Overview
An introduction to the issues, methods and ethical considerations involved in carrying out ethnographic research.
This paper focuses on qualitative research approaches. Long-term, immersive, 'bottom-up' methods help social anthropologists gain holistic perspectives on a diverse range of cultural phenomena and lifeways. In this paper students will learn how ethnographic methods can be applied across settings from small villages to complex bureaucratic organisations to illuminate issues of contemporary importance. Topics will include:
- Planning a research project, including writing a research proposal
- Conducting a range of data collection techniques including participant observation, systematic fieldnotes, in-depth interviews, focus groups, photographic methods, and Participatory Learning and Action approaches
- Thematically coding materials (including through specialised software) and analysing results
- Negotiating ethical concerns and working collaboratively with research partners in communities
The course seeks to equip students with social scientific research skills sought after by employers.
Examples will draw from diverse sub-disciplines, such as medical anthropology, environmental anthropology, and the anthropology of international development.
The paper is offered in yearly rotation with ANTH 210.
About this paper
| Paper title | Contemporary Ethnographic Research |
|---|---|
| Subject | Anthropology |
| EFTS | 0.15 |
| Points | 18 points |
| Teaching period | Not offered in 2025, expected to be offered in 2026 (On campus) |
| Domestic Tuition Fees ( NZD ) | $1,040.70 |
| International Tuition Fees | Tuition Fees for international students are elsewhere on this website. |
- Prerequisite
- ANTH 103 or ANTH 105 or 54 points
- Restriction
- ANTH 320
- Schedule C
- Arts and Music
- Contact
- More information link
Please visit the Programme of Social Anthropology
- Teaching staff
- Teaching Arrangements
- One two-hour lecture per week.
- One one-hour tutorial per week.
- Textbooks
Course readings are provided through eReserve on Blackboard.
- Graduate Attributes Emphasised
- Global perspective, Lifelong learning, Scholarship, Communication, Critical thinking, Cultural understanding, Ethics, Information literacy, Research, Self-motivation.
View more information about Otago's graduate attributes. - Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the paper, students will be:
- Familiar with the qualitative research project cycle
- Equipped to develop sound research questions and plan methods that align with these
- Familiar with an array of data collection techniques, including interviews
- Able to manage and thematically code qualitative data
- Aware of a range of ethical issues pertaining to cross-cultural and ethnographic research
- Able to place ethnographic inquiry within the wider array of qualitative research methodologies
- Assessment details
100% internally assessed.