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Wayne Fife - Counting as a Qualitative Method: Grappling with the Reliability Issue in Ethnographic Research

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Wayne Fife Counting as a Qualitative Method: Grappling with the Reliability Issue in Ethnographic Research
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Counting as a Qualitative Method: Grappling with the Reliability Issue in Ethnographic Research: summary, description and annotation

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This book aims to explore counting as an often-overlooked research tool for qualitative projects. Building off of a research method invented by the author in 1986 called counting schedules, this volume provides instruction on how to use counting not only to enhance fieldwork results, but also as a form of analysis for extant field notes, interview results, self-reporting diaries or essays, primary archival material, secondary historical texts, government sources, and other documents and narratives, including fictional work. The author buttresses his discussion of counting schedules with extensive examples from previous fieldwork and research experiences, drawing on three decades of anthropological experience in Canada and the Pacific Islands. Counting as a Qualitative Method provides ethnographic researchers with the answer to the number-one question asked by qualitative and non-qualitative researchers alike: How can a qualitative researcher know his or her results are reliable?

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Wayne Fife Counting as a Qualitative Method Grappling with the Reliability - photo 1
Wayne Fife
Counting as a Qualitative Method
Grappling with the Reliability Issue in Ethnographic Research
Wayne Fife Department of Anthropology Memorial University of Newfoundland St - photo 2
Wayne Fife
Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns, NL, Canada
ISBN 978-3-030-34802-1 e-ISBN 978-3-030-34803-8
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34803-8
The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover pattern Melisa Hasan

This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgments

Earlier field and archival research work in Papua New Guinea, London, England, and on the island of Newfoundland was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship, or a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Standard Research Grant. I thank them for it. I also wish to offer my thanks to the anonymous reviewers of my manuscript and note that I have made use of some of their insightful comments for the improvement of the book. Manuscript review is often a thankless task, but our research fields would be less rich without the selfless work that so many do on behalf of all of us. Special thanks to Mary Al-Sayed, Commissioning Editor for Sociology and Anthropology at Palgrave Macmillan. She has been astonishingly helpful throughout the entire process and displayed unfailing good humor while dealing with what can sometimes be a complicated and frustrating endeavor. My gratitude also to Madison Allums, Editorial Assistant for Sociology, Anthropology, and Psychology at Palgrave Macmillan, who provided thoughtful and very helpful suggestions and guidance while seeing me through the tricky task of final manuscript preparation for publication. And finally, to my wife, the anthropologist Sharon Roseman. Sharon has always been my first reader and is a professional quality editor in her own right. Never afraid to let me know when the content of my writing might be improved and always willing to correct my less than stellar grammar, I rely on her to tell me the truth about my work. This book is dedicated to her, the love of my life.

Contents
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The Author(s) 2020
W. Fife Counting as a Qualitative Method https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34803-8_1
1. The Reliability Issue
Wayne Fife
(1)
Department of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns, NL, Canada
Wayne Fife
Email:
Abstract

This chapter outlines the problem of reliability in ethnographic or qualitative approaches, strongly suggesting that incorporating counting in both the research and analysis stages of projects can help deal with the issue. After discussing several standard ways to check on the reliable gathering of information (e.g. length of study, reflexivity, saturation, and triangulation), the author describes examples from several decades of ethnographic research and makes the case for adding counting as a standard component for all qualitative fieldwork. The author briefly describes why he decided to create counting schedules in order to check on the results of more traditional ethnographic methods, such as interviewing, participant-observation, and self-reporting techniques. An explanation is given for why counting is not to be confused with standard forms of statistical or quantitative research. A case is also made for learning to count for both research and analytical purposes manually, rather than uncritically relying on various forms of Qualitative Data Analysis programs.

Keywords
Qualitative reliability Ethnographic methods Validity Counting
The Problem

A key concern for any kind of ethnographic research is the question of reliability. How can we know when the information we gather through participant -observation, interviews , self-reporting, and other ethnographic research methods is reliable enough to form the basis for a well-tempered portrait of a group of people? How do we take care not to create caricatures out of human beings, or skew our results by relying too heavily on either the words of a few insiders or on our own preconceived notions?

Over the years, a number of qualitative checks have been developed. This is not the place to review them, but I will mention a few for illustrative purposes. One way is to make sure that each important interpretation (e.g. about a marriage pattern, economic practice, or cosmological point of view) has made use of two or more specific methods for gathering information for analysis . That is, we can ask ourselves whether or not the information gathered from interviews aligns with that from observations, researcher participation with self-reporting ? The assumption is that analysis based on two or more sets of data at the same time has a better chance of being reliable than something that is based solely on one method of information gathering. This is often referred to as triangulation (e.g. Fetterman : 113).

An alternative to this is the saturation approach (e.g. Glaser and Strauss : 270). Saturation is reached by building up the bits and pieces of information for a given topic (e.g. naming practices, joking behavior, or a particular religious ritual) until no new information about that practice or belief is forthcoming. Saturation is an ideal and is never fully achieved, but there will be a moment when diminishing returns inform the researcher that it is time to move on to a new topic.

When using either saturation or methodological comparison we have to be sure to include notes about the contradictions and disagreements we find among the various members of a group. Only in this fashion can we properly construct nuanced depictions of disparate ways of lifeeven as they occur within more or less common economic, social, and cultural patterns (e.g. Fetterman : 35).

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