Ethnomethodologically-informed Ethnography

Napier occasionally uses this in the evaluation stages of collaborative e-participation projects. The approach derives from sociology and has been applied more frequently in the field of Computer Supported Cooperative Work to assess changes in working practices. The approach uses field-study transcripts or detailed ‘thick’ descriptions of activities as they are performed. It is intended to shed light on the unexpected sociotechnical contingencies affecting technology use. To that end it disavows conventional qualitative methodologies that apply predefined theoretical coding schemes to develop explanatory models based on documentary records of whatever practices the researcher is studying. From an ethnomethodological perspective such approaches fail to describe the methodologies that are evidently used in producing those records by members of (or actors in) the settings being studied. Ethnomethodology therefore places a methodological emphasis on rigorously describing how collaborative activity is accomplished in and through actors’ ongoing use of discursive and material resources (electronic or otherwise) (see Crabtree, 2000).

References:

Crabtree, A. et al.(2000). Ethnomethodologically Informed Ethnography and Information System Design. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51(7), 666-682.

evaluation of collaborative e-participation projects