Ethnographer

An ethnographer is a researcher who studies people and cultures through immersive fieldwork and direct observation. Ethnography is a qualitative research method used primarily in anthropology, but it is also employed in sociology, human geography, education, and market research to understand social practices from the inside.

Ethnographers gather data through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and the collection of field notes, documents, and artifacts. Fieldwork often involves living in a community for extended periods, learning local languages, and developing rapport with participants. Analyses emphasize thick description and context, interpreting everyday behavior within cultural meanings.

Ethnography aims to produce holistic accounts of social life, including routines, rituals, institutions, and power relations. Outputs typically take the form of ethnographic monographs or articles that describe practices and offer analytic interpretations rather than standardized statistics.

Historically, ethnography emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with field-based studies by anthropologists such as Bronisław Malinowski and Franz Boas. Later figures, such as Clifford Geertz and Ruth Benedict, contributed interpretive approaches that emphasize culture as a system of meaning. In contemporary research, ethnography spans academia and applied fields, including organizational ethnography and digital or online ethnography.

Ethical considerations are central, including informed consent, confidentiality, and the fair representation of communities. Modern ethnographers may engage in collaborative or participatory methods to share benefits and avoid misrepresentation.