noun · academic
ethnography
UK/ɛθˈnɒɡrəfi/US/ɛθˈnɑːɡrəfi/eth·NOG·ra·phy
a qualitative method involving immersive observation and interviews to study cultures or social groups
Examples
“The anthropologist spent a year doing ethnography in a rural community.”
“Ethnography revealed everyday practices that surveys had missed.”
“She used ethnography to explore how office culture shaped employees' behaviour.”
Band 8 sentence
“Her ethnographic account of classroom interactions provided nuanced insight into how school routines reproduce social inequalities.”
Collocations
- conduct ethnography
- ethnographic study
Word family
Common mistakes
Ethnography is the same as ethnology.→Ethnography is field-based qualitative research; ethnology is comparative study of cultures.
We did an ethnography for two days.→We conducted ethnographic fieldwork over several months.
Say it for a higher band
5fieldwork→6case study→7+ethnography
Synonyms
fieldwork
Easily confused
case study
“The case study focused on one hospital's response to the epidemic.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In Science & Research
Learn it with its set