Do you do “real” ethnography?
Anthropologists invented ethnography. Originally, “real ethnography” involved living among little known cultures that were very distinct from their own and participating in their rituals and society, and remaining there for long periods of time, typically measured in years.
I’ve been flamed by purists who say that what I’m doing isn’t real ethnography. If my team observes people in a cellphone store for one week, mapping their interactions and debriefing with salespeople afterwords to gain clarification, is that “real” ethnography? If a web design team spends a week interviewing people from their own culture in their homes, is that really ethnography?
That question is not important to me. I am concerned about the quality and rigor of research, and that the assertions I and my associates make can be substantiated. But I work in a design business. I want to use the most effective methods in the most cost-effective manner to obtain data that will help my clients create more successful design solutions. So, perhaps I’m deploying ethnographic methods to capture data rather than doing real ethnography. In some situations I may be adjusting research activities to save time or money, while not compromising my ability to answer the research questions that initiated the research.
So, is it really ethnography? Don’t know, don’t care.
Copyright 2009, Paul Bryan, Usography Corporation (http://www.usography.com)
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