ABSTRACT
This chapter develops the goals and objectives of the ethnographic approach, looks at how the approach has been applied to study of the environment, and describes a number of practical issues involved in doing an ethnographic study. Ethnographic study has a long and rich history, and it is most heavily associated with the field of cultural anthropology, especially the famed anthropologists Bronislaw Malinowski, Franz Boas, and Clifford Geertz. The ethnographic approach exemplifies many of the central features of qualitative research. It commonly focuses on one or a small number of instances, it generally relies heavily on non-numerical data, and it is centrally concerned with processes, mechanisms, attitudes, and belief systems. The application of the ethnographic approach to study of the environment has occurred as researchers have come to recognize its potential to provide insight into certain types of environmental issues. The ethnographic approach is a matter of constant and repeated interaction among theory, data collection, and data analysis.
