As someone with no real knowledge of
ethnography, I found myself wondering while reading Stebbins (1987)
and Shaffir (1999) how a (nonmember) researcher who explicitly
identifies herself as one to the community would manage to achieve
any kind of insider knowledge or experience. It seems to me that this
is a problem of social dynamics, as finding a social place within the
community for this kind of outsider/insider seems as though it would
be awkward and uncomfortable.
I was very interested, then, to note
Stebbins' comment that researchers often try to fit in to the
community as helpers (p. 106). To me, this makes sense because it
slots the researcher into a clear social role. A helper has fairly
clear duties and relationships to the other members of the community
(for instance, Stebbins' role gathering balls for the baseball team).
I wonder whether, like a researcher, a helper might also be seen as
closer to the boundary between insider and outsider; if so, this
provides a convenient natural fit for the perspective the researcher
brings into the group and also gives that perspective a more
structured place. It would be interesting to observe the ways in
which different researchers fit into roles as helpers, and how this
affects the study and the community as a social entity (a study of
ethnographers!). Discussing the roles of researchers and helpers
might be a very illuminating study.
Shaffir, W. (1999). Doing ethnography.
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 28(6), 676-686.
Stebbins, R.A. (1987). Fitting in: The researcher as learner and
participant. Quality and Quantity, 21(1), 103-108.
Ethnography of ethnographers! I had the same thought when reading the Shaffir and Stebbins articles. They described that ethnography can help to determine behaviors of individuals in social groups. In an indirect type of way their reflections on their ethnography work shed light on their behaviors interacting with social groups. Does participant observation count when the researcher is observing their own behavior?
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