Before reading these two articles I had never even heard of Ethnography, and really had no understanding of what it could pertain to. After learning what exactly Ethnography is I realize it is a very valuable tool of study, and that when utilized it can reveal a lot about society, the world we live in, and how to best solve problems and change things to enhance people’s lives. I think the most interesting thing about ethnography to me is the depth of this sort of study. More commonly than not, when a person is trying to solve some sort of problem, or improve on something that is already in place, they only observe what is on the surface; looking at people’s basic actions or reactions, and using stereotypes or things that society generally holds to be true, without taking any extra time to really sit back and observe what is really happening. When people attempt to deal with issues like this, while they may sometimes get lucky, more often they end up with a solution that falls short because it only solves a surface level issue, instead of dealing with the bigger problem that can only be seen when you really take time to analyze the deeper issue. The depth of ethnography takes the neccessary measures to fill in many of the gaps that typical observation leaves open, and by closing these gaps with deep analysis provides an understanding that is much more useful.
While reading these articles the pictrures that were utilized really caught my eye, and upon further thinking I realized just how important the sorts of pictures they used were to the article. In “An Ethnography Primer” part of the article talks about why you see the sorts of pictures you do when dealing with ethnography, and how these pictures that may seem almost basic in a way really illustrate reality, which is exactly what ethnography works to find. I think it is so important that just like the pictures are made to show reality just as it is, ethnography looks to find the truth in patterns and tendencies of people and want to look past what is believed or thought, and instead observe what is true. By committing to take a deeper look at things and only deal with reality you come across a way of thinking that is very effective. If ethnography is continued to use and is expanded to be used more often finding solutions that truly solve problems for the long term will become much more commom place.
No comments:
Post a Comment