To what extent can ethnography be distinguished from participant observation? (original) (raw)

Ethnography and participant observation are two intimately interrelated terms -both of which are components of a wider term, qualitative research. Qualitative research can involve variety of diverse methods, such as many different types of in-depth interview, documentary/written work, and gathering of individual constructs and mental maps, as well as observation. Most qualitative studies executed over the past years in academic disciplines apart from anthropology have been done through interviews of one sort or another rather than suitable ethnography as Atkinson (1997), Atkinson and Silverman (1997), Delamont (1997) and Delamont et al. (2000b) have revealed.