Ethnography in Community Psychology: Promises and Tensions

• DOI: 10.1007/s10464-014-9648-0
• Publication Date: 2014-04-14T14:05:54Z
• Authors: Andrew D. Case; Nathan R. Todd; Michael J. Kral
• Keywords: Community psychology; Health psychology

Community psychology recognizes the need for research methods that illuminate context, culture, diversity, and process. One such method, ethnography, has crossed into multiple disciplines from anthropology, indeed, community psychologists are becoming ethnographers. Ethnographic work stands at intersection of bridging universal questions with particularities people groups bounded in time, geographic location, social location. Ethnography is thus historical deeply contextual, enabling a rich, in-depth understanding communities aligned values goals psychology. The purpose this paper to elucidate potential ethnography encourage its use within field as method capture culture document process, reveal how change action occur through communities. We discuss draw connections goals, identify tensions our experiences doing ethnography. Overall, we assert resonates present resource those interested using their or activism.