Ethnography Project: SOC 380
This three-part project asks you to examine, observe and analyze a live sports event.
This event can be formal, informal, professional, recreational, youth or adult– as long as
there is a collective group of people playing a physical game or sport and there are
observers/crowd of some kind, this will be a sufficient site.
Limitation: You must be an observer of the event, not an active participant (e.g. you
cannot write the ethnography about your experience playing in a pick -up basketball
game, but you could observe others playing pickup basketball. This is because part of
ethnography is active observation and note taking.
This 3-part project asks you to propose a research site, make two hours of observations
and submit fieldnotes about your observations, and then complete a final ethnographic
paper.
Part 1: Research Proposal
The proposal asks you to: propose a research site, reflect on why you want to research
this particular event/community/subculture; what you already know about it, what you
hope to discover, and why it is important to for the rest of us to pay attention to what you
discover in your research.
Your proposal should be 1500-1800 words and include the following sections:
Section 1: Observation Site
● What event will you be observing?
● Who is your main focus in the site (players? Umpires/officials? Spectators?)
● What attracted your interest this community as a site for ethnographic
research – a personal experience, a personal question, a personal
connection?
Section 2: Explore your assumptions about this event/sport/community.
● Are there value judgments you think people make about this community?
● What do YOU instinctively think about when you think about this
community/site/event?
Section 3: Sociological Significance
● How do you see your research in and about this community as connected
wider issues, themes or ideas in society?
● What do you believe you can learn about as a result of studying this
community and your interaction in this community?
● Do you expect that you might challenge or confirm any of the assumptions
you discussed in section two as you explore this topic/site?
Section 4: Focus/Thesis Statement
An effective formula to start a thesis statement (and this focus may change over time,
but it’s a starting point) is to acknowledge general understandings or assumptions about
your site and then turn to ask some potential research questions. Here is a non-sports
example:
“Most people don’t think of their everyday city bus route as a community at all. Instead,
they just see a bunch of individuals getting on public transportation to get where they
are going. On my bus route, though, I think there is something more complex going on
in terms of how regular passengers learn to interact as a kind of community of
strangers. I’m interested in exploring just how community might be defined on city
busses, how it is formed, and what the behaviors of the passengers tell us about city life
and Midwest USA patterns of behavior overall.”
Section 5: Data Collection Plan
● Where and when do you plan to make observations? You should observe for
2 hours total!
● Do you have the access you will need?
● Do you anticipate any difficulties “entering” the site?
● Will you observe or interview or do both of those things?
● How and why do you plan to participate or not participate in social interaction
on the site?
● How will you take notes or observations (on your phone, on paper, something
else)?
Section 6: Existing Research
In this section, consider what types of existing research (secondary sources — academic
books & journal articles) you might use to gain insight into what is going on in your site
and to explore the connection between that space and wider society. What disciplines
might you explore (anthropology, urban studies, history, sociology, political science,
international relations, ethnomusicology, women and gender studies…) and why? What
types of media or popular culture sources might provide additional contextual
information? Don’t be afraid to theorize connections here. These ideas may change as
you conduct your research, but you must begin to wonder about these things in your
proposal You do not need to list specific sources here, but you must describe how you
think particular types of source material will be helpful and why. In other words,
where/how do you anticipate conducting your secondary source research and why are
you heading in that direction?
Section 7: Why Does this Matter?
Conclude with a specific discussion of why the consideration of your research site
matters to the rest of us. What do we stand to discover or gain as a result of your
ethnographic inquiry and research? What does this help us to see, to experience, or to
understand? Why should this matter to us? This is the “so what” of your research
proposal.
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