# Introduction to Ethnography hat is Ethnography: Ethnography is research, precisely about individuals, societies and their culture. It aims to study social and cultural aspects of society and the researcher focuses to collect information for that. It focuses on the behaviour of people concerning the social setup they live in. The outcome of a field study mirrors the learning and the arrangement of implications in the lives of a social gathering. Department of Anthropology, Princeton University defines Ethnography as "a research method central to knowing the world from the standpoint of its social arrangements. It is a qualitative research method predicated on the diversity of culture at home (wherever that may be) and abroad. Ethnography involves handson, on-the-scene learning -and it is relevant wherever people are relevant." O'Reilly (2012) has referred to Hammersley and Atkinson (2007) who have stated that that the term ethnography is variable and contested, overlapping with qualitative research more broadly, with 'fieldwork', case study, and even life histories (Heyl 2001). Ethnography as portrayed by O'Reilly (2012) "is iterative-inductive research drawing on a group of strategies, including immediate and supported contact with human specialists, inside the setting of their everyday lives, watching what happens, tuning in to what is stated, making inquiries, and creating a luxuriously composed record that regards the immutability of human experience, that recognizes the part of the hypothesis, and the analyst's part, and that perspectives people as part question/part subject". Ethnography employs a participant observation approach for the study. # II. Advantages of Ethnographic Research Methodology As with any other research methods, Ethnography has its advantages; however, it is important to mention here that ethnography is a completely different approach of data collection wherein the collector of data is himself a participant and not an outsider. The main aim of the participatory observation is to be immersed within the society under study (and studying complex issues) as its member and then record everything. This experience may open up people understudy in a more comfortable manner to the anthropologist which enables him to see more than an etic perspective of the way of life. They are not aware that they are being watched (covert method) or observed therefore they are performing in a very natural way and the observation is highly. Professor of Sociology Mitchell Duneier (1999) in his book Sidewalk has explained the social setting of New York's Greenwich village three-block span and offers an open and convincing picture of a few black men earning a livelihood in Greenwich Village offering used merchandise, begging, and searching books and periodicals. Duneier conducted his study for five years with these people and has shared in Sidewalk a quick afterword by long-lasting book merchant Hakim Hasan, the protagonist. This intriguing investigation uncovers the city life in all its multifaceted nature: its imperativeness, its contentions about ethnicity, race and its shocking opening of doors for compassion among outsiders. This study signifies that the participatory approach enabled Duneier to understand the life and conditions of the inhabitant of the village very closely and precisely. It is highly accurate and the data collected is first hand and from the horse's mouth. Also while researching participatory mode; you can get unexpected results and observation which were never perceived by the researcher. Duneier in Sidewalk found that many people sleep on the footpath even if they had a home. He founds and experienced himself about the arbitrary display of authority by the police many times, even during Christmas it tells him to stop selling books. Another study by Paul Willis (1977) 'Learning by Labour', is an ethnographic research of twelve regular workers 'lads' from a school in Birmingham. He spent a sum of year and a half watching the 'lads' in school and after that a further a half year tailing them into work. The examination planned to reveal the subject of how and why "common labourers kids land regular workers positions" (1977:1). The ethnographic approach enabled Willis to submerge himself into the social settings of the 'lads' and gave him the chance to ask the lads (normally open) inquiries regarding their conduct which included definite records of the fellows battling, getting into an issue with educators, bunking lessons, setting off flame W quenchers for the sake of entertainment and vandalizing a mentor on a school trip. This methodology allows the cultures to speak for themselves. It provides them with a voice. We could not have known about the life of inhabitants of Trobriand Islands and their practice of incest, had Malinowsky (1922) not worked over there. We would not have been able to know about the nuances of intergenerational relations in Singapore lest the fieldwork was done in this area (Kristina Goransson: 2013). Ethnographies can also help the policymakers to think in an alternate way about having the social perspective of various actions. In the wake of perusing 'Sidewalk', for instance, it is attractive that individuals should begin taking a gander at any rate at the road sellers and beggars with different eyes, not communicating instant suppositions about them. Alice Goffman (2014) in 'On the run: Fugitive Life in an American city, has stated that the manner of policing is shaping the young blacks differently. Such kind of study acts as a useful input for the policymakers to shape/modify the existing policies. In Sidewalk, Duneier described that policymakers must understand the social aspect of the lives of the people in that area and start thinking from their perspective. In 'Learning to Labour', Paul Willis (1977) found out that the lads were never interested in school. Because they vision their future in factory jobs only, therefore, they perceived school only as an intervening period which they to just pass. This finding can very well help the school as well as council authorities in trying to find out the ways and methods to change their perception and perhaps their future employment levels and opportunities. # III. # Disadvantages of Ethnographic Research Methodology The endeavour to be both participant and researcher may lead the analysts to be subjective. Duneier (1999) sometimes had spoken of the problems being faced by the street vendors in the same way as perceived by them which looks as if Duneier was speaking their language. To defeat this issue, Woods (1986) recommends the researcher to join an individual association and a measure of objectivity. By the absence of objectivity, the researcher will recognize firmly the individuals being studied and will start looking from their lenses as opposed to contemplating them. A movie Chakravyuh made by Prakash Jha (2012) has shown a protagonist going amongst the tribal insurgents to gauge their nerve and the reason for their revolt and the problems they are facing. However, he joined their movement and started anti-establishment activities. Another important drawback is the length of time required to conduct the ethnographic studies. In Sidewalk Mitchell Duneier (1999) had spent five years with the people under study. The researcher has to be highly patient with his data collection and should not look for quick data as the participatory method aims towards things to happen on its own rather than making it. In Learning to Labour, Paul Willis (1977) took after 12 lads for observational study for a one and a half year in school and next six months at the work. Thus, directing ethnographic research is a lengthy and taxing job, where the researcher is assumed to have enough vitality remembering the ultimate objective to be recognized into a particular social system and a short time later observe as an insider, constantly interpret the social relations which make in that specific situation (O'Reilly, 2005), "and so to understand other people's world view" (Taylor, 2002: 3) Taking part in participatory research provide myriad results for the researcher. Receiving an unforeseen part in contrast with while using quantitative research procedures, the researcher plays an important role amid the duration of collecting the data to be analysed (Padgett, 1998;Marshall and Rossman, 2006). In this way, fieldwork demands more effort, commitment and sincerity from the analyst, as May contends: "participant observation is the most personally demanding and analytically difficult method of social research to undertake" (2001: 153). The researcher collects the data, analyse it and then classify it as per the information provided by the interviewee (Padgett, 1998). Duneier (1999) realised that while conducting 'Sidewalk', and putting in two years examining Hakim, the protagonist, who gave him useful inputs by looking at the original copy of the study, that he had ignored a few critical social perspectives on the Sidewalk. Another impact on the fieldworker examined here is identified with his or her security. Duneier (1999) has given hints that initially, Hakim was worried about his physical safety, Duneier being an upper-class white Jew can be a target than just being an observer. In the event, while managing unsafe or contentious matters, and primarily experiencing covert research, i.e. 'inquire about that something without consent and awareness, and full information is not available to the members' (O'Reilly, 2005: 60), the wellbeing of the researcher could be risked. Additionally, the ethnographer could participate in hazardous exercises, for instance doing drugs or pirating, or something which would regularly be unethical. Duneier (2001) could have thought of doing drugs to getting closer to the subject under study thinking that this may allow him to immerse better in the character. Another important aspect of adverse repercussion is the breach of privacy. It ought to be noticed that in ethnographic research, there is a possibility of privacy issues in the study of the subject as various aspects are very private to the subject (Homan, 1991: 65). Duneier (1999) was very careful in this regards and whatever he used to gather the information he always shared with his subjects and showed him pictures, photographs and records which he has taken. Also as per Bardia Monshi &Verena Zieglmayer (2010, 305-312), as per ethnographic research on patienthealer connections in Sri Lanka; specialists were amazed to find that members' perspectives of wellbeing and privacy varied incredibly from plain Western perspectives and that the privacy protection they had set up caused inconvenience among members. Humphreys' (1970) investigation of the conduct of men participating in gay acts out in the open restrooms is regularly taken for instance of research in which the privacy of sources was abused. Such infringement happened not just because of the genuine perception of the gay demonstration by Humphreys in the secret social part of 'Watch queen' yet additionally when he secured the addresses of the men required by following utilizing the tag quantities of their cars, and after that utilized this data to track them down and question them. O'Reilly (2012) attests: ethical aspects of the research always take a back seat when the research is conducted in a covert manner (2005: 60). Undertaking open research, as conducted by Duneier in Sidewalk, is a straightforward approach and being honest with the members, yet it affects the social relations in some ways; in this specific circumstance, Duneier underscores the way that individuals from various ethnicities and races won't be comfortable in revealing everything in front of the outsider (1999,338). This could influence the analyst's objective which is to depict the true picture of such a culture without condemning given his social setting' (Marshall and Rossman, 2006: 82). Therefore participatory research in an overt way is having its limitations in finding relevant and unbiased data which honestly reflects the people and the culture under study. Winlow et al's (2001) Study of Doormen has occurred with a covert way of research as the inhabitants were very shy and would not have opened if they had known the original identity of the researcher. One more criticism of the ethnographic approach is related to the quality of the research conducted and the effectiveness of the methodology, concerning the uncoordinated method for directing research and gathering information (Atkinson and Hammersley, 2007;Padgett, 1998). The faultfinders would proceed by expressing that this approach is utilizing little scope and small samples to deliver impressionistic discoveries defenceless against any inclination one could envision' (Padgett, 1998: 12). Taylor writes that an ethnographic investigation provides narrow results instead of broad and universal details of social life" (2002: 3) and, as indicated by Gray, "a few commentators contend that the discoveries are 'insufficient in representativeness and generalisability, two key criteria of legitimacy in sociological research" (2003: 15). Also, since the researcher in an ethnographic approach is individualistic so the veracity of data collected is not checked. However, having a thought of results to be cross-checked may not make the researcher comfortably conduct his study. Regarding Learning to Labour by Willis (1977), many critics have raised doubts about the validity of his conclusion as his sample size was only 12. Reliability seems to be less as it is difficult to repeat this research and he might have been played by lads also. IV. # Conclusion To understand the complex matters it is important to be part of the setup under study. It could not have been easy for either Duneier or Willis to conclude about the reason for the problems being faced by their subject under study without being part of the setup. Ethnography, therefore, precedes various exploratory techniques due to these advantages. However, every study technique has its limitations (I would not call them disadvantages) and those limitations are to be kept in mind while planning for the exploratory approach. By getting the accounts of various ethnographic studies, it can be said that this approach is highly immersive and provides one with a highly transparent and original account of information. This methodology allows the culture to speak for itself which is highly important. However, it poses various risks and pitfalls which are important to be addressed. Anthropology relies heavily on this method and it has been found to provide a highly realistic outcome of the research. As implied, we could not have explored so much about various societies which are living isolated, without the help of this technique. Word Count: 2461 (excluding references and cover sheet) © 2021 Global Journals ## Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXI Issue V Version I Year 2021 ( ) A * The Problem of Privacy in Transcultural Research: Reflections on an Ethnographic Study in Sri Lanka 10.1207/s15327019eb1404_2 Bardia Monshi &Verena Zieglmayer 14 2010. 2004. Jan 2018 Journal ethics and Behaviour * Designing Qualitative Research. 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