Ethnotrend

What is ethnography?

Ethnography is a method of research that studies people’s behaviors in their natural environment. This method of investigation provides accurate results because it digs into people’s lives by observing, conversing and analyzing them as an insider, as opposed to doing surveys and interviews as an outsider. Ethnography provides context to the conclusions of the studies made and gives us a holistic approach of what we are studying.
In order to be a good ethnographer you need to be empathic, that is, to put yourself in other people’s shoes and see the world from their eyes. You only achieve that by learning about their culture, and the motives behind their actions.Think of ethnography as making new friends. To be able to really get to know somebody you need to take the time to hang out with them, talk to them, ask questions about their lives, look at how they do things, analyze their actions to see if they coincide with their words, etc.

An ethnographer’s job, as cultivating a friendship, takes time and effort. You can’t expect to meet somebody, hand them out a survey and pretend you know everything there is to know about that person. You must be able to look through their eyes and see what they see; that’s when you can say that you know somebody.

In this blog we are going to give an ethnographic perspective to every situation people are part of. We want to understand why people do what they do, and what influences those actions. It is only by understanding the context that we can judge others’ actions, provide adequate feedback and model our actions for when we have to interact with people that come from different cultural contexts. We would also be able to understand how we should behave, where our bad habits come from and what motivates us to act as we do. Having an understanding of human behavior is the first step towards a social change.
This is what ethnography is all about: meeting new people, getting to really know them, and understanding them instead of judging them.

Some of the matters that we will be discussing are:

• Why we spend so much money on coffee?
• What do we do while at work?
• Why do some girls have a weakness for possessive men?
• What roles do social networks play in the way young adults socialize?
• Why do women ask men trick questions?
• What do people look for in a relationship?

See you next time.