Skip to main content
  • 282 Accesses

Introduction

Ethnography is a qualitative research method that has evolved out of ethnology within the broader field of cultural and social anthropology.

With the emphasis in research conducted within mainstream psychology on positivistic quantitative research, ethnographic research within the field of psychology has been slow to gain stature as a viable and rigorous form of qualitative research within naturalistic settings.

Definition

Ethnography is a research methodology that seeks to explore and describe emic or etic knowledge about specific cultural groups and cultural phenomena and thus contribute to the understanding of the social and cultural life of humans. The concept of “culture” is defined broadly to include any group that shares and engages within a common psychosocial experience, within a given space. What constitutes a given space – the field – is also defined broadly to include any geographical space, large or localized, or any virtual space, where members of the culture...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adams, T. E., & Jones, S. H. (2011). Telling stories: Reflexivity, queer theory, and autoethnography. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 11(2), 108–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bochner, A. P., & Ellis, C. S. (2006). Communication as autoethnography. In G. J. Shepherd, J. S. John, & T. Striphas (Eds.), Communication as…: perspectives on theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer, J. D. (2000). Ethnography. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Church, K. (1996). Forbidden narratives. Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, S. L. (2012). Imagining possibilities outside the medicalization of humanity: A critical ethnography of a community trying to build a world free of sanism and psychiatric oppression (Doctoral dissertation). OISE, University of Toronto, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellingston, L. L., & Ellis, L. (2008). Autoethnography as constructionist project. In J. A. Holstein & J. F. Gubrium (Eds.), Handbook on constructionist research (pp. 445–466). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, C. (2004). The ethnographic I: A methodological novel about autoethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fabris, E. (2011). Tranquil prisons: Chemical incarceration under community treatment orders. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, D., & Prilleltensky, I. (Eds.). (1997). Critical psychology: An introduction. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poddar, P., Patke, R. S., & Jensen, L. (Eds.). (2008). A historical companion to postcolonial literatures, continental Europe, and its empires. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. E. (2005). Institutional ethnography: A sociology for people. Toronto, ON: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

Online Resources

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Brenda A. LeFrançois .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

LeFrançois, B.A. (2014). Ethnography. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_97

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_97

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics