Elisabeth J. Wood
Department of Political Science, Yale University
Spring 2008
January 18, 2008
Qualitative Field Research DRAFT
PLSC 505a/340
In this seminar for graduate and advanced undergraduate students we will discuss and practice qualitative field research methods. The course will cover the basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and analyzing ethnographic data, with an emphasis on the core ethnographic techniques of participant observation and in-depth interviewing. Course reading will draw on works in sociology and anthropology as well as political science. Throughout the course we will discuss the politics and ethics of field research.
In addition to participating in the seminar, participants will carry out a local research project in order to practice research skills. In consultation with the instructors, each participant should develop a project involving research at sites accessible from New Haven and spend at least four hours per week (after human subjects approval) in the field gathering data. Participants are encouraged to choose non-Yale field sites. Participants interested in American politics may find it useful to explore some aspect of their dissertation topic for their project. Ideally, comparative politics students should identify a local project that bears some relationship to their dissertation project. For example, a student who intends to study the environmental regulatory bureaucracy in Sweden could develop a project analyzing the Hartford bureaucracy. A student interested in authoritarian enclaves in democratic polities could focus on such an enclave in local or regional politics. Projects may include archival research but must include significant ethnographic research.
The course will emphasize methodological and practical aspects of ethnographic research. For what research questions are ethnographic techniques best suited? What criteria of evidence and analytical rigor apply on this terrain? Can one generalize from ethnographic data (and if so, in what sense?) Can qualitative research verify hypotheses, or only generate them? Can qualitative research explain social phenomena, or only interpret them? Is replicability possible in ethnographic research? When and how should ethnographic methods be combined with other methods? How does one ensure reliability? What is a good research site? How is the site best entered? When is a structured interview preferable to a less structured one? How does one find informants? What are good field notes? What ethical and political dilemmas come into play?
Course Pre-requisites: The course assumes a grasp of research design at the graduate level.
Permission of the instructor is required.
Class Meeting: Fridays 9:00 - 11:00
Office Hours: Wednesdays 4:00 - 600 (sign up on office door), 8 Prospect Place, room 108.
Email: elisabeth.wood@yale.edu.
Course website: classesv2.yale.edu

Course Requirements: Participants will carry out and write up a series of field assignments
(40%); see below. All assignments should be posted on the classes server in the relevant folder by noon the day before class.
At the end of the course, each participant will choose between two options for the final writing assignment (60%). Option 1: write a brief summary and critique of the field research project and a detailed research proposal on a topic for which field research is appropriate. Option 2: write an article draft based on the field research carried out.
Field assignments:
1. Initial project description. Due February 1. Project description: a one page description of the research project, including a clear statement of the research question, an initial choice of field site, a description of relevant ethnographic research to be carried out, and a statement of what the researcher expects to find.
2. IRB proposal: also due February 1. If the project does not involve risk to human subjects or vulnerable populations, this will take the form a one paragraph description of the project, which will be included in the course IRB request. If the project does involve risk or vulnerable populations, the student will need to submit a complete IRB application separately.
3. Interview schedule and protocol. Due February 22. Submit the schedule and protocol (selfpresentation, informed consent, exit lines) for a semi-structured or structured interview. Include the probes planned to follow up on different responses to the questions.
4. Field notes (interview transcripts, field observations and reflections). Due April 11. You should keep detailed field notes throughout the research, some of which you will write by hand in a field notebook during observation, others of which you will write up afterward. Notes should clearly distinguish between observation, interpretation, analysis, self-criticism, and methodological and theoretical reflections. The initial set of field notes should include the results of an early observation of a key site for the project. Conduct at least one informal interview and submit both the hand-written jottings that were kept during the interview and an approximate transcript recreated immediately after the interview from the jottings and memory. Conduct as well at least one formal, taped interview and submit a full transcript. The field notes describing the interviews, including relevant self-critiques, should also be turned in.
5. Abstract and outline of final paper (either option). Due April 18.
6.. Final paper (35 double-spaced pages or less). Due May 9.

Required texts, available at Labyrinth Books:
John Lofland, David Snow, Leon Anderson and Lyn Lofland. 2006. Analyzing Social
Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis.
. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Annette Lareau and Jeffrey Shultz, eds. Journeys Through Ethnography. Realistic
Accounts of Fieldwork Westview
Philippe Bourgois. 2003. In Search of Respect. Selling Crack in El Barrio . Cambridge.
James C. Scott. 1986. Weapons of the Weak. Yale.
Recommended, available at Labyrinth Books:
Christopher B. Barrett and Jeffrey W. Cason.1997.
Overseas Research. A Practical
Guide.
Johns Hopkins.
Also recommended
Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, Linda L. Shaw. 1995. Writing Ethnographic
Fieldnotes. University of Chicago
Herbert J. Rubin and Irene S. Rubin. 2005. Chapters 4-9 of Qualitative Interviewing. The
Art of Hearing Data , second edition. Sage.
Many readings will be on the class server; some will soon be available in a reader.
Course Outline
January 25. Introduction: human subjects issues and research in New Haven
The National Commission for the Protection Of Human Subjects of Biomedical and
Behavioral Research [The Belmont Report]. 1979. Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research.
http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html
National Science Foundation (no date). Frequently Asked Questions and Vignettes.
Interpreting the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects for Behavioral and
Social Science Research. www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/hsfaqs.jsp.
Maurice Punch. 1998. Politics and Ethics in Qualitative Research. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. The Landscape of Qualitative Research. Theories and
Issues.
156-184. Sage.
Abbey Steel, FAS IRB application

Douglas Rae. 2005. Chapters 1 and 8-12 of City: Urbanism and Its End . Yale.
Chris Rhomberg and Louse Simmons. Beyond Strike Support: Labor-Community
Alliances and Democratic Power in New Haven. Labor Studies Journal 30(3): 21-47.
Guests:
Douglas Rae, Melissa Mason, Susan Bouregy (Director, FAS Human Subjects)
Assignments:
1. After doing the reading, do the training exercise at www.yale.edu/training.
2. Meet with instructor to discuss your research project.
Recommended
Elisabeth Jean Wood. 2006. The Ethical Challenges of Field Research in Conflict
Zones. Qualitative Sociology. 29 (3): 307-41. (Special issue on political ethnography).
Vine Deloria, Jr. 1973. Custer Died for Your Sins. Reprinted in Antonius C.G.M.
Robben and Jeffrey A. Sluka. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological
Reader . Blackwell 2007.
National Research Council. 2003. Protecting Participants and Facilitating Social and Behavioral Sciences Research . Panel on Institutional Review Boards,
Surveys, and Social Science Research. Constance F. Citro, Daniel R. Ilgen, and
Cora B. Marrett, eds. Committee on National Statistions and Board on
Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. Washington DC: The National
Academies Press. (Available online)
Herbert C. Kelman. 1972. The Rights of the Subject in Social Research: An
Analysis in terms of Relative Power and Legitimacy. American Psychologist
27(11): 989-1016.
U.S. Health and Human Services. Institutional Review Board Guidebook .
Www.hhs.gov/ohrp/irb
Gerald D. Berreman. 1996. Ethics versus “Realism” in Anthropology. Reprinted in Antonius C.G.M. Robben and Jeffrey A. Sluka. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An
Anthropological Reader . Blackwell 2007.
February 1. Getting into the field
John Lofland, David Snow, Leon Anderson and Lyn Lofland. 2006. Introduction and
Chapters 1-3 from Analyzing Social Settings.
Annette Lareau and Jeffrey Shultz, eds. Journeys Through Ethnography. Realistic

Accounts of Fieldwork . Read Chapters 2, 3 and 6; skim the rest.
Kathleen M. Dewalt and Billie R. Dewalt. 2002. Chapters 1-3. Participant Observation.
A Guide for Fieldworkers. Alta Mira.
Norris Brock Johnson. Sex, Color, and Rights of Passage in Ethnographic Research.
Human Organization 23:2 (1984). Reprinted in Antonius C.G.M. Robben and Jeffrey A.
Sluka. Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader . Blackwell 2007.
Guest: Adria Lawrence
Due: Initial project description and IRB proposal
February 8. Participant observation
H. Russell Bernard. 2002. Participant Observation. Chapter 13 of Research Methods in
Anthropology, 203-39.
Kathleen M. Dewalt and Billie R. Dewalt. 2002. Chapters 4-6. Participant Observation.
A Guide for Fieldworkers. Alta Mira.
Fenno, Richard. 1978. Appendix - Notes on Method: Participant Observation. From
Home Style: House Members in Their Districts . Little, Brown, and Company, 249-295.
Herbert J. Gans 1986. The Participant Observer as a Human Being: Observations on the
Personal Aspects of Fieldwork. Robert G. In Burgess, ed., Field Research: A Sourcebook and Field Manual. Second edition. London: George Allen &Unwin.
Guest: Kwame Onoma
Assignment: Observe for a few hours some scene related to your project, take notes.
Recommended:
Timothy Pachirat. 2006. Ethnography from Below? Reflections from an
Industrialized Slaughterhouse on Perspective, Power, and the Ethnographic
Voice. APSA paper presentation.
Michael V. Angrosino and Kimberly A. Mays de Pérez. Rethinking Observation.
In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. The Landscape of Qualitative
Research. Theories and Issues, 107-54. Sage.
February 15. Field notes
H. Russell Bernard. 2002. Field Notes: How Take Them, Code Them, Manage Them.
Chapter 14 of Research Methods in Anthropology. Qualitative and Quantitative

approaches, 3 rd
edition, 365-89. Altamira Press.
Kathleen M. Dewalt and Billie R. Dewalt. 2002. Chapters 8-9. Participant Observation.
A Guide for Fieldworkers. Alta Mira.
Guest: Thad Dunning
February 22. [We will need to reschedule this class]
Prepare interview protocol and questions; bring copies to class
February 29. Interviewing (structured, semi-structured, and informal) **
John Lofland, David Snow, Leon Anderson and Lyn Lofland. 2006. Chapter 5 from
Analyzing Social Settings.
H. Russell Bernard. 2002. Interviewing: Unstructured and Semistructured. Chapter 9 of
Research Methods in Anthropology, 203-39.
Symposium: Interview Methods in Political Science. Contributions by Leech, Goldstein,
Aberbach and Rockman. PS: Political Science and Politics 35(4): 663-676
Andrea Fontana and James H Frey. The Interview. From Structured Questions to
Negotiated Text. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. The Landscape of
Qualitative Research. Theories and Issues, 61-106. Sage.
Guest: Ana de la O Torres
March 7. Ongoing issues in field research
John Lofland, David Snow, Leon Anderson and Lyn Lofland. 2006. Chapters 4, 7, and 8 from Analyzing Social Settings.
Lee Ann Fujii, forthcoming. The truth in lies: Evaluating testimonies of war and genocide in Rwanda
Jeffrey A. Sluka. 1995. Reflections on Managing Danger in Fieldwork: Dangerous
Anthropology in Belfast. Reprinted in Antonius C.G.M. Robben and Jeffrey A. Sluka.
Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader . Blackwell 2007.
Guest: Lee Ann Fujii
March 28.
Philippe Bourgois. 2003. In Search of Respect. Selling Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge.

April 4
James C. Scott. 1986. Weapons of the Weak . Yale.
April 11.
We will discuss the field notes (including interview transcripts, field observations, selfcritique) of all class participants.
April 18. Contributions of qualitative field research to social science
Elisabeth Jean Wood. 2008. Field Research. The Handbook of Comparative Politics , edited by Carles Boix and Susan Stokes. Oxford.
Alexander L. George and Andrew Bennett. 2005. Chapter 10, from Case Studies and
Theory Development in the Social Sciences . MIT
James Mahoney and Gary Goertz. 2006. A Tale of Two Cultures: Contrasting
Quantitative and Qualitative Research. Political Analysis 14: 227-49.
Andrew Bennet and Colin Elman. 2006. Qualitative Research: Recent developments in
Case Study Methods. Annual Review of Political Science 9: 455-76.
James Mahoney. 2007. Qualitative Methodology and Comparative Politics. Comparative
Political Studies 2007; 40 (2): 122-44
Due: Abstract and outline of final paper
April 25. Contributions of qualitative field research to social science II
Andrew Bennett and Colin Elman. 2006. Complex Causal Relations and Case Study
Methods: The Example of Path Dependence. Political Analysis 14: 250-267.
Henry E. Brady and David Collier. 2004. Chapters 8, 12 and 13 of Rethinking Social
Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards . Rowman & Littlefield
Nathaniel Beck. 2006. Is Causal-Process Observation an Oxymoron? Political Analysis
14: 347-52.
Henry E. Brady, David Collier, and Jason Seawright. 2006. Toward a Pluralistic Vision of Methodology. Political Analysis 14: 353-68.
Recommended:
Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry:
Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research . Princeton.

Robert Adcock and David Collier. 2001. Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for
Qualitative and Quantitative Research. APSR 95(3): 529-46.
Jeff Goodwin and Ruth Horowitz. 2002. Introduction: The Methodological Strengths an
Dilemmas of Qualitative Sociology. Qualitative Sociology 25(1): 33 - 47.
Michael Burawoy. 1998. The Extended Case Method. Sociological Theory 16(1): 4-33.
Robert Aunger. 1995. On Ethnography: Storytelling or Science? Current Anthropology
36 (1): 97-130.
David A. Snow, Calvin Morrill, and Leon Anderson. 2003. Elaborating analytic ethnography. Linking fieldwork and theory. Ethnography 42(2): 181-200.
April 28 (Monday). Conclusion. Analyzing qualitative data
John Lofland, David Snow, Leon Anderson and Lyn Lofland. 2006. Chapter 9 of
Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis.
. Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth.
H. Russell Bernard. 2002. Skim Chapters 16, 17 and 18 of Research Methods in
Anthropology. Qualitative and Quantitative approaches, 3 rd edition, 427 - 39. Altamira
Press.
Recommended
Gery W. Ryan and H. Russell Bernard. 2003. Data Management and Analysis
Methods. In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. Collecting and
Interpreting Qualitative Materials. 259-309. Sage.
Robert M. Emerson, Rachel I. Fretz, Linda L. Shaw. 1995. Chapter 6 of Writing
Ethnographic Fieldnotes.
Herbert J. Rubin and Irene S. Rubin. 2005. Chapters 10 and 11 of Qualitative
Interviewing. The Art of Hearing Data , second edition. Sage.
Wendy D. Roth and Jal D. Mehta. 2002. The Rashomon Effect. Combining
Positivist and Interpretivist Approaches in the Analysis of Contested Events.
Sociological Methods and Research 31(2): 131-73.
Daniel Dohan and Martín Sánchez-Jankowski. 1998. Using Computers to
Analyze Ethnographic Field Data: Theoretical and Practical Consideration.
Annual Review of Sociology 24: 477-98.
Timothy Wickham-Crowley. 1989. Understanding Failed Revolution in El
Salvador: A Comparative Analysis of Regime Types and Social Structures.
Politics and Society 17(4): 511-537. [Boolean analysis]

David Smilde. 2005. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Conversion to
Venezuelan Evangelicalism: How Networks Matter. American Journal of
Sociology 111(3): 757-96. [Boolean analysis]
Symposium: Discourse and Content Analysis. 2004. Qualitative Methods
Newsletter. APSA. 2(1): 15 - 39.
Paper due May 9 th .

Additional Resources: on Method
Robert Aunger. 1994. Sources of variation in ethnographic interview data: Food avoidance in the
Ituri forest, Zaire. Ethnology 33: 65-99
Howard Becker. 1998. Tricks of the Trade . Chicago
Pam Bell. 2001. The ethics of conducting psychiatric research in war-torn societies. In Marie
Smyth and Gillian Robinson. 2001. Researching Violently Divided Societies. Ethical and
Methodological Issues. UN University Press and Pluto Press.
Donald Campbell. 1966. “Can We Overcome Worldview Incommensurability/Relativity in
Trying to Understand the Other?” In Ethnography and Human Development.
M. Clark. 1975. Survival in the field: implications of personal experience in field work. Theory and Society 2: 63-94.
Clifford Christians. 2001. Ethics and Politics in Qualitative Research.
David Collier. 1999. Data, Field Work, and Extracting New Ideas at Close Range. APSA-CP
Newsletter (Winter): 1-6.
David Collier and James Mahoney. 1996. Insights and Pitfalls: Selection Bias In Qualitative
Research. World Politics 49: 56-91.
Carolyn Ellis. 1995. Emotional and ethical quagmires in returning to the field. Journal of
Contemporary Ethnography 24(1): 68-98.
Sjoerd R Jaarsma, ed., 2002. Handle with Care. Ownership and Control of Ethnographic
Materials.
Pittsburgh.
Jack Katz. 1983. A Theory of Qualitative Methodology: The Social System in Analytic
Fieldwork. In Robert Emerson, Contemporary Field Research .
Evan S. Lieberman. 2005. Nested Analysis as a Mixed-Method Strategy for Comparative
Research. American Political Science Review 99 (3): 435-52.
John Lofland. 1975. Field Notes. In George H. Lewis, ed., Fist-Fights in the Kitchen: Manners and Methods in Social Research , pp. 299-308. Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing
Company.
James Mahoney. 2000. Strategies of Causal Inference in Small-N Analysis.
Sociological
Methods and Research 28(4): 387-424

David Morgan. 1997. Focus Groups as Qualitative Research , 2 nd
ed. Newbury Park.
Jon Van Mannen. 1988. Tales of the Field
Wendy D. Roth and Jal D. Mehta. 2002. The Rashomon Effect. Combining Positivist and
Interpretivist Approaches in the Analysis of Contested Events. Sociological Methods and
Research 31(2): 131-73.
Richard Snyder. 2006. Chapter 1, The Human Dimension of Comparative Research. In Gerardo
L. Munck and Richard Snyder. Passion Craft and Method in Comparative Politics. Johns
Hopkins.
Ann Swidler. 1986. Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies. American Sociological Review
51: 273-86.
John K. Watters and Patrick Biernacki. 1989. Targeted Sampling: Options for the Study of
Hidden Populations. Social Problems 36)4): 416 - 30,
Robert S. Weiss. 1994. Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview
Studies . Free Press
Additional Resources: Ethnographies
Principally participant observation
Burawoy, Michael. Manufacturing Consent
Anderson, Elijah. A Place on the Corner
Anderson, Elijah . Code of the Street
Cuneo. The Smoke of Satan [on ultra conservative Catholics]
Clifford Geertz. Islam Observed [on contrasting Islam in Morocco and Indonesia]
Participant observation and interviews
Baggett, Jerome. Private Homes, Public Religion [on Habitat for Humanity.]
Dunier, Mitchell. Sidewalk , especially appendix
Dunier, Mitchell. Slim's Table

Auyero, Javier. Poor People's Politics: Peronist Survival Networks and the Legacy of
Evita . Duke
Principally interviews
Scott Straus . Forthcoming. The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda .
Cornell University Press. Interviews with prisoners convicted of genocide, field research in 5 villages, including interviews about local history
Eliasoph, Nina. Avoiding Politics . [on how the apolitical quality of US mass culture is constructed, not a “natural” state]
Nepstead, Sharon. Conviction of the Soul . [on Central American peace movement in US]
Lichterman, Paul. Search for Political Community [comparative environmental movements] or Elusive Togetherness [on what undermines civic life, and the weaknesses of social capital explanations]. Both culturalist accounts of politics
Combining survey, participant observation and interviews
Dohan, Daniel. The Price of Poverty: Money, Work, and Culture in the Mexican
American Barrio . Univ of California Press
Steven Wilkinson. Votes and Violence . CUP about 2003. On communal violence in India, combines analysis of database he compiled, field research in 1 province, etc.
Multi-sited works
Deborah J. Yashar. 2005. Contesting Citizenship in Latin America . nice example of multi-sited work. draws largely on interviews, some observation of meetings, strong exemplar of qualitative data to good argument, excellent comparative design.
Richard Snyder. 2001. Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico . Cambridge.
Elisabeth J. Wood. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador.
Cambridge
Excellent use of qualitative data
Laitin, David. Hegemony and Culture
Gould, Roger V. 1995. Insurgent identities: class, community, and protest in Paris from
1848 to the Commune . Chicago, University of Chicago Press.