Qual Data Analysis & Ethnography

by Janet Salmons, PhD., Research Community Manager for SAGE Methodspace

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Ethnography involves the production of highly detailed accounts of how people in a social setting lead their lives, based on systematic and long-term observation of, and discussion with, those within the setting. These open access articles offer perspectives and examples for analyzing ethnographic data.

Jerolmack & Khan (2017) discuss theoretical approaches to reasoning. Kurtz et al. (2017) talk about systematic thematic analysis of blogs. Bayeck (2023) considers small-scale ethnographic research while (Pilkington (2017) explores meta-ethnographic synthesis. Rankin (2017) suggests that researchers incorporate analytic thinking from the outset of research design. Pool (2017) examines issues related to accountability for data quality in ethnographic studies. Dennis (2022) looks at how to use secondary data.

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Bayeck, R. Y. (2023). Is Microethnography an Ethnographic Case Study? and/or a mini-ethnographic case study? An analysis of the literature. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231172074

Abstract. Selecting the research approach that addresses the research question is often challenging for novice researchers. However, getting a better understanding of the research approaches available in the field, is likely to help novice researchers identify and choose the research approach that fits their situation. In this paper, we discuss microethnography, ethnographic case study, and mini-ethnography case study in order to show that these approaches may have similarities but are different. The author hopes that this discussion will help researchers get a better understanding of these approaches and dissipate the confusion that may exist.

Dennis, A. (2022). Secondary ethnographic analysis: Thinking about things. Qualitative Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221129810

Abstract. There is a fruitful tension in ethnomethodological work. On the one hand, real-world data are used to rein in analytical privilege. On the other, conceptual discussions necessarily take place in a more open analytical space. Describing settings in detail and thinking about things in the abstract are both essential components of the ethnomethodological project. What ethnographies might consist in complicates this picture. Garfinkel initially deflated the concept of ‘ethnography’, using it to refer to how all members of society make sense of their world. Sacks, on the other hand, initially construed his sociological project as a more rigorous form of professional ethnography. Ethnographic methods rightly remain an important tool for ethnomethodological analyses. They provide an empirical grounding for analysis and facilitate ‘thinking about things’ in a more open manner than some other forms of data. This paper argues that ethnographic analyses more generally can be used as ethnomethodological resources, (re)introducing the idea that others’ fieldwork and analyses are legitimate resources for ethnomethodological work. Some materials from Elijah Anderson’s classic ethnography A Place on the Corner are used to illustrate the possibilities taking this approach might offer.

Jerolmack, C., & Khan, S.(2017). The Analytic Lenses of Ethnography. Socius,3, 2378023117735256. doi:10.1177/2378023117735256

Abstract. It is almost axiomatic that there are two contrasting theoretical approaches to ethnography: induction and deduction. However, regardless of whether ethnographers build theory from observations (induction) or use observations to test theory (deduction), they approach the field armed with one or more particular analytic lens that leads them to focus on a distinct thread of the social fabric. We outline the suite of analytic lenses that typify ethnography and identify eight ideal types. Though not mutually exclusive, they can be usefully grouped and contrasted accordingly: (1) the level of explanation: micro, organizational, and macro; (2) the subject of explanation: people and places and mechanisms; (3) the location of explanation: dispositions and situations; and (4) reflexivity. We specify the basic modes of analysis that typify each ideal type, trace their implications for how one selects units of observation, and demonstrate how these different ethnographic styles illuminate different dimensions of the social world.

Kurtz, L. C., Trainer, S., Beresford, M., Wutich, A., & Brewis, A. (2017). Blogs as Elusive Ethnographic Texts: Methodological and Ethical Challenges in Qualitative Online Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1609406917705796. doi:10.1177/1609406917705796

Abstract. Burgeoning online environments offer completely new opportunities for ethnographic and other forms of qualitative research. Yet there are no clear standards for how we study online texts from an ethnographic perspective. In this article, we identify barriers to the application of traditional qualitative methods online, using the example of a systematic thematic analysis of weight-loss blogs. These barriers include the influence of the technology structuring online content, the fluid nature of online texts such as blogs, and the highly connected and public nature of online identities, which may span multiple social media platforms. We discuss some potential approaches to addressing these challenges as preliminary steps toward developing a tool kit suited to ethical, high-quality online modes of ethnographic research.

Neubert, C., & Trischler, R. (2021). “Pocketing” Research Data? Ethnographic Data Production as Material Theorizing. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 50(1), 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241620968262

Abstract. We analyze the relations between ethnographic data and theory through an examination of materiality in research practices, arguing that data production is a form of material theorizing. This entails reviewing and (re-)applying practice-theoretical discussions on materiality to questions of ethnography, and moving from understanding theory primarily as ideas to observing theorizing in all steps of research practice. We introduce “pocketing” as a heuristic concept to analyze how and when ethnographic data materializes: the concept defines data’s materiality relationally, through the affective and temporal dimensions of practice. It is discussed using two examples: in a study on everyday architectural experience where ethnographic data materialized as bodies affected by architecture; and in a study on digital cooperation where research data’s materialization was distributed over time according to the use of a company database. By conceptualizing data’s materiality as practice-bound, “pocketing” facilitates understanding the links between data and theory in ethnographic data production.

Pilkington, H. (2018). Employing meta-ethnography in the analysis of qualitative data sets on youth activism: a new tool for transnational research projects? Qualitative Research, 18(1), 108–130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794117707805

Abstract. This article outlines a novel application of meta-ethnographic synthesis in the analysis of multiple ethnographic case studies of youth activism emanating from a large transnational European research project. Although meta-ethnography is used increasingly as an alternative to systematic review for the synthesis of published qualitative studies, it is not widely applied to the synthesis of primary data. This article suggests such a use is not precluded epistemologically and potentially addresses a growing need as ethnography itself becomes increasingly ‘multi-sited’. The article outlines the practical process of adapting meta-ethnography to primary data analysis drawing on the synthesis of 44 ethnographic cases of youth activism and provides a worked example of the translation of cases and resulting ‘line of argument’. It discusses the challenges and limitations of the approach in particular the danger that, in extracting the general from the specific, the key quality of qualitative data – individual differentiation – is diminished.

Pool, R. (2017). The Verification of Ethnographic Data. Ethnography, 18(3),281-286. doi:10.1177/1466138117723936

Abstract. Anthropologists are increasingly required to account for the data on which they base their interpretations and to make it available for public scrutiny and re-analysis. While this may seem straightforward (why not place our data in online repositories?), it is not. Ethnographic ‘data’ may consist of everything from verbatim transcripts (‘hard data’) to memories and impressions (‘soft data’). Hard data can be archived and re-analysed; soft data cannot. The focus on hard ‘objective’ data contributes to the delegitimizing of the soft data that are essential for ethnographic understanding, and without which hard data cannot be properly interpreted. However, the credibility of ethnographic interpretation requires the possibility of verification. This could be achieved by obligatory, standardised forms of personal storage with the option for audit if required, and by being more explicit in publications about the nature and status of the data and the process of interpretation.

Rankin, J. (2017). Conducting Analysis in Institutional Ethnography: Analytical Work Prior to Commencing Data Collection. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 16(1), 1609406917734484. doi:10.1177/1609406917734484

Abstract. Institutional ethnography (IE) is an innovative approach to research that requires a significant shift in researchers’ ordinary habits of thinking. There is a growing body of methodological resources for IE researchers however advice about how to proceed with analysis remains somewhat scattered and cryptic. The purpose of the first of a two-paper series is to contribute to publications focused exclusively on analysis. The aim is to provide practical tips to support researchers to shift their ordinary habits of thinking. This first paper outlines how this must happen at the outset of the research design. Analysis of the phenomenon under study commences as the research is being formulated. The approaches to analytical thinking outlined in this paper are based on my own IE research and also my experience working with graduate students since 2008. In this first volume of the two-paper set I provide a brief background to the method and direct readers to important IE resources. I outline three core methodological concepts: standpoint, problematic and ruling relations. I discuss how these concepts guide the early analytical thinking that is embedded in the research design and the critical analysis of the literature that is part of the process of analysis in IE. The second paper provides practical advice for working with data.

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