How does one do ethnography?

Ethnography was invented as a methodology within the field of anthropology and is one of the most useful research methodologies. In this article I give you a short overview of what does it mean to do ethnography.

How did everything start?

Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski is considered as the father of ethnography. In 1922 he published his book “The Argonauts of the West” and for the first time explained the method today known as participant observation. In contrary to so called armchair ethnologists, Malinowski spent several years studying Trobriand culture in New Guainía. In order to understand the culture, people and the patterns of behavior, he had to learn everything from the sketch. He had to observe, to ask smart question, to learn constantly and to evaluate. He had to become a part of the group, but still to stay objective as much as possible.

If you study anthropology, this is where all your dream begin. It is not hard to guess that ethnography is so damn exciting! You are always somewhere “out there", observing and decoding culture. But is it really so? This is where we leave Malinowski and jump to the jungle of the modern worlds. This is something that as a student of anthropology you have to face and the sooner the better!

Urban ethnography – ethnography at home

Anthropologists soon understood that this excitement of doing ethnography can and should also be accomplished while researching at home. Our cultures are complex and consist of variety of elements one need to understand. So, already in 1930s sociologists and anthropologists by the Chicago School of sociology started something know as urban sociology using the method of ethnographic fieldwork explained by Malinowski. This is how we got the “at-home Ethnography” which helped us understand our local culture, economy and business. This is how sociologists and anthropologists also created space for intervention and engagement of social scientists in design.

Business ethnographers

Business ethnography is where ethnography had to adapt its methods once again in order to produce high quality insights in shorter period of time. With help of technology and other disciplines such as sociology, design and psychology, business ethnography developed rapidly in the past decades. Business representatives do not have the luxury of time, so they demand fast research results. Ethnography is not fast, but it can be rapid and "thick", if run by anthropologists.

Business ethnographers still do the fieldwork and this is where they strengths are. They collect precious qualitative data by hanging around, talking to people and being really interested in what they think. Unlike some other researchers, ethnographers do not test prior assumptions but ask open questions.

Let me give you a couple of key characteristics of ethnography:

1. Ethnography is not quick

2. Ethnography means research with and not about people

3. Ethnography means being out there or doing fieldwork

4. Ethnography uses anthropological, sociological and psychological theories

5. Ethnography is a set of methods and not a method itself