![]() Though the risks and limits of participant observation are outlined, as are the tensions between activism and anthropology, it is argued that engaging in participant observation is a profoundly political act, one that can enable us to challenge hegemonic conceptions of the world, challenge authority, and better act in the world. Participant observation helps us to see and understand what people are doing, which we can compare to what people are saying. 'The participant observer becomes known within the community, and gets to know the community in a more intimate and detailed way than someone who simply comes to do a survey and then departs. Four core aspects of participation observation are discussed as long duration (long-term engagement), revealing social relations of a group of people (understanding a group of people and their social processes), holism (studying all aspects of social life, marking its fundamental democracy), and the dialectical relationship between intimacy and estrangement (befriending strangers). This option is used to identify the attitudes and operation of a community by a researcher living within its environs. ![]() life and to apply distinctly anthropological concepts and methods to address real-world problems like occupational stress, deafness, and homelessness. It is argued that participant observation is not merely a method of anthropology but is a form of production of knowledge through being and action it is praxis, the process by which theory is dialectically produced and realized in action. He was among the first cultural anthropologists to study modern U.S. ![]() We try to blend in and put our participants at ease. This post covers the theoretical, practical and ethical strengths and limitations of using overt and covert participant observation in social research. The important thing is we want to become involved in whatever the participant is doing. Participant Observation is where the researcher joins in with the group being studied and observes their behaviour. Sometimes this means we cook, eat, shop, go on sales calls or help take care of the kids. This essay focuses on the core of ethnographic research-participant observation-to argue that it is a potentially revolutionary praxis because it forces us to question our theoretical presuppositions about the world, produce knowledge that is new, was confined to the margins, or was silenced. Participant observation We often join in with whatever our participants are doing.
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