City Research Online

Professional symmetry in clinically based ethnographic research: an asset or liability?

Scamell, M. ORCID: 0000-0003-2770-0341 Professional symmetry in clinically based ethnographic research: an asset or liability?. .

Abstract

Purpose: To offer methodological reflection on the complexities of being an insider ethnographic health service researcher.

Methods/data: Taking ethnographic fieldnotes that describe an observed episode of midwifery care in a UK-based maternity service, the shared identity between the researcher and research participant will be explored as being at once comfortably shared, while at the same time, a source of pernicious estrangement. The methodological reflections came from a study investigating the work midwives (n32) did, in a range of intra-partum (labour and birth) settings, when making sense of the concept of risk. Data were collected during fieldwork carried out in an NHS maternity service offering intra-partum care in four distinct clinical settings: the home; freestanding midwifery-led units (n2); alongside midwifery-led units (n2); and obstetric-led units (n2). Fieldnotes were compiled over a period of 13 months.

Conclusion: Detailed interrogation of the potential tensions that can arise out of a common identity shared by both the ethnographic researcher and the participant helps to expose some ethical dimensions of insider ethnographic research in clinical health care settings.

Publication Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Additional Information: Copyright the author, 2022.
Publisher Keywords: Ethical inquiry, Ethnography, Critical Theory, Focused Ethnography, Feminist Research
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Departments: School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Midwifery & Radiography
[thumbnail of Internation J Qual.Methods identity paper. pdf.pdf]
Preview
Text - Pre-print
Download (98kB) | Preview

Export

Add to AnyAdd to TwitterAdd to FacebookAdd to LinkedinAdd to PinterestAdd to Email

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

Actions (login required)

Admin Login Admin Login