Participant Observation of City Cultures.

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Participant Observation of City Cultures

Introduction

Ethnography has become a very popular approach to social research, alongside other kinds of qualitative work. It is the study of a way of life and was introduced by anthropologists who studied marginal or isolated cultures, such as the study of Trobriand Islands by Bronislaw Malinowski. Anthropologists believed it to be fundamental to get as close as possible to the societies they were investigating; hence, ethnography bears a close resemblance to the routine ways in which people make sense of the world in everyday life. Some researchers regard this as it basic strength; others see it as a fundamental weakness.

Participant observation is a means of gathering information; it allows the researcher to experience the culture under examination. It is a research technique that has been adapted to meet the requirements of sociologists and is used frequently to gain detailed qualitative results. In its most characteristic, form it involves the ethnographer participating, overtly or covertly, in people's daily lives for an extended period of time and collecting any data that concerns topic of the investigation. In overt observation, researchers declare their true identity and purpose whereas a covert participant observer is