Doing Participant Observation

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Chapter three: Becoming a Participant

In this chapter, the authors describe specific techniques they have used to become ingratiated into a culture that they are studying. They offer a number of examples that show how different approaches are more or less successful, with a focus on building rapport and remaining emotionally engaged.

Gaining permission is the first step towards successful participant observation, which typically requires engaging with a person who is already in the community. The authors reference Agar’s view that there are two types of people in a first-contact role: those who are professional “stranger handlers” and those who are “deviants.” The authors add a third category, those who are opportunists. In all cases, the key is to find a sponsor, someone who is respected, but relatively neutral.

Building rapport is central to first contact. This is achieved “when the participants come to share the same goals” as the researchers. Reciprocity is key, and this comes through honesty. This may require sharing items or services. The rapport building process may take as long as a year, and during that process, “the researcher must come to accept the goals of the community.” This means that they attempt to gain the point of view of their participants.

Language is one of the most important points of access and rapport-building; the authors feel that it is not only important, “it is imperative” to speak the same language as those in the local communities. Equally critical is “walking the walk,” which often involves habits and customs related to food. “Eating all that is presented is probably a cardinal rule of anthropological fieldwork.”

Engaging in this form of participant observation is taxing, and the authors note that many researchers encounter culture shock. It’s important for researchers to understand that negative feelings related to cultural immersion are temporary, and that comfort items from home, like peanut butter and novels, are important.

Chapter four: Becoming an Observer

In this chapter, the authors introduce the benefits of active observation. They provide techniques to improve observation, and describe case study examples of observation in action.

People can be trained to be more skilled in observation; part of this growth in ability is being aware that observation is happening at all. The authors describe that “At its most basic, observation is just that: the researcher explicitly and self-consciously attending to the events and people in the context they are studying.” There is a level of being “on” in the field, where the researchers are aware of their observation experiences, and when this “on-ness” is happening, more complete and thoughtful observations emerge; they are able to attend to details.

One strategy to pay more attention to details is through making a map of the physical and social scene that is being observed. Mapping helps focus observation, defines the study area, and offers a “means of doing something useful” while building rapport, so a researcher doesn’t appear to be simply there.

Another strategy for forcing attention to details is through counting various elements that are observed.

Another strategy is through active listening of conversation, and taking as many verbatim notes as possible. Additionally, non-verbal communication and expressions are effective clues and reminders for what happens in the field.

Most of what is observed and captured in a research notebook consists of mundane, boring activities that occur with some frequency. To find unusual and rare events, the authors recommend observing the “story line,” the segments of what is observed, variations in what is observed, and exceptions.

Chapter seven: Informal Interviewing in Participant Observation

In this chapter, the authors describe different types of interviewing, and offer practical and pragmatic interviewing techniques.

An interview is typically informal, and should be considered more like a casual conversation than a series of questions and answers. The “goal of the technique is for the researcher to participate in naturally unfolding events” and the main point is to have the participants talk, and the interviewers listen.

There are a variety of types of interviewing. These range from highly controlled to loosely controlled, and depend on the uniformity of the questions that are asked. There are five types of interviews, including conversations, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews, structured interviews, and self-administered questionnaires. The majority of the chapter focuses on less structured approaches to interviewing, where the researcher has a research goal, but the hope is to “direct the content of the conversation as little as possible beyond that.”

There are a variety of interviewing techniques recommended.

One is active listening. The researcher listens with a goal of gaining information, and so they are quiet but are more aware of the conversation than they would normally be. Another technique is “sensitive silence,” where an interviewer is silent, allowing space for a participant to follow-up on something that was said. This is difficult for most interviewers, who are used to engaging in conversation actively, and interrupting.

Interviewers are encouraged to use the “Uh-huh” prompt as a way of indicating that they are listening. Repetition and summary feedback operate in the same way, as does the prompt “tell me more”—all encourage the participant to continue speaking.

Interviewers should ask for clarification when they hear words or topics they were not expecting. Additionally, pretending to be naïve or lacking expertise is an effective way to motivate further conversation.