Ethnographic Methods
This module is an introduction to ethnographic fieldwork and analysis, as these are practiced and understood by anthropologists. The module is intended for students in fields other than anthropology.
- Session 1: The Ethnographic Method (Dr Andrew Sanchez)
- Session 2: Multimodal Youth-led Citizen Social Science (Dr Kelly Fagan Robinson)
- Session 3: Ethnography in the City (Dr Caroline Bazambanza)
- Session 4: Ethnography and AI (Dr Xin Zhan)
Session overview
Session 1: The Ethnographic Method
- What is ethnography?
- Can ethnographic research and writing be objective?
- How does one conduct ethnographic research responsibly and ethically?
Session 2: Multimodal Youth-led Citizen Social Science
In this session students will be introduced to 'multimodal' thinking and doing in fieldwork (multimodal literally means 'the different ways in which something occurs or is experienced'). We will practically unpack some of the ways of crafting what are known as 'fieldnotes', which are most commonly done via text but which can take a number of different forms. We will also think about how the varied approaches anthropologists take to document what they meet in their fieldsites can significantly impact the shaping of their subsequent analysis. We will unpack the pros and cons of different techniques of documentation including: text, drawing, sound recording, filmic capture, and photovoice.
Session 3: Ethnography in the City
This session will tackle approaches to doing fieldwork in big cities. We will think about collaboration with groups, charities, or third-sector and private organisations, as well as how to keep up with interlocutors spread over large areas. The session will also address what can be gained from doing fieldwork on the margins of large institutions, drawing on some of Caroline Bazambanza’s work in London with NHS midwives and other healthcare professionals ‘off the clock’. Throughout, we will ask why people might want to engage in anthropological research and the tensions of sustaining consent in the everyday. Overall, the session intends to think critically about strategic ethnographic approaches and anthropology’s potential in urban environments.
Session 4: Ethnography and AI
As AI increasingly permeates different fields and reshapes life both online and offline, this session explores the relationship between ethnography and AI. We will consider:
- How to research algorithmic systems: what it means to study “algorithms as culture,” and how to conduct ethnographic research in communities and contexts that are algorithmically mediated.
- How to use algorithms as tools in research: even if your project is not directly about AI, algorithms can be leveraged as powerful methodological tools.
- How AI is reshaping the practice of ethnography itself: from questions of access and ethics to the possibilities and limits of collaborating with intelligent systems in fieldwork.
- Postgraduate students and staff
- Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here
Students attending this module are expected to have a working understanding of qualitative methods in social research.
- To involve students in the study of ongoing debates on ethnographic practice
- To look at the practical implications of research in different disciplines
- To consider how to apply different ethnographic strategies and styles
- To introduce students to qualitative audiovisual methods
- To introduce ethnographic methods to non-anthropologists
- To review the history of ethnographic research in anthropology and other social sciences
This module is not assessed.
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