Beyond the unobtrusive observer: reflections on researcher-informant relationships in urban ethnography.
Ethnographic research involves the creation and ongoing renegotiations of relationships between researchers and informants. Prolonged engagement contributes to the complexity as relationships deepen and shift over time and participants accumulate a substantial reservoir of shared experiences. Reflections about the relationships we have co-constructed with informants in several research projects have contributed to our identification of several critical aspects of building and maintaining researcher-informant relationships in cross-cultural research. Aspects of relationship work specifically related to conducting ethnography with children, within the communities in which researchers live, and within the practice of occupational therapy are discussed.
Lawlor
M C
MC
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles 90033, USA.
Mattingly
C F
CF
D000328:Adult; D000884:Anthropology, Cultural / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005007:Ethnology / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012107:Research Design; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014505:Urban Population