Ethnography Essentials: Designing, Conducting, and Presenting Your Research: 25 (Research Methods for the Social Sciences)

ETHNOGRAPHY ESSENTIALS

Ethnography Essentials: Designing, Conducting, and Presenting Your Research is a comprehensive and practical guide to ethnographic research, a versatile tool that fits many research needs. This book guides readers through the process, starting with the fundamentals of choosing and proposing a topic and selecting a research design. The book describes methods of data collection (taking notes, participant observation, interviewing, identifying themes and issues, creating ethnographic maps and tables and charts, and referring to secondary sources) and analyzing and writing ethnography (sorting and coding data, answering questions, choosing a presentation style, and assembling the ethnography). Although content is focused on producing written ethnography, many of the principles and methods discussed here also apply to other forms of ethnographic presentation, including ethnographic film. Designed to give basic hands-on experience in the overall ethnography research process, Ethnography Essentials covers a wealth of topics, enabling anyone new to ethnography research to successfully explore the excitement and challenges of field research.

The Author
Julian M. Murchison is associate professor of anthropology and sociology at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi. He conducted ethnographic research in southern Tanzania for nearly two years. He regularly travels to Tanzania with students and supervises their independent research projects and ethnographic writing.