Ethnography and Grounded Theory Essay Example

This is through identifying the different cues that influence the behavioral patterns of different societies. Moreover, he continues to outline the key elements of ethnography citing the issues of religion, norms, courtesy as well as cultural beliefs among the people as being the key pillars of ethnography in any setting. In his work, (Bell, 2013) describes ethnography as a way of describing the norms as well as the culture of a given group in a scientific manner. He argues that without ethnography, it would be difficult to understand and appreciate the different cultural beliefs in different parts of the world, adding that this is the only sure way of monitoring new and diminishing cultural practices.
Also, Fetterman (2010) outlines religion and customs as the key results of an effective ethnographic process conducted in any cultural set up. He explains this using the primary data collection model; it is easy to monitor and control negative cultural beliefs that are seen to be against social and cultural development. He also brings out auditing as one of the monitoring tools that a society can put in place to ensure an effective outcome of the research. Likewise, Goldman, (2014) in his article brings out the key aspects with regard to the realization of a focused change in societal development. He continues to clarify this in his second chapter of the book. Focusing on the increasing development in the sporting field, the views and brings out ethnography as one of the key influence on the development of either a country or the whole world. Gallagher, (2013) argues that leaders of a community are the key participants that determine the kind of

cultural returns that they would wish to achieve in their communities owing to the fact that they have a responsibility to change their regions.

Ethnography

Ethnography is considered to be an organized examination of people as well as culture. Moreover, this study is often designed in a bid to exploring cultural activities in a given society. In this context, the researcher in most cases is required to observe the society in relation to the subject matter of the study. Additionally, ethnography refers to a method of geographically representing and scripting the culture of a given group of people. The word can then be considered for a double meaning that depend partly on its usage whether unaccountably or as a count noun. In the aspect of presenting empirical information pertinent to human societies and cultures, Ethnography pioneered in the social, biological as well as cultural subdivisions of anthropology. However, it has also increased in popularity in the social sciences in overall and specifically in sociology, history and communication studies. Additionally, a typical holistic study of ethnography involves the examination of ethnic groups, their formation, settlement, composition, religion, characteristics and social. This means that the whole concept of ethnography revolves around the study of human settlement and characteristics.

History of Ethnography

The term ethnography was derived from a Greek term “ethnos” that indicates the meaning of a company, but would later be used to refer to a people or a nation. The other term is “-graphy” means the study field (Street, 2014). Therefore, ethnography study focuses on a wide range of cultural groups and their interaction over time. Moreover, ethnography is more of a qualitative strategy in which the researcher gives

an explanation of the available patterns of behavior, values language and beliefs shares within a group of people.

Study Problem

There is emerging concern over the deteriorating diminish of certain cultural activities majorly due to influence and interaction by other people. Moreover, it is estimated that a larger percentage of the world's cultural beliefs are being washed away by the western way of life. This means that the world is losing important life aspect that had been in existence for generations. Additionally, there is increasing cases of bad cultural beliefs and practices the does not conform to the needs and expectations of human right activism and the quest for social justice. Besides, the issues of gender parity are much enshrines on the aspect of cultural diversity and beliefs making is important to understand the various cultural beliefs.

Besides, there is need to monitor the various ethnic groups and their cultural practices in a bid to determining their conformity with the global human rights and social justice requirements. I doing this, there has to be a study of the various ethnic groups, their language, location and cultural beliefs. This helps in global planning and regional development as it tends to indicate the requirement and needs of those particular people. In fact it is important to note that cultural beliefs and religion have diverse implications on the needs of the people and hence impacting directly on the economic development of any given nation.

To solve this problems, and may more, there is growing global quest to document such cultural beliefs, the people, their location and ways of life. Moreover, this documentation is significant not only for the purposes of history but

also for the purposes of planning, research and learning. This means that the world will now be able to monitor the spread and composition of every ethnic group in a bid to providing proper planning and for all the people irrespective of their country. Most importantly, the world will be able to control human behavior as a way of achieving social justice and equity.

Study Objectives

This paper seeks do determine a given range of phenomena that pertain to ethnography as a topic. To this regard, it has a number of things that it aims to achieve in the end. Additionally, this section presents the objectives that the study aims to achieve in the long-run. These objectives are derived from the problems that the research seeks to find a solution. The research objectives are as presented below:

• To clearly understand the concept of Ethnography and its history in relation to sports community and the cultural diversity.
• The study seeks to determine the difference and relationship between Santos ethnography and grounded ethnography.
• Assess the relationship of ethnography and grounded theory in the modern day societies.
• To assess and determine both the strengths and weaknesses of ethnography in the present day society.

Study Motivation

The main factor that motivated this study topic is the aspect of economic development that has been felt due to certain cultural systems that are unsustainable more so in the developing world. Therefore, an improvement has been seen in the legal programs as well as the diplomatic structures brought about by positive international relations among countries. Consistently, there has been an improvement in the legal frameworks and diplomatic frameworks contributed to the positive bilateral trade relationship between

countries. Additionally, socio-cultural interventions have greatly impacted on the United States economic growth, a factor that has also influenced the domain’s economic worth. Moreover, the social-cultural relationship between world’s economies has played an essential role in refining the legal space. Moreover, the outcomes of this study posed had positive donations to the development of policies and the refinement of the societal educational standards. Apart from policy development, the outcomes give a starting point or a baseline for developing the research topic.

Study Questions

This study focuses on the provision of appropriate answers the contentious questions by analyzing the already existing data and literature. Such data and literature are considered to be of serious importance in order to attain development of the whole economy while taking into considerations the cultural needs. They include:

• What challenges are brought about by culture of in developed and developing countries?
• What are the possible interventions that can be put in place to eradicate bad cultural beliefs?
• What is ethnography and how does it influence economic development?
• What are the implications of the inmate culture and beliefs to global economic development?
• What are the various forms of ethnography, how are they similar or different to each other and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
• What factors have contributed to the changing cultural beliefs globally?

Theoretical Framework

More study on cultural examination has been done pertinent to the developing cultural variations and implications. The mentioned literature has also shown the presence of options that cultural studies may use to improve relations in a healthy manner. Additionally, the improvement is influenced by the various theories which in one way or the other determine the movement of the

strike social warfare and culture. This analysis reveals a peculiar relationship between population, and economic development. Moreover, there is there are existing laws on which the ethnographers have based their studies upon. However, this does not dispute the fact that such laws may be having conflicting information depending on the country at hand. Nonetheless, there are key concepts within which the operations of this study must be bases.

Sustainability

This is a concept that ensures that the proposed project does not jeopardize the ability of both the current and present generations to meet their needs. Additionally, it ensures that the project can be sustained in as much as it should also sustain itself. This means that sustainability must be looked in a wider perspective. First is the financial aspect. It is important to start a project that the financial is able to sustain until it ends. Also it is important to look at sustainability in an environmental manner as well as in terms of technology and human resource.

Integration

Culture influences almost the life of everyone within and at the surrounding either directly or indirectly. This means that any decision made should be in a position to take into consideration the views of a bigger percentage of stakeholders. To this regard there is need for intense public participation forums as a way of collecting information.

Forms of Ehnography

There occur different aspects and forms of ethnography; these include life history, feminist, confessional, Santos, grounded among other ways of collecting cultural information. However, there are two most popular branches of ethnography that I will explore in this study. These include the realist ethnography also known as the Santos ethnography and the critical

one that is always referred to as the grounded ethnography. Moreover, the major cause of this variation is always methodology and the approach made in the study. Realist ethnography refers to a traditional method and approach put in place by cultural anthropologists in a bid to collecting data and analyzing them. This kind of cultural study reflects a one-time instance taken by the researchers in regard to the group being subjected to a study. Besides, this form employs an objective examination of the study area and the situation at hand since its composition takes a third person perspective as it focuses on getting the required information from onsite group members. In this aspect, the ethnographer maintains a wise correspondence nature while considering such actualities that were not present. Additionally, the Santos report data are in most instances affected by political issues as well as these judgment objectives. In this kind of study, the analyst provides a well prepared and comprehensive report citing the day to day lives of the persons under study. In a nutshell, the researcher will kind of develop a daily routine of the study group as a means of monitoring the life of the people.

However, grounded ethnography is a different kind of cultural study in which the researcher spearheads the liberation of the marginalized ethnic groups. Moreover, it is in the grounded ethnography where the operations are majorly political and always portrays an opposition aspect. Furthermore, the significant aspects of a grounded ethnographer to consider a value introduction, authoritatively empowers the people in a bid to challenge status quo. This means that the whole process of a grounded ethnography is focused on

the need to create a unifying factor that will address all the concerns by such ethnic groups that have been marginalized for a long time. Also, it is important to note that in the case of a grounded ethnography, the researcher is always an activist who in most cases comes from the marginalized communities with the view of protecting them.

Grounded Theory

A grounded theory refers to an orderly practice in the social disciplines involving the development of theory by analyzing data. Moreover, this theory involves a research methodology that functions in an almost opposite fashion from social skills research in a positive tradition. Moreover, unlike any other research methodology, a research done in a grounded manner always has the tendency of having a question at the beginning. This question plays a significant role as it provides an objective to the whole research process. Moreover, the objectivity then gives the researcher a framework within which his research should be founded. Nonetheless, it is also important to appreciate that this kind of research includes the coding data as a way of storing information ready for analysis (Tsing, 2011). Additionally grounded concept is a general procedure that involves thinking and conceptualizing data, it also gives focus to the examination of diverse populations especially on matters like after marriage divorce as well as proficient socialization. Also, this kind of theory was established by two social scientists namely; Barney and Strauss whose association in research made tremendous impact more so focusing on their Awareness of dying work that they did in 1965 where they established the continuous comparative methods that would later change to be called the grounded theory. Additionally, grounded

theory method brings together a diverse range of traditions in social science positivity as well as interaction.

Similarities

There are a lot of similarities between the Santos and Grounded forms of ethnography both in the present day and in the traditional aspects of study. Additionally, it is notable that in as much as the two forms of ethnography differs; they tend to have a wide range of similarities due to the fact that they are geared towards the achievement of a particular thing. Moreover, both the Santos and grounded forms of cultural examinations are all geared towards the focus into the various cultural beliefs in a given country or even in the whole globe. In this aspect, it is easy to understand the implications of the two forms of research strategies based on their objectives. To this extent it is also evident that the two strategies are common in their nature of occurrence. This simply means that the two types of ethnography are artificial and are always politically instigated either as a y of monitoring the voting pattern of the people or as a way of easing the planning process in the region. Additionally, the methodology used in the two systems represents a given similarity that many people have not known for a long period of time. In this regard it is also important to take note of the fact that both the Santos as well as the Grounded methods of data collection has financial and economic constraints.

Moreover, it is very expensive to conduct either of the two research systems without a well planned capital out way. Moreover, there are a number of damages that develop as

a result of any party breaching the contract agreement in whatever way. These damages can be in the form of compensatory damages, nominal damages, liquidated damages, punitive damages and cancellation and restitution can also be considered under law. These damages are considered in the event that the breaching party has failed, or has completely shown disregard towards meeting their end of the bargain as expected, since they are party to the agreement. In the case of Santos and grounded cultural examinations, the first red flag is the similarity that traverses the two forms of ethnography. Furthermore, individuals with the complaints are always common in both the two methodologies. Also, the aspect of data collection is a common thing in both the scenarios owing to the fact that the researcher has to make inroads into the communities of interest. It is also notable that in both cases, the researcher gives an economic approach to the whole project even though some may have a political reason for execution. Moreover, in both cases, the aspect of cultural relations is always brought on board as a major contributor to the need for records of such information. This makes the two methodological systems more similar in one way or the other owing to the fact that both of them share one objective. Most importantly, both systems are of significant value to research institutions as they are used as research work and also stored for future reference.

Differences

The two major forms of ethnography also have a wide range of differences in the same measure as their similarities. This means that there are a lot of similar factors that are of great significance

to the undertakings of the operations. First, it is a fact that in the grounded method of cultural examination is more political than it is social, a factor that is making it quite different to the Santos form of ethnography. This is clearly evident in the cultural formula of doing things where the grounded method is often viewed as a political tool meant to control the behavior of the people. Moreover, the Santos ethnography aims at achieving equal human right activism to all individuals irrespective of their social status. It is for this reason, that it helps in clarifying the fact that follow-ups have been done by people as a way of ensuring that their systems of culture take into consideration the significance of effective evaluation on any cultural actions available for everybody who can qualify for the positions and that every citizen has the right to equal opportunity. Additionally, it is also important to note that human rights are observed across the globe and help in maintaining smooth social relationships among communities, a factor that helps spread the precious human power through the globe. Furthermore, justice systems slow down conflict rates among the users of human resource and the inventors. By doing that, the citizens consider focusing on the general interest of the community at the expense of their own personal interests. Conversely, this aspect is only practical in the Santos methodology as compared to the grounded one. Additionally, the two scenarios are different in their way of management. This means that the Santos way is majorly managed from a higher command tower often present at the governmental hierarchy compared to the grounded formula

that is often headed by leaders from within the organization. Besides, contract is a voluntary agreement between two or more parties that is enforceable by law and which is usually considered a legally binding action in grounded system as compared to the Santos method where a given financial obligation is considered. These contracts are most at times very delicate that even the slightest of breaches that may lead to contractual problems may be considered in the grounded cultural examination formula. Furthermore, the two forms of cultural evaluation also differ on their points of focus during the examination process. This is to say that the Santo formula focuses on the language and cultural beliefs while the grounded aspect focuses on the ethnic composition, distribution and population.

Ethnography in Relation to Sports

In relation to sports, ethnography plays a significant role that many have appreciated globally. Moreover, these roles have direct implications on the lives of the people being a critical aspect of socio-economic development. The concern over the implications of such ethnographic methods within the world’s sport science could be having a negative report as the answer. However, if an individual has an interest in looking at these studies, it is advisable to give keen focus on the ones named Ethnography as a way of determining the implications. Looking at the cultural examination approaches in the world's sports science system, it is notable that ethnography exists not as a topic. Originally, ethnography was viewed as a systematic instrument within ethnology and social anthropology. In sports, cultural examination helps in the process of record keeping as well as the ethnic examination on the sport sector as a whole. Moreover,

this process helps the government to know which ethnic groups are largely involved in which sporting activity. This significantly impacts on sports development as well as economic growth. For instance, the distribution of people is taken into consideration with a view to demystifying the sporting activities and bringing them closer to the people. This can only be done if there is an curate information pertinent to the distribution of the ethnic groups and their various social and cultural activities. Also, this examination helps in nurturing children from their young age towards a different sporting activity. In fact, it is possible to know which ethnic groups are naturally interested in a given sporting for example and maintain a close contact with the community to give keen focus to nurturing the young ones.

Moreover, this helps booth educationally and economically. Also, this kind of an examination asserts an equitable development process in a country since the developers have record on all the ethnic groups, their preferences, location as well as population; a factor that is of great significance in a development process. Ethnography also ensures that the values of integrity, truthfulness and transparency takes center stage in any social set up. This is because of it’s a continuous assessment formula that ensures that every citizen is keen on check and has the responsibility of safeguarding the societal resources, values and principles. Furthermore, it is imperative to appreciate that the culture of a people plays major role in shaping its external reputation as well as impacting directly on its economic development process. In this case, the aspect of order and record both in terms of social and political behaviors

is an important phenomenon that needs to be taken into consideration. In terms of sports, cultural examination is a fundamental principle of work that should be evident in any given society at any given time. Moreover, it is a key contributor to sectorial success and provides an avenue for provision of high value and quality services. Additionally, every community must be based on the principle of sport in order to engage well with others in a bid to creating a well-established relationship. Also communities must take in the concept of sports as a way of maintaining its reputation and keeping the checks and balances as a way of ensuring that it remains focused to their social and cultural beliefs.

Strengths

Ethnography has a lot of strengths either from within and outside the community at hand. This is because the topic has a lot of interests from a diverse range of researchers making it a key and central point of interaction. Moreover, Cultural examination has grown stronger over days since it resembles refers a sovereign and organized examination of facts within a community in a bid to following up the operations and maintaining order. Moreover, the whole process of ethnography is geared towards ascertaining the length of a community’s social structure as well as those disclosures that are nonsocial but present an accurate and reasonable vision of the alarm. Additionally, this examination also makes sure that the books of history are maintained in a proper manner being a social and educational requirement (Mosse, 2011). Moreover, it is not limited to the cultural issues within an organization; every subject matter can be subjected to scrutiny as a way of

assessing its viability as well as impact on the development of the community. For the non-cultural matters, the survey is theoretical and involves a cross-examination of the community’s objectives and the achievements. It is important to note that modernization has to some extent impacted negatively on the lives of the people; this is majorly on the eradication of some important cultural believer. However, the benefits that it has come with makes it necessary to collect information and also gives people the urge to give out such information hoping that they will I one way or the other get solutions to their problems.

Additionally, the increasing global literacy rate is also a key strength to the ethnographic surveys in the communities around the world. In fact, this has made many of the communities tolerant to the external forces due to their education status. Professionalism, on the other hand, represents the aspect of qualities, behaviors, competence and skills that are expected to bring physical therapy to a community. Additionally, it is a virtue that has to some extent been inculcated into the community members by the education in as much as the citizens should also uphold it. Besides, professionalism indicates the aspect of working with standards while being in a position to establish ethical reasoning as well as decision-making based on evidence. Moreover, professionalism dictates and determines the manner in which an individual manages certain sensitive material within the organization while taking into account the complex moral and ethical issues. Also, the issues of globalization have given major strengths to the concept as it has brought a lot of people together in a way that sharing information is

easy. Moreover, the use of the internet has seemingly reduced the whole world into a virtual village where people can meet and share information online. This has made it easy for researchers to get information even from where they sit. Besides Transition from traditional to modern society has been a major development to the globe. In most developing countries, this transition is already taking place. However, in the developed world, modernization has come with it a lot of importance that has been impacting positively on the quest to having a proper methodology of collecting cultural information.

Weaknesses

It is evident that alongside the much strength ethnography possesses, there also a lot of weaknesses that come with it. It is evident that not all community members are willing to give information. This is majorly attributed to lack of confidence from the community members especially in cases where the researcher is not a member of their community. Moreover, individuality has been considered as a characteristic of a modern society that is of great importance when discussing the whole process. In the middle ages, individual were more representative of their groups, something that made them the best examples within the family or even to the entire group that was under description. In the middle ages, people clung to their social class where they were born, a factor that made them more inclined and aware of their social and cultural principles. However, things have changed ion the modern life scenario.

Additionally, racism is an important factor that influenced the same transition; racism entails practices that seek to justify the inequality of people based on the difference between their skin colors. In the

United States, racism was an important factor that leads to the call for a revolution, and this was not however evident in the United States only. In Europe, racism leads to wars in the traditional societies, an element that made it very significant in the transition from the traditional to the modern. Racism denied a group of people the chance to take part in decision making or even to enjoy their rights. It became so unbearable until the people had to gang up against the other oppressors in a bid to initiating democratization. Nationalism is another critical factor that influenced the transition; it has been of immense help however many people may not have been abler to expound on it. Nationalism refers to a collective group feeling in the importance of geographical and sometimes based on the population of people seeking independence for their culture; it also involves an ethnic orientation that binds a group of individuals together. In this case, therefore, it is important to understand the different context in which the society has been shaped making it difficult for researchers to cover the ethnic orientation without challenge. Additionally, the aspect of globalization has also had adverse implication to the process of culture examination in a way that it has made a lot of information available some of which cannot be verified. In other words, globalization and the use of the internet have caused a lot of confusion with regard to the authenticity of information.

Recommendations

This topic has a lot of implications to the socio-cultural and the economic development of society. This means that it has to be handled with care in a manner that

develops the society without many questions. To this regard, there are a lot of set recommendations that can be used both on the side if the people, government and even the researchers themselves. Moreover, this is a multi-sectorial thing that requires the interventions of all the relevant stakeholders. First, it is important to prepare a conceptual framework that gives a basis in which models are analyzed after being designed for the purpose of being used for either physical or economic planning of cultural fields (Van Maanen, 2011). Additionally, such models are distinguished by their peculiar characteristics among them; model subject, function, theory and the method of design. Moreover, cultural planning can be done in several ways including designing of urban settlements, promotion of urban growth or ever in the form of a regulation of socio-economic development. However, all these activities must be done in a manner that impacts positively both to the people and to the surrounding areas. This means that in doing this, there is need to observe key concepts and principles that will guide the whole process. The following are the key concepts that may be considered. Nevertheless, the people have to accept the changing economic times and be able to give out certain information either any reservation. This will go a long way in helping the researchers and by extension governments. However, governments also have got the obligation of formulating policies that will guide this process in a bid to maintaining the confidence of the people. Nonetheless, there should be a well laid down procedure that highlights the core values and beliefs of the community in that the members are put in

a position where they really do understand what is expected of them. Each community should be willing to embrace the different working cultures of the people. For instance, the French who major more on rational, analytical approach to decisions should be included in the management of the culture. Additionally, depending on the departments, governments should ensure that the individuals are social groups are coached on different social ethics to ensure that they are in compliance and tandem with the core values of the country.

Conclusion

Successful ethnography has a substantial influence on several aspects of cultural and societal management such as monitoring, control of the cultural practices, sensitization and general social-cultural teachings and research. Globally, ethnography has been considered to be an important methodology of the social behavioral study. The significance of social justice is linked to the functions of ethnography in ensuring both economic and social-cultural interventions of the society to the next generation. According to the analysis, there is an impact of cultural planning on the economic structure and performance of the community-based organization that tends to educate the society. Cultural behavior of the society as determined by the cultural beliefs, norms and religion amount is determined by the ethnography for the societies.
When ethnography and grounded theory are employed separately, they can enhance the ability to understand cultural behaviors and perception to sports. Ethnography provides an in-depth understanding of how a given society may perceive sports and providing their sports motivation in general. Grounded theory, on the other hand, can be used to generate theories of the different cues that influence the behavior of the society towards sport at simultaneously validating the existing theories. When

used together, these two methodologies can generate details and an in-depth level of interpretation that other approaches cannot provide.

References

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