The Meaning of "Participation" in Participant Observation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4642829
AutoresPeter D Ashworth (Sheffield Hallam University, British Psychological Society), Peter Ashworth (British Psychological Society, autor correspondente)
Ano1995
Volume5
Fascículo3
Páginas366-387
Data de publicação1995-08-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoQualitative Health Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/104973239500500307
OpenAlexW2139406834
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas23

Whether writers have a postmodernist orientation or a residual concern to defend the technique against positivist criticisms as providing unequivocal scientific data, theoretically systematic accounts of participant observation in terms of its nature as a social activity carried out by conscious human agents are missing from the literature of health research and the human sciences generally. In this article, the technique of participant observation, as a process of social interaction, is viewed in the context of a phenomenology of participation. Participation involves the following constituents: (a) attunement to the others' stock of knowledge at hand, (b) emotional and motivational attunement to the group's concerns, (c) taking for granted that one can contribute appropriately, and (d) being able to assume that one's identity is not under threat. It is shown that the features of participant observation, as a technique that first and foremost entails conscious social engagement, can be systematized in the light of the phenomenology of participation

Attunement · Epistemology · Participant observation · Positivism · Social science · Sociology · Empathy and Medical Education · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Representations and Identity