SOAN 3070 Lecture Notes - Clifford Geertz, Thick Description

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SOAN 3070
• Professor: E.Finnis

Document Summary

Understanding experiences, not stat data: thoughts, words, experiences, perceptions, not numbers, looking for themes in words/experiences of research participants. Quant: focus on breadth (large #s, little depth) Qual: focus on depth (smaller #s of ppl, but detailed info that has depth) A thick, complicated description of things, events, not a quick, surface, thin description: diff b/w a blink and a wink. Developing relships: b/w researcher and participants, may be short or long term the nature of the research/research question the nature of the individuals involved. Traditional mode: building long term relships: continuing research and maintaining relships, nature of the relships might change over time. Regardless of length of research: the ability to build a relship and rapport is key. Devt of relship of trust and understanding: relies on empathy and good interpersonal skills, ~develops over time. Interference: marginalized communities may be wary of motives of outsiders, ppl may not be interested in the research project.