Critical Issues in Participant Observation

Abstract

As with all qualitative data gathering techni ues inh participant observation are methodological issues of strategy as well as issues related to values, ethics, and politics. The methodological issues include contextual limits to genuine participation, the dual and sometimes conflicting nature uine participant and observer roles, and g ature of the , resource considerations. The more value-laden issues in a participant observation context include the meaning of informed consent and the ethics observation, the politics of covert , politics of alignment and nonalignment, and the risks of genuine participation. On all of these issues, reasonable people disagree.