An immediate task is to make unfamiliar the research arena, with which we may be very familiar.
#Participant observation sociology mac#
In theory, this direct participation in the group life permits an easy entrance into the social situation by reducing the resistance of the group members decreases the extent to which the investigator disturbs the ‘natural’ situation, and permits the investigator to experience and observe the group’s norms, values, conflicts and pressures, which (over a long period) cannot be hidden from someone playing an in-group role.Īgain, as Mairtin Mac an Ghaill points out it is important to recognize that in participant observation, we are the main research instrument of our studies. The method of participant observation leads the investigator to accept a role within the social situation he studies: he participates as a member of the group while observing it. Hargreaves (1967: 193) describes the advantages of participant observation as a research method for those carrying out studies in institutions in which they work. ….participant observation is not a single method but rather a characteristic style of research which makes use of a number of methods and techniques – observation, informant interviewing, document analysis, respondent interviewing and participation with self-analysis. McCall and Simmons (1969: 1) describe the variety of methods involved in the participant observer role. In other words, we are seeking to find meaning in the encounters and situations. Hopefully, in the process a more adequate picture emerges of the research setting as a social system described from a number of participants’ perspectives (Geertz, 1973 Burgess, 1984). At the same time informants are encouraged to use their own language and everyday concepts to describe what is going on in their lives. The aim of participant observation is to produce a ‘thick description’ of social interaction within natural settings. ‘The approach is close to everyday interaction, involving conversations to discover participants’ interpretations of situations they are involved in’ (Becker 1958, p. What is participant observation?Īs Mac an Ghaill (1994) has argued, the participant observer collects data by participating in the daily life of those he or she is studying. In short, what we are concerned with here is our basic orientation to the world as practitioners. As researchers and educators it is through the way we participate and observe that our work is done. I suppose the significant question here is the extent to which we conscious of, and have a care for, such matters.
Now I can talk about these things because I have engaged with the situation as a participant observer. I was offered a paper, ‘specials’ were recommended, and other regulars became less guarded in their topics of conversation e.g. As a regular certain privileges were accorded me. However, participant observation isn’t something restricted to researchers and informal educators – we all do it to some degree.įairly frequently I used to go to a local cafe to have a curry. We try to make sense of what is going on, so that we may act. We involve ourselves in everyday (and not so everyday) situations, we look at, and listen to, what is happening the encounter. We, too, engage in participant observation. In what Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson say we can see the close relationship between what is approached here as a research methodology – and our activities as informal educators. As participants in the social world we are still able, at least in anticipation or retrospect, to observe our activities ‘from outside’ as objects in the world (1983: 16-17 2004) Irrespective of the method employed, it is not fundamentally different from other forms of practical everyday activity, though of course it is closer in character to some that to others. T involves participating in the social world, in whatever role, and reflecting on the products of that participation.
#Participant observation sociology how to#
how to cite this article.See, also: research for practice.Īll social research, say Hammersley and Atkinson, takes the form of participant observation:.
participant observation – questions of ethics.
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