Ethnography: Principles in Practice

Citation

Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge.

A newer edition (5th edition, 2027) has been announced; chapter titles and some contents may differ.

Chapter Summary

The fourth edition runs to roughly 280–290 pages in eleven numbered chapters, framed by a Prologue and an Epilogue. It follows an ethnographic project in roughly the order a researcher meets its problems: first the principle of reflexivity, then design, entry to the field, relations with participants, the different kinds of data, and finally analysis, writing and ethics. The publisher's description says the edition was thoroughly updated and substantially rewritten, and that the chapter on the digital world is new.

Chapter 1: What is Ethnography?

The first chapter opens with the principle of reflexivity, set against the background of competing research philosophies. This is the book's central claim: ethnography is best understood as a reflexive process, in which the researcher recognises that social research is part of the world it studies and reflects on how the researcher shapes both the data and the analysis. The chapter runs to about twenty pages. A Prologue precedes it.

Chapter 2: Research Design: Problems, Cases, and Samples

This chapter deals with research design and, in particular, the selection and sampling of cases. Its title groups three linked matters, the research problem, the case and the sample, which are decided before and during entry to the field.

Chapter 3: Access

Access is treated as a problem in its own right: how a researcher gains entry to a setting and its people. The chapter is about eighteen pages long.

Chapter 4: Field Relations

The longest chapter in the book, at about forty pages, covers field relations and observation: the relationships a researcher builds with the people being studied and the roles that observation involves. Its length marks it as the practical centre of the volume.

Chapter 5: Oral Accounts and the Role of Interviewing

The chapter turns from observation to what people say, and takes up interviewing as a source of oral accounts. It runs to about twenty-three pages.

Chapter 6: Documents and Other Artefacts, Real and Virtual

Documents and other artefacts form a third type of data, and the title makes clear that the discussion covers virtual as well as physical material. The chapter is brief, at about fourteen pages.

Chapter 7: Ethnography in the Digital World

The new chapter of this edition addresses ethnographic work in online and digital settings. It is a short chapter of about thirteen pages that comes straight after the discussion of documents and artefacts.

Chapter 8: Recording and Organizing Data

This chapter covers how data are recorded and organised, the step between collecting material and analysing it. It runs to about fifteen pages.

Chapter 9: The Process of Analysis

Data analysis is the second-longest chapter, at about thirty pages. Its title frames analysis as a process rather than a single technique.

Chapter 10: Writing Ethnography

The chapter on writing follows analysis and covers the preparation of research reports. It runs to about seventeen pages.

Chapter 11: Ethics

The ethical issues involved in ethnographic research are collected in a final chapter of about twenty-three pages. An Epilogue closes the book.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: What is Ethnography?

• Reflexivity: the recognition that social research belongs to the social world it studies, so researchers must reflect on how they shape their data and analysis.
• Competing research philosophies: the alternative views of social research against which the authors position ethnography.

Chapters 2–4: Design, Access and Field Relations

• Selection and sampling of cases: choosing the cases and settings to study as part of design.
• Access: obtaining entry to a setting and its participants.
• Field relations and observation: the roles and relationships through which a researcher observes.

Chapters 5–8: Kinds of Data and Their Management

• Interviewing and oral accounts: interviews as a source of data alongside observation.
• Documents and artefacts, real and virtual: written and material traces, including online ones.
• Digital ethnography: ethnographic work carried out in digital settings.
• Recording and organizing data: the practical handling of material gathered in the field.

Chapters 9–11: Analysis, Writing and Ethics

• Data analysis as a process: interpretation developed over the course of a project.
• Research reports: writing as the vehicle through which findings reach readers.
• Ethical issues: the moral questions raised by ethnographic research.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• The whole research process in one volume. The contents run from design through access, observation, interviews, documents, recording, analysis, writing and ethics, so a reader can follow a complete project without switching books.
• A clear organising argument. The publisher's description presents reflexivity as the thread that links the chapters, which gives the practical topics a common rationale. Readers who want to know why ethnographers make particular choices, not only how, are the natural audience.
• Illustrative material from many studies. The description says the discussion draws on a wide range of classic and more recent studies, within a global context. The authors are an educational and social researcher and a sociologist, so the book is not tied to one discipline's tradition.
• Attention to digital settings. A dedicated chapter on the digital world and a chapter title that includes virtual artefacts show that the edition addresses online fieldwork directly.

Limitations

• Principles before procedures. The description stresses principles and reasoning. It does not mention exercises, worked examples of fieldnotes or step-by-step protocols, so readers who want a hands-on workbook may need a companion text.
• Some chapters are brief. The chapters on documents and on the digital world are each only around fourteen pages, which allows an overview rather than a detailed method for either.
• No independent review found for this edition. Published reviews of the fourth edition are hard to find, so claims about its classroom performance rest on the publisher's description and the structure of the contents.
• A later edition is announced. The publisher lists a fifth edition with a 2027 copyright date, so readers who need the latest material on digital ethnography or data tools should check which edition their library holds.

Where It Fits in the Course

Within this course list, the book is the methodological treatise. Raymond Madden's Being Ethnographic and David Fetterman's Ethnography: Step-by-Step are both written for readers new to fieldwork, with Fetterman's organised as a practical guide through each stage of a project. Hammersley and Atkinson suit a reader who has already met ethnography in outline and wants the reasoning behind it.

Emerson, Fretz and Shaw's Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes concentrates on a single task, recording observations and turning them into analytic accounts, which complements the more general chapter on recording and organizing data in Hammersley and Atkinson. Bernard and Wutich's Research Methods in Anthropology is a comprehensive text that treats qualitative and quantitative approaches side by side and suits graduate readers. Clifford and Marcus's Writing Culture is a collection of essays on how ethnographic authority is built through writing; it pairs naturally with Chapter 10 and with the discussion of reflexivity in Chapter 1.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates and postgraduates in anthropology, sociology, education and related fields who are planning or carrying out an ethnographic project. No fieldwork experience is needed, though a first course in anthropology or sociology helps, because the discussion refers to classic and more recent studies.

A practical plan:

• Before fieldwork: read Chapter 1 slowly, since the argument about reflexivity frames the rest, then Chapters 2 and 3 on design, sampling and access.
• During fieldwork: keep Chapters 4 to 6 and 8 close at hand. Chapter 4 is the longest and is the one most likely to be reread as relationships in the field develop. Read Chapter 7 if any part of the study takes place online.
• When analysing and writing: use Chapters 9 and 10 together, and return to Chapter 11 on ethics before and after data collection rather than only once.

Readers new to fieldwork may prefer to start with a gentler introduction from the course list and use this book as the second text. For recording practice, pair it with the Emerson, Fretz and Shaw book. Because the book is about reasoning rather than technique, a useful exercise is to apply each chapter's questions to a small project of your own and write down the choices made.