SOC 2111 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9 12: Sampling Frame, Sampling Error, Participant Observation
9 Feb 2015
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Document Summary
The terms ethnography" and participant observation" are essentially the same. Ethnography" is the broad term that encompasses the activity of observing behaviour in an unstructured way, and following up with in-depth, unstructured discussions and interviews of the people studied. Participant observation" refers to the observational component of the work. With both, the researcher is immersed in a particular social setting for a long period of time, perhaps even years. One of the difficulties in ethnography is gaining access to the social setting. The settings can be seen as open or closed. Closed settings have some sort of demarcated boundary for social access or policy (e. g. , groups, organizations) and open settings are social spaces with public access. Although open spaces may have open access to the location, access to the people in that space is not necessarily open. Open settings public settings like parks, washrooms, theatres. Closed settings private or restricted settings like clubs, gangs, organizations.
