POLS 3180 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Internal Validity, Thick Description, Content Analysis

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3180
• Professor: Edward Koning

Document Summary

Ethnographic research: the work of describing a culture. the essential core of this activity aims to understand another way of life from the native point of view (spradley. 19790) more common in anthropology research describing behaviours and activities of culture philosophical orientation tends to be interpretivist interested in internal exploration goal tend to be description and exploration. Urban ethnography variations by subject of study understanding a society or community (tribe, small states etc. ) understanding city subcultures (gangs, gra ti artists, retirement home residents) Organizational ethnography variations by setting and role of researcher understanding organization (bureaucracy, political parties, interest groups) in public sphere less concerns about privacy in closed setting more risks with privacy sometimes requires covert operation variations by position on objectivity. Conventional ethnographies main goal is to describe and understand closer to the positivist position without taking normative position.