ABSTRACT
Ethnography is concerned with the ‘discovery’ and description of the culture and social structure of particular social groups. Originally, ethnographic techniques were used by anthropologists such as Malinowski (1929) who studied, among other things, the sexual practices of the Trobriand Islanders of New Guinea. The anthropologist’s technique was to immerse him or herself in the particular culture of the society under study in order to be able to describe life in such a community in vivid detail. This entailed becoming an accepted member of the group in question and participating in its cultural life and practices. Since the early anthropological studies, sociologists have adopted a version of this method to gain information on small groups and communities existing within particular enclaves of modern society. In the 1940s and 50s, Chicago University was particularly influential in encouraging and producing ethnographic studies of urban communities. However, since then the method has become very widely used as a standard technique in social research.
