Descriptive ethnographic method

Short Description

Descriptive ethnographic method is a research method observing and investigating human behaviour, objects, people, relationships in a local cultural setting. It can conclude collecting personal stories, memories, life histories, etc. It is a qualitative research method. It was used in the Project Personal Town tours. In this project personal itineraries titled Between Lettuce and Plečnik (the architect), Living at the edge of Barje Marches, Between culture and friends were set up and illustrated with the stories contributed by older interviewed townspeople. Ethnographic interviewing is a type of qualitative research that combines immersive observation and directed one-on-one interviews. ... The idea is to interview users in their natural setting, while they are performing their tasks, asking them questions about what they are doing and why.

Descriptive Ethnographic Methods are a research approach that look at: people in their cultural setting; their language, and the symbols, rituals and shared meanings that populate their world, with the object of producing a narrative account of that particular culture, against a theoretical backdrop. Ethnography is a holistic approach to research developed by anthropologists in order to understand people within their social and cultural contexts. The primary method of the ethnographer is ‘participant observation’. Ethnographic studies focus on large cultural groups of people who interact over time. Ethnography is a set of qualitative methods that are used in social sciences that focus on the observation of social practices and interactions.

Pedagogical Information

Some time should be spent studying this research method and ethnographic methods in general before starting working or alternatively participants should be presented with some models.

European Dimension

European culture is urban culture and exploring urban settings is definitely an European dimension. Moreover, cities are a domicile of democracy which started with urbanization. The European dimensions lie in European values like democracy, social cohesion, solidarity, participation, etc.

Applied in projects

Personal TownTours - Slovenian Version

In the framework of the »Personal Town Tours«, a European Grundtvig Programme project (2012 – 2014), seven older students from Slovenian Third Age University gained knowledge and learned methods for exploring and then introducing their town. Under the mentorship of an architect they decided on three thematic itineraries thus validating their already gained knowledge of architecture and urbanism.