The Microdemographic Community-Study Approach

Improving Survey Data by Integrating the Ethnographic Method

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2331682
AutoresWilliam G Axinn (0000-0002-0496-0485, University of Chicago), T Fricke (0000-0003-0583-2503, University of Michigan), Thomas E Fricke (University of Michigan), Arland Thornton (0000-0002-1607-2047, University of Michigan)
Ano1991
Volume20
Fascículo2
Páginas187-217
Data de publicação1991-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSociological Methods & Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0049-1241 • E-ISSN: 1552-8294
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0049124191020002001
OpenAlexW3037880230
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas36
Referências citadas17

Survey methods have been criticized for producing unreliable, invalid data and for failing to provide contextual information to test complex causal hypotheses. We discuss a technique that combines survey and ethnographic methods at every stage of the data collection process to overcome these shortcomings. We use ethnographic and survey evidence to show how the combined approach reduces coverage errors, nonresponse errors and measurement errors arising from the interviewer, the questionnaire, and the respondent. Complete integration of the two methods during data collection can uncover information that a survey alone would have missed. Ethnographic data can also be used to understand the meaning behind relationships among survey variables that would have otherwise been unclear. Finally, although the combined approach is intensive, it is flexible enough to be used in a variety of settings to study many different research questions

Data collection · Data science · Ethnography · Interview · Meaning (existential) · Process (computing) · Respondent · Sociology · Statistics · Survey data collection · Survey methodology · Variety (cybernetics) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Capital and Networks · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies