A form of qualitative research based strongly on observation of real situations. A particular focus of ethnography is to understand a situation from the point of view of the people involved, to become encultured into their patterns of thought, rather than to impose one's own models, theories or values. Experienced ethnographers typically resist any attempt to claim generalisability of their work, emphasising the unique nature of each situation and context. However, in practice they are very good at bringing out aspects of the situation that inform similar situations elsewhere.
Also known as ethnographic methods, ethnographic study