Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research
An Introduction
- Textbook
Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research
An Introduction
- Textbook
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Description
Who can and should conduct ethnographic research? How can we transform an idea into a research question, and how can that question, in turn, be developed into a design that produces data?
Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research, Third Edition, is a comprehensive introduction to ethnographic methods. It opens by defining ethnography and considering ethical challenges in the field before exploring major theories and ways of thinking in ethnographic research. The book then offers a general overview of qualitative and quantitative research and dives into developing a good research question. A discussion of data collection and analysis are then followed by an exploration of how ethnography is used to solve critical social, health, education, and cultural issues as well as emerging trends in ethnography.
Designing and Conducting Ethnographic Research is the first book in The Ethnographer's Toolkit, a series of texts on how to plan, design, carry out, and use the results of applied ethnographic research.
New to This Edition:
-- New discussion of the decolonization of research and changes in researcher stance sheds light on alternative ethnographic interventions, such as co-constructed ethnography
--Exploration of new ethical challenges in the field, including in digital and online research as well as the uses of artificial intelligence, offers early ethnographers the knowledge and tools to address ethical concerns
--New discussion of what research questions are, how they are formulated at different levels, and how they guide data collection, enables beginner researchers to create stronger studies
--New Chapter 10, “Emerging Trends in Ethnography”, covers burgeoning uses of artificial intelligence and other digital technologies for research as well as indigenous research approaches and methods
Table of Contents
Introducing and defining ethnography
The value of ethnography: why ethnographic research
The characteristics of ethnography
Ethnography is informed by the concept of culture in context
A note on the historical evolution of ethnography as an approach to science: from researcher-led and represented to collaborative and community-led
Transforming ethnographic research into action through diverse approaches to change
Responding to critiques about how cultural politics affect ethnographers' practice, identity and research
Summary
Chapter 2. The ethics of ethnographic field research
What are ethics?
What are social science research ethics? A brief historical review
Negotiating identity, positionality, and power: intersectionality in ethnographic research
The basic ethical principles governing conduct of research with human beings
The Belmont principles: justice, beneficence and respect for persons
Voluntarism, informed consent, risks and benefits, vulnerable subjects and sensitive topics
Disciplinary and professional codes of ethics
Institutional review boards (irbs) and how ethnographers can work with them
Special ethical concerns in site-based ethnographic research
Summary
Chapter 3: Using theory to frame the conduct of ethnographic research
Introduction
Multiple perspectives: how ethnographers frame cultural research
What are research paradigms
A paradigmatic synthesis
Beyond grounded theory: local theoretical models
What are midrange theories
Summary
Chapter 4: an overview of research design
Introduction: research design: a blueprint for action
Research designs in social science research
Qualitative designs
Quantitative designs
Integrating quantitative and experimental with qualitative and multiple methods research designs
Chapter 5. Choosing and designing an ethnographic research project
Introduction
Where do research questions come from?
Deciding what to investigate: transforming research purposes into the elements of a research design
Putting together the elements of a research design
Elaborating research questions
The processes of operationalization and research modeling
Conceptualizing research models and conceptual modeling
Identifying populations and study sites
Strategies for selection of systematic sampling units for study
Summary
Chapter 6. Collecting ethnographic data
Techniques for collecting multiple types of data
Resources and logistics: how ethnographers allocate time, money, and staff
Creating planning documents and timelines
Chapter 7. Data analysis: how ethnographers make sense of their data
Introduction
Analysis as both a cognitive process and a technical procedure
When does data analysis begin and how does it unfold?
“chunking” data into large conceptual categories or “bins”
Defining terms: operational and conceptual levels of analysis
Finding initial themes or regularities
The item level of analysis: isolating empirical “bits” from streams of data
The pattern level of analysis: aggregating groups of items
The structural level of analysis: assembling multiple patterns into structures informed by domains
Seeking complex relationships across domains and structures by using multiple levels and sources of data
Interpreting results: figuring out what the story means
Levels of theory
Summary
Chapter 8: Working together and across disciplines
Introduction
Learning research teamwork by joining or participating in a research team
Partnering in ethnographic research across disciplines, sectors and communities
Building and conducting ethnographic team research
Collecting data with a research team
Building transdisciplinary community research partnerships
Challenges and rewards in ethnographic teamwork and interdisciplinary intersectoral partnerships
Summary
Chapter 9: Applying ethnography to solveproblems and address inequities
Introduction to applying ethnography to solve social problems
Products of ethnographic research
Informing public audiences: dissemination
Developing interventions
Improving quantitative instruments
Influencing teacher/educator practice
Democratizing ethnography through participatory action research
Improving process and outcome evaluations
Influencing policy
Supporting advocacy
Contributing to science
Chapter 10. Evolving Frontiers in Ethnography
Introduction
Ethnography, technology and artificial intelligence
Conducting digital (internet) ethnography
Integrating art into the conduct and dissemination of ethnographic research
Summary
Product details
| Published | 06 Aug 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback |
| Edition | 3rd |
| Extent | 376 |
| ISBN | 9781538191248 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 25 tables |
| Dimensions | 229 x 152 mm |
| Series | Ethnographer's Toolkit |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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