Methods in Context: Overt Participant Observation

For some reason I thought I’d already blogged this document, but it seems I’d put it on the Sociology Central web site but not here.

To rectify the omission, therefore, this document uses Sudhir Venkatesh’s “Gang Leader For a Day” study as the basis for an outline and evaluation – the advantages and disadvantages – of the following key methodological concepts in overt participant observation:

Access.
Recording Data.
Validity.
Depth and Detail.
Going Native.
Observer Effect.