Conduct a mini-ethnography and produce typed field notes to turn in
Ethnography is the art of deep observation and description. Pick a social setting that is different from places you usually go (This is preferable. If you don’t have the opportunity to do this, you can do this at work or anyplace that you have to go anyway). Observe for a half hour.
Remember the goal of the ethnographer is to get as much detail down in the field notes as possible. Take notes if you can. If you can’t take notes without drawing attention to yourself, excuse yourself after you are finished observing and write notes as soon as possible (in a bathroom, in your car). Organize the notes later.[unique_solution]
To turn in:
Your field notes should be typewritten and double spaced. Any conclusions that you draw, or where you make an assumption, put it in brackets, like this: A man and a woman sit on a bench [their body language suggests they are in a relationship]. Then specify what that body language was.
What to include:
- A description of the place you are observing, including the day and time. For example: “I decided to observe a busy hair salon on Saturday at 11am while I was getting my hair done. It is an upscale salon.” Be sure to say what you were doing in the setting. Were you participating? Sitting off to the side? Are you an insider in this setting, or an outsider?
- A detailed description of the setting. Include what it looks like, the colors, how it is decorated, the arrangement of the furniture, The reader should be able to picture the place in their mind from reading your description. Be very detailed. In ethnography, we never know what will become important later, so we note everything, even things that don’t seem important.
- Who is in the setting? Describe them (gender, how many are present, what they’re wearing, personality if possible) and note any status differences (who’s in charge and how do you know?) What is the mood like in the area? Formal, like a workplace? Informal, like a bar? How did you decide?
- Describe in detail the interactions that take place in that half hour. What are people doing? Who talks to whom? Do they display any status markers in their language? Is their speech formal or informal? Do some people appear to be more central to the setting than others? Can you transcribe exactly what they say?
This is designed to give you practice making observations and writing field notes. Avoid generalizations in your field notes; everything should be meticulously detailed. The idea is that the reader should be able to close their eyes and picture the scene from what you have written. The details that you note, even if they seem unimportant, could be crucial later on in a study of the setting, so note them.
Length: It is hard to put a length on this as it depends on what you observed, but you should be able to get a minimum of two double-spaced pages. More is fine. It will be graded based on how well you covered the areas above.