Dr Chana Teeger COL7.06

This course is available on the MSc in Applied Social Data Science, MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Gender (Research), MSc in Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research), MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, MSc in International Social and Public Policy (Research), MSc in Marketing and MSc in Social Research Methods. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course is not controlled access. If you register for a place and meet the prerequisites, if any, you are likely to be given a place.

There are no prerequisites but some prior training in qualitative research methods is expected. Please contact the course convenor if unsure.

Doing ethnography enables us to examine how social order is produced as people go about their everyday interactions. Multiple sources of naturally-occurring data are used to understand how communities, organisations and institutions work, informally as well as formally. Contemporary conditions of globalisation, individualisation, bureaucratisation and digitisation introduce new challenges for such fieldwork. This interdisciplinary course equips students with a practical understanding of how to do, and to think about, contemporary ethnography. Core conceptual, ethical and methodological debates are introduced through in-depth engagement with exemplar texts, and through students' experience of fieldwork. Fieldwork is a key component of the course, with  students collecting data locally, followed by data analysis and presentation activities. Methodological concerns regarding case selection, establishing rigour, reflexivity, representing others, and ethical issues are addressed in detail. Practical issues addressed include identifying and accessing study sites, studying elite and marginalised groups, innovative sources of data, and writing field notes. Emphasising that ethnography relies on the researcher-as-research-instrument, the course aims to develop students' sensitivity and rigour as ethnographic researchers.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours in Lent Term.

This course has a Reading Week in Week 6 of LT.

An excerpt of field-notes from the field visit undertaken as part of the course (up to 2,500 words) in LT. Field-notes should record rich details of observations (the data), researcher reflections, and brief interpretations of the significance of these observations. Written feedback will be provided.

DeWalt, K. M.,; DeWalt, B. R. (2002). Participant observation: A guide for fieldworkers. AltaMira Press. Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., ; Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press. Hammersley, M ; Atkinson, P. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in practice. Taylor ; Francis. Wacquant, L. (2004) Body and Soul: Ethnographic Notebooks of an Apprentice Boxer. New York: Oxford University Press. Laureau, Annette. (2011). Unreal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (2nd Edition). Berkeley: University of California Press

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the ST.