Meaning & use
ethnographic study
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountabletechnical
Research in which someone lives among or closely observes a group of people to understand their culture and daily life.
Grammar: Countable: an ethnographic study of a village.
Patterns
- an ethnographic study of someone
- conduct an ethnographic study
She carried out an ethnographic study of street vendors in Lagos.
The ethnographic study took two years of fieldwork.
An ethnographic study of the office revealed unwritten rules about meetings.
Word forms
| plural | ethnographic studies |
|---|
Common combinations
- conduct an ethnographic study
- They conducted an ethnographic study of nurses.
- detailed ethnographic study
- A detailed ethnographic study of the fishing village was published.
- ethnographic study of
- Her ethnographic study of teenagers drew praise.
- long-term ethnographic study
- A long-term ethnographic study followed the family.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fieldwork
- It means any research done outside the lab, not necessarily detailed observation of culture.
- case study
- It examines one example in depth but may not involve living with a group.
- participant observation
- It names the main method used in ethnography, and the study is the whole project.
Opposites
Word family
- ethnography noun
- the scientific description of peoples and cultures
- ethnographer noun
- a person who does ethnographic research
- ethnographic adjective
- relating to ethnography
- ethnology noun
- the comparative study of peoples
Commonly confused: ethnographic study or ethnic?
ethnographic study vs ethnic
It describes belonging to a cultural group and does not refer to a research method.
Practice
A researcher lives in a fishing community for a year to understand its customs. This is:
Choose one answer.
Living among a group to understand its culture is ethnographic. A survey uses questionnaires, and a trial tests treatments.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “ethnographic study”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.