Actionable Ethnography

My personal feelings towards ethnographic studies were best articulated by Shaffir. As I discussed in my first posts, I find the need to present the social sciences in, as close to, the same light as the hard sciences a bit disconcerting. I think, as Shaffir discusses, this is particularly problematic for ethnographic studies. The inherent subjectivity of the exercise means at best you can report your experience of the encounter. The standard I judge social science research on is ‘good enough’. Related to the idea of actionable intelligence, depending on the circumstances, there will be a different threshold of good enough information. While many of the techniques for maintaining analytical distance can make for a better report, I think that it’s still just an attempt to offer an explanation that holds some value for someone in some context. If any sort of value can be found in the study, regardless of how strong its scientific validity, it has served its purpose. But yes, the more rigorous the study, the more likely it will have more value for more people.