Watching Closely: A Guide to Ethnographic Observation - Hardcover

Nippert-Eng, Christena

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0190235519 ISBN 13: 9780190235512

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Ethnographers rely on three related activities to conduct research in the field: observation, conversation, and participation. Observing others in their environments and using this data to inform and share conclusions is an essential part of any fieldworker's toolkit. However, many ethnographers' observational muscles tend to be their weakest.

Fortunately, Christena Nippert-Eng's Watching Closely: A Guide to Ethnographic Observation provides a practical, interactive guide for improving one's powers of observation. The book includes nine exercises for practicing observational skills, including a preparatory briefing and post-exercise discussion. Nippert-Eng also offers a weblink (global.oup.com/us/watchingclosely) to sample responses from her previous students, providing an additional resource beyond the text itself. Beyond the traditional tenets of field work, Watching Closely encourages readers to pursue more creative ways of collecting and analyzing data, such as sketching, diagramming, and photography, as well as developing more concrete expectations for the potential uses and meanings of ethnographic data.

Engaging and accessible, Watching Closely offers a guide for readers to not only strengthen their core skills and mindset as fieldworkers, but also to produce research that is more scientifically rigorous and persuasive. From social and behavioral scientists to user-centered designers and architects, undergraduate students to experienced fieldworkers, a vast array of readers will reap the benefits of learning more about how we observe.

About this title

About the Author

Christena Nippert-Eng is a sociologist and Professor of Informatics at Indiana University Bloomington, and the author of Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries through Everyday Life and Islands of Privacy: Selective Concealment and Disclosure in Everyday Life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0190235519
• ISBN 13: 9780190235512
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296