Ethnographic thinking without ethnography
Over the last few months, many ethnographers have been challenged by the question of how to conduct observational research in a time when we must maintain social distancing. This change in norms is an issue people in many professions are facing, and I am always interested to learn how others approach the problem. I was fascinated to read how Devin Oktar Yalkin engaged Matthew McConaughey’s kids as his on-site camera operators for a recent photo shoot.
The process involved some discussion with Matthew McConaughey himself, but for the most part Yalkin’s interactions were with the kids, who used an iPhone to take pictures of their father, relaying Yalkin’s instructions on poses and angles but also lending their own ideas. And their subject was responding to his own children, not a relative stranger. Yalkin credits the children for their work and the distinct emotion they could capture, yet he nonetheless did not lose the feeling that the photos were also his, noting “When I look at the pictures now, they feel like an extension of myself. I feel like the authorship is there.”
When I read that, I felt it was an important lesson for researchers learning to work remotely. We may not be able to be in the room, and for many it feels like a loss in observational acuity to not be able to see it with our own eyes. We emphasize how as trained observers we can draw out the tacit activities that participants take for granted. One of my own favorite stories comes from my graduate research. Some of the archaeological features I was studying near Indian temples were worn areas on the floors that had been smoothed with use from grinding. Grinding puja powders certainly was part of it, and I was hypothesizing that in some cases it was food preparation. A local family generously invited me into their home for dinner, and allowed me to sit in the kitchen while they prepared dinner. I asked if they ever ground food on the floor. Within five minutes of brushing aside the question with a “no,” the wife handed the husband some garlic which he then ground on the floor. They were not intentionally misleading me — they simply did not frame the activity in the same way I did.
Nonetheless, instead of bemoaning the loss of direct observation, we could and should increase our reliance on participants and end users as observers and reporters of their own lived experience. While diary studies, text prompts, and photographic collages have been well employed by researchers well before 2020, perhaps it is time to extend the range of participants as observers, without worrying that it may remove the need for the ethnographic thinking that we bring as trained professionals. This also opens the range of individuals who can engage in research, allowing for greater inclusivity and diversity of participants.
So what is ethnographic thinking without “ethnography?” For me, the two are relatively easy to untangle. Over the years, I have been in a lot of roles where my ability to conduct observational research has been limited, but that has not made me feel like less of an ethnographic thinker. My skills come through on either end. Up front, it is about defining and designing: what do we need to learn, and why? What actions and decisions is research going to inform, and how can it best inform and have an impact on the product or service? The fact that participants as observers will influence that through what they choose to highlight and share only adds depth and richness to what we learn.
Ethnographic thinkers are also translators. We can bring a myriad of perspectives and voices into the process but we are also responsible for making sure they are heard by those who are making decisions. We are responsible for translating why this matters, demonstrating the impact and showing how the data can and should guide actions.
Just as participatory design enables users to co-create solutions, co-created research where the participants are active arbiters of their own data collection has the power to lead to new insights, open up new directions for investigation, and direct decisions and actions that truly reflect the needs of the individuals involved.
