Ethnography - Lilian & Naureen

The Definition of ethnography by Merriam Webster is:

the study and systematic recording of human cultures;  
also: a descriptive work produced from such research

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We don’t think the definition serves the term justice, and so we’re providing some examples based on our own experience.

I took a course on video ethnography and it was very relevant because we learned how to consider aspects of visual data that commonly go by unseen; from facial gestures to landscape and cultural elements. The course focused on video data collection and analysis. (Lilian)

A few years ago, I read this book called “Gang Leader for a Day” where a sociologist student in Chicago decided to conduct non-traditional ethnography research in order to understand gang culture. Basically, Chicago having huge inequities between rich and poor, he wanted to understand how the poor were living. He started by just going door to door in the projects asking people if he could observe their livelihood, which unexpectedly turned into building a relationship with a person who was a member of one of the prominent gangs in the area (oh and his mom too!). What he ended up learning through this ethnographic experience was how these communities actually served as their own economy, bartering with people in the neighborhood. And especially fascinating is how the gangs served as law enforcement, protecting the neighborhoods they live in (since the police dared to show up). (Naureen)

Great read – here’s a link with more details! http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/books/16grimes.html