \u201cwe might also turn the lens onto ethnographers, to develop a reflexive awareness of how we too are consumers of digital and visual technologies and images\u201d (42).<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/a>

Dr Kip Lines working with research participants in Turkana, Kenya.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even our own presence influences and changes the context of our research. Cultures are not static, and are continuously transforming from inner and outer influences. For instance, while I\u2019m stepping a bit out of my comfort zone in suggesting this, current theories on ethnographical methodologies seem to contradict any notion of a Star Trekkian protocol of a Prime Directive; that is, the principle which prohibits the Star Fleet from influencing a different civilization.[1]<\/a> Any Trekkies wish to reflect on this? Our very presence within the context of the research participants is bound to alter that context in some fashion.<\/p>\n

Subjectivity & Collaboration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, like Adler\u2019s impossible challenge to remain ideally impartial to a text, ethnographic researchers recognize that our research itself is subjective: \u201cIf the researcher is the channel through which all ethnographic knowledge is produced and represented, then the only way reality and representation can interpenetrate in ethnographic work is through the ethnographer\u2019s textual constructions of \u2018ethnographic fictions\u2019. Rather than existing objectively and being accessible and recordable through scientific research methods, reality is subjective and is known only as it is experienced by individuals,\u201d Pink reminds us (36). One of the author\u2019s goals is to show that \u201cnot only is the idea that we might produce objective knowledge as detached observers problematic, but that similarly we cannot record it with the camera\u201d (39). Ethnographic researchers cannot truly present an unbiased description of a specific context, as each person views and interprets images based on their own knowledge and experiences (40-41).<\/p>\n

How then, can this method of research even hope for viability? Is the goal of \u201cunderstand[ing] ethnographic texts as a subjective, but hopefully loyal, representation of ethnographic encounters and of the people who participated in their research\u201d (165) even possible? Pink suggests that this can be accomplished most successfully through collaboration<\/em><\/strong> with the research participants, partnering with them to potentially stage, select, or even snap some of the visual images used in research. Collaboration can also alleviate the primitivizing tendency to \u201cimpart an image of the Other\u201d (171).<\/p>\n

Pink, Sarah. 2013.\u00a0Doing Visual Ethnography<\/em>. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> While I have not watched a Star Trek episode or movie, many of my friends do. Conversations like this\u2014connecting ethnography to the Prime Directive\u2014frequently occur around our faculty lunch table at work. Thanks to Dr Fay Ellwood for this image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Understanding ethnographic methodologies The goal of ethnographic research is so that \u201cwe may arrive at a closer understanding of the worlds that other people live in\u201d (36). Visually, “photographs, videos and other images\u2026 do not necessarily take on the status of being knowledge about the research question or findings in themselves, but rather can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[892,893,894,895,896],"class_list":["post-9337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-collaboration","tag-lgp7-dminlgp7-pink","tag-reflexivity","tag-startrek","tag-subjectivity","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}