Focused Ethnography

Authors

  • Hubert Knoblauch Technische Universität Berlin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-6.3.20

Keywords:

qualitative research, research methods, ethnography

Abstract

In this paper I focus on a distinctive kind of sociological ethnography which is particularly, though not exclusively, adopted in applied research. It has been proposed that this branch of ethno­graphy be referred to as focused ethnography. Focused ethnography shall be delineated within the context of other common conceptions of what may be called conventional ethnography. However, rather than being opposed to it, focused ethno­graphy is rather complementary to conventional ethnography, particularly in fields that are charac­teristic of socially and functionally differentiated contemporary society. The paper outlines the back­ground as well as the major methodological features of focused ethnography, such as short-term field visits, data intensity and time intensity, so as to provide a background for future studies in this area. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0503440

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Author Biography

Hubert Knoblauch, Technische Universität Berlin

Hubert KNOBLAUCH is Professor of General Sociology at the Technical University of Berlin. He is also speaker of the Research Network Qualitative Methods in the European Sociological Association. His research interests centre on religion, communication, knowledge, and qualitative methods, with particular focus on recent developments, video analysis. Recent publications include Hubert KNOBLAUCH and Helga KOTTHOFF (Eds.), Verbal Art across Cultures. The Aesthetic and Proto-Aesthetic Forms of Communication. Tübingen: Gunter Narr 2001; Hubert KNOBLAUCH, Wissenssoziologie (Sociology of Knowledge), Konstanz: UTB 2005; Hubert KNOBLAUCH and Bernt SCHNETTLER (Eds.), Video-Analysis. Methodology and Methods. Berlin: Lang (in press).

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Published

2005-09-30

How to Cite

Knoblauch, H. (2005). Focused Ethnography. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-6.3.20