Ethnograph - Science topic

A brilliant literary review is marked by several key elements:

Maria Cristina Bautista, thank you very much!

This is something new for me, thanks, I'm looking into this issue! Very grateful for the idea!

Etnografia, é olhar, ouvir, observar e anotar em detalhes. Se me exigem um método teórico, cito meu capítulo no Gate: "Método de pesquisa qualitativa na obra antropológica de Cãmara Cascudo"

Considering, ethnography demands immersion and embeddedness from the researcher, the first step is to visit the field-site couple of times try to have an understanding of the field, its actors and the gatekeepers. Semi-structured to unstructured interview works best for ethnography. Outline a set of questions that are simple to follow, devoid of repetition, leading questions or double-ended. Prepare an interview guide in conjunction that enables you to wade through the field and tailor your questions in accordance with the actors you stumble upon! In ethnographic interviews, the personality, reliability and approachability of the researcher will propel the interviews. At the same time, there may emerge untoward circumstances that may turn the respondent hostile or reticent. Therefore, although you must have an interview schedule and questionnaire prepared, it is advisable not to scoop it out in the field; instead rely on the flow of the conversation and punctuate the important questions in between. This will make the interviewing cohesive and allow the respondent to be herself (in terms of control over conversation). Remember each respondent is different with her own quirks and personality traits that said, the site, setting, time or other co-actors in the field have bearing on the trajectory of the interview. Hope that helps. In addition you may refer to 'Research Methods in Anthropology' by H. Russell Bernard.

Dear Rabiu Abubakar Sadiq

I believe that three years is not a long time in this situation. I would say it would be good if data could be collected again, at least partially, but it is not strictly necessary. I agree with Deborah J Hilton that, at this point, it is too much work to redo.

Best regards.

No, it would not be an ethnographic study.

Hi Paulo sorry we have closed this survey now and submitted the paper! But thank you for the interest Rachel

Hi Wei Wei... My answer may make you more confused than before, but I see a lot of disconnection that need to be addressed before you proceed with selecting your analysis approach.

I think you need to be clear of your epistemological & ontological position to make your research design more cohesive. I sense a mixture of a lot of positions just by looking at the terms that you use. Terms like ethnography, construction, triangulation, narrative, discourse need epistemological grounding since they can have different meaning or may even be inappropriate for certain positions. Researchers within these fields are very particular and even finicky, so you have to be very careful.

Your view on discourse is also unclear. Do you say discourse because you are analysing 'texts' or discourse as an ideological practice?

Without having a clear position, you will be questioned on your choice of data sources and collection strategy even before going into the analysis. E.g., why do you need to have multiple sources of data? Why ethnographic interview and not other interview methods or qualitative methods?

If you need further guidance/ explanation/ reading materials, please feel free to drop me a message.

This research was developed by Brazilian researchers in the university context of the Covid 19 pandemic. Follow the link:

Thanks Peter, this is really helpful.

Victor Turner's Study of the Endembu and Clifford Geertz's for study on cock fighting.

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Dear Medhavi Gulati,

NVivo is a good package for coding and organizing the narrative data, especially if you have a medium- or large-sized sample.

indeed Ms Mahashweta. very well said.

https://www.spotless.co.uk › insights

Ethnography can help investigate very complicated or critical design challenges. A ... Ethnography was popularised by anthropology, but is used across a wide ... The aim of an ethnographic study within a usability project is to get 'under the ... As discussed above, ethnographic studies do not always require a long

Dear Br. Abdul Razaque,

Salam. Please find the "Guide on how to use Zoom in Qualitative Data Collection" also a related article. Hope these will help you to some extent.

Thank you very much for your insightful and analytical reply.

This list of resources might be of help: https://www.odi.org/publications/16977-primary-data-collection-covid-19-era

I particularly recommend the document edited by Deborah Lupton: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?ts=5e88ae0a#

Dear Raashid Nehal,

Just because Madrasa or remote schools do not have teacher evaluation doesn't necessarily mean that we should begin looking for alternate evaluation systems. This said, I strongly believe the the widely-used norm-based evaluation system needs a complete overhauling since the way schools function these days is vastly different from olden days when the teacher evaluation systems would have worked well. The current evaluation system is still very much same as it was in the time of 'factory-model' school system, a couple of centuries ago. A good teacher was considered to be the one with the right kind of voice, appearance, accuracy, enthusiasm, and warmth, making certain that the children moved through the curriculum.

Teacher evaluation needs to evolve (and is already evolving in some places) from end of the year normative checklists to a more comprehensive, sophisticated, continuous processes wherein it purpose should be more of a developmental process rather than a punitive/reward exercise. the process should be used to enhance teaching and learning practices, improve skills and effectiveness which will, as a result, improve learning and student achievement.

I don't think that it is necessary to move to full-scale ethnography, which is going to be especially difficult in these socially distanced times. Instead, I believe that a combination of in-depth, semi-structured interviewing and thematic analysis would be a good way to study this topic.

eclectic approach is new to me and i personally would love to read about it too. thanks Dr El Sayed. however, what you do does fall under the purview of what an ethnographic research is. you may want to read my chapter on ethnography given below. here i explain ethnographic research from a non-western perspective. hope it helps you with your research journey. Dewan M. (2018) Understanding Ethnography: An ‘Exotic’ Ethnographer’s Perspective. In: Mura P., Khoo-Lattimore C. (eds) Asian Qualitative Research in Tourism. Perspectives on Asian Tourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7491-2_10

I am struggling with the same constraints, although Macao doesn't have new COVID cases for months, and we only had up now 45; no deaths, all cured. Nonetheless, all fieldwork that my students were doing related to heritage research has stopped. I have asked for the cooperation of my colleagues from drama and video-cinema. They have created a kind of live theater that combined with videos tried to mobilize students to simulate their fieldwork. It helps training some observation metholodogies, taking notes, selecting ideas for discussion, but cannot naturally substitite the fieldwork "surprises".

The below link will give you an answer of your question

In general, Ethnography is a qualitative research study focused on cultural identity, norms and behavior, food habits, dance, and singing of the people in the particular community. The Ethnography study in English Language Learning has different ideas that should be analyzed before starting the research because it needs to be checked the groups which are Focus Group Discussion or Key Informants Interview who are Teachers or students, Community elders, retired military ex-servicemen, and church priest, etc.

It is a purely qualitative research study in nature. You have to think about more on qualitative aspects of the study according to your research title.

Abdelkader Mohamed Elsayed many thanks for providing the link. This will certainly help us to further our understanding on ethnographies and ethnographers.

Yes. Nothing prevents the ethnographic researcher to raise some questions and answer those from an “emic” perspective. The important point here is to maintain objectivity. S/he may try to cover up some unpleasant facts relating to her/his community. This is part of the ethnocentric tendency of the researcher. S/he may not report those out of fear of social boycott. If the researcher is bold enough, s/he may face a top situation when her/his research findings (unpleasant ones) are known to the community members. I am one of such victims. So, the researcher must deal the situation carefully. S/he should try to maintain objectivity all through her/his research. All unintended consequences are to be carefully examined by the researcher doing ethnographic research on her/his community.

Why not? Chicken pox is a serious, debilitating disease that may ravage such large populations as are found in India and Sri Lanka. Therefore, any recommendations, including naturopathic treatment with treatment efficacies is a welcome relief

I wonder what your reference point for appropriateness would be? Does it relate back to human-water relations in terms of how water appears to humans? How would we be able to rethink this relational combination by for example taking into consideration the relationship between water and other things, eradicating the intermediary of the human? I am considering reading Hodder´s "Entangled", maybe in his Archeological take, there are some interesting aspects of thinking about water-human relations?

Revered Professor Paul M.W.Hackett,

I am happy to have known that you are writing a Book on Ethnography. I am teaching Ethnography Field Research for Rural Development more than a decade in the Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, Wolaita Sodo University, Ethiopia, East Africa. I will be grateful to you Prof if I will have an opportunity to help you. I would like to know information from you Prof. I went along with my M.Sc. students to have Ethnography Field Survey on Australia funded Carbon Project near to my WSU university.

Regards

M.Senapathy

This book can be useful for your research: Blundell, G., Chippindale, C. & Smith, B.W. (eds). 2010. Seeing and knowing: understanding rock art with and without ethnography.

I think it perfectly makes sense to explore the field ethnographically before conducting a survey and interview study. It will give you a deeper understanding of the field as well as ideas of what matters to participants and what questions to ask. You can also use your ethnographic findings to inductively generate hypotheses for your subsequent research.

Ethnography does not require you to conduct interviews, but you must base your conclusions on the analysis of documents that represent the dominant discourse of the epoch. Your research has as its object a "civilized" society this can easily be obtained from historical documents produced by this society. I suggest you make a scientific cut in your research base and use official documents that represent these toxic speeches: they can be complaints from ordinary people to some body that regulates their profession or even court sentences in difficult cases (favorable and unfavorable). The important thing is to define your object and analyze with this perspective.

Thank you to all academics and researchers for your answers. I really appreciate your insight and advice

There are three factors that determine the size of the confidence interval for a given confidence level:

May be:

Creation of an ambience of speaking English or pracing english in working or study situations

I think yes but without violating the ethical consideration of exploiting children.

Thanks for your input Kathleen M. Adams Samir G Pandya , Maral Babapour

Take a look at Russell Bernard's book on research methods in cultural anthropology. There are a number of ways to think about this and the approach will be related to how you want to present your data. If you want to find patterns, there is some good software that can help with this, such as NUDIST. If you want to present case studies, then simply carefully reading your interviews and looking for important themes in how people construct meaning can be just fine. As Heather noted sample size is not easy to specify. A sample of five may be just fine, or even fewer, if you are presenting case studies and not attempting to generalize from the data. And, as she noted, ethnography is much more complex than simply qualitative interviews--it also tends to take months to conduct an ethnographic study properly.

I would also agree with David. I have used the approach to thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006) and find it helpful and straight forward:

Phase 1: familiarising yourself with your data

Phase 2: generating initial codes

Phase 3: searching for themes

Phase 4: reviewing themes

Phase 5: defining and naming themes

Phase 6: producing the report

Link to the paper where each phase is explained in detail:

please review this article, I hope you will find it useful.

I think of "big data" as wide but very typically very thin -- in this case, "scraping" is a good metaphor, as in "scraping the surface.' In contrast, qualitative methods, and especially enthnography, may be narrow but they go deep.

Yes, ethnography is a systematic, comprehensive and topic oriented approach using observation and participation or particularly participant observation. I think the concept of ethnography as "thick description" as coined by Clifford Geertz is relevant here. Ethnographers can also study their own societies or communities, which might be more challenging than studying other foreign societies.

Esther, I agree overall with your point, but I would not really view 3.5 weeks of fieldwork as ethnography, unless you had significant prior fieldwork experience at the same site. It is certainly fieldwork, and it could be excellent research, but I would not see such a short stay by itself as representing ethnography. The length of time really does matter, because it generates trust and what is called an "experience near" understanding of a context. I don't think you can really get that understanding in only three weeks. This gets back to my earlier post arguing that there is a tendency in many fields to (incorrectly) conflate fieldwork or any form of qualitative research with ethnography. For something to be ethnography it needs to, of course, involve use of ethnographic methods, such as participant observation (as one element), and also time. I see a minimum of 6 months as being necessary for good ethnographic research and it is much better if one spends at least a year at one's field site. Again, that doesn't mean there are not other forms of fieldwork that can be done in shorter time periods and produce very good results--but they are not ethnography.

Hi Leanne,

Sorry for the late reply. I believe Uchendu's contribution can help clarify what you are doing, or better, frame your research with more supporting resources. I'd also recommend this article as it might address some of your concerns. I still believe that your research project may be grounded in an adapted ethnography; or you can call it case study as well, based on participatory fieldwork. Anyway, qualitative methods evolve as per demands and needs of our contemporary society, just take the example of digital ethnography.

Hand coding, NVivo, MAXQDA, CAT (this is free) Atlas.ti.

This is an interesting question. I agree with Ben's comments and would add that when I teach ethnographic methods, we spend a fair amount of time discussing the importance of knowing one's own identity and one's own limitations and how those things might influence safety while collecting data. I do my fieldwork in Japan, where the main safety issues are to look both ways before crossing the street, since they drive on the left (as opposed to Americans on the right), or knowing what to do when the inevitable earthquake happens.

But more seriously, I've been in a couple of situations when I thought my safety might be at risk, but each of those was fairly unusual. There are some general things one can suggest, such as not being alone in someone's house if you don't know them well, so doing interviews or having conversations in public places, but unlike the other two field schools you describe, because ethnographic research involves living people "safety" will look somewhat different depending on the project being pursued. Perhaps you could come up with a list of best practices that help students think about how to be observant and cognizant of potential safety issues. This, of course, also helps them in the practice of becoming more observant in general.

Hi Åshild,

You have raised some important and interesting issues! Yes, there are many challenges as well as possibilities associated with the use of ethnographic research methods to study humanitarianism. One of the challenging issues would be the state or global political power, which is often beyond an ethnographer's ability to observe, record and to analyze. Think about recent Rohingya refugee crisis in Myanmar and in Bangladesh. An ethnographer can observe, record and analyze all the visible violence and suffering of the minority groups of people. However, it can be very difficult for an ordinary ethnographer to get access to many other domains of research where actual power is being exercised, policies are made and implemented to annihilate humanity! Personal safety and security, political threat or many other local, regional or global issues can affect an ethnographer to conduct a comprehensive research on such an issue. Interdisciplinary and collaborative research approaches as well as supports from government and NGOs / research agencies may require facilitating multi-sited ethnographic research on such issues!

Hi Judit,

Thanks so much for your feedback. This was a conference paper that I worked on a bit and had published. Now, I am looking to do a larger project along the same lines.

Who makes decisions? What do they decide? How do they decide?

Dear Soumia Erraji,

Here are some possible questions for your interviews.

-How do you approach culturally-sensitive topics in your class/lecture?

-In which ways do you aim to diversify the readings and literature so as to represent the ethnic backgrounds of your students?

-How do you encourage class participation from students who come from 'passive' learning educational backgrounds?

Field Notes are a data type, so you can analyse it with any Method suited to that kind of data and your research question ... just as you can analyse Interviews with different methods (hermeneutics, grounded theory etc.). It depends on your focus, but you can analyse interviews and observation protocolls/field notes using the grounded theory method (e.g. in the version of Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin).

As further reading on your question I would recommend:

Emerson/Fretz/Shaw (2011): Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes.

but maybe this specialized chapters help too:

Corwin/Clemens (2011): Analysing Fieldnotes. In: Delamont, Sara (Ed.): Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education.

DeWalt/DeWalt (2011): Analysing Fieldnotes. In: DeWalt/DeWalt: Participant Observation.

and more general helpful ressources:

Atkinson et al. (2007): Handbook of Ethnography.

Miles/Huberman/Saladana (2014): Qualitative Data Analysis.

Hi Kerry,

You may want to look at a slim but helpful volume; a golden oldie:

Georges, Robert A. and Michael O. Jones, 1980. People Studying People: The Human Element in Fieldwork. Berkeley, L.A., London: University of California Press.

Good luck with your project.

1. NVivo

2. ATLAS.ti

3. QDA Miner

MSW landfills now report annual tonnage to the EPA via the GHG Reporting Program:

Scroll down to MSW landfills. You can search for the facilities and the file will give you tonnages for each facility.

Alternatively, estimates are provided by the EPA here:

and older reports here:

Many thanks for that suggestion, Carol - RG doesn't seem to let you know when replies have been placed so only just seen.  Cheers,  Andrew

Dear Bagchi,

Try these links

Thank you for your contribution Mary 

Dear Mr. Salim,

I do not think one can give any straight answer to the question  that you asked. I would add that framework for analysis of ethnographic data depends on several factors which are as follows:

1. What are the objectives as well as the topic of your research?

2. How have you collected the ethnographic data? Have you written this in narrative form or the way ethnographers write their field notes?

3. Classification of ethnographic data is possible so that these can be linked with the objectives? and,

4. What purpose your research is going to serve? Is this an academic or applied research.

Finally,  Are you an anthropologist? This is because collection of ethnographic data requires good deal of understanding of methods of collection of ethnographic data as well engagement in the field and the respondents.

I am sorry if i have raised many questions then answering your question but I think these are some essential issues before I can answer your query.

All the best.

SM Alam

Thank you for your answer Ms. Destro!

You are getting to the heart of the issue. These notions of cultural authenticity and objectivity of a photograph permeated the visual arts and cultural theories through the mid-20th century. Today, in our image-saturated social media reality it is more relevant than ever. I have read accounts of Boas' curmudgeonly attitude towards Curtis, but I have yet to see any primary or even secondary sources that researchers have based this on. David, above, identified the members of Roosevelt's committee to review the case, so we should expect there to be some trace in the presidential archives - I'm in touch with them but might need to make a trip to Washington to see this through. 

What words did Boas use to make his case? How did he talk about objectivity, authenticity, and the problems he saw with including a natural setting in a photograph? How did Boas critique the famously doctored images where Curtis removed modern artifacts (e.g. clock) to further his romanticized portrayal of the American Indians? It is one of the earliest and more significant examples of a modern debate over cultural authenticity, fetishization, appropriation, etc.

I'll continue searching for these sources.

Sincerely, Mr. Ted Strauss (I am not a professor :)

Pilar;

Organizational culture and social culture of public institution are not the same but correlated as shown in the attached study.

Best regards,

Debra

Willy,

Art history education should touch upon all types of art from all over the world. More in-depth studies of specific art styles and regions can be offered later, but Art 101 should introduce the student to art in all its forms.

Maybe you should contact Matthias Weinreich, author of We Are Here to Stay” – Pashtun Migrants in the Northern Areas of Pakistan’ (Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2010). I've written a couple of book reviews on his work (see my Academia profile for the publications).  Perhaps he knows colleagues who've done kindred ethnographic migration research on and in India.

Merci Patrice

Je viens de terminer ma thèse et je confirme ce que tu m'écrit: il n'y a vraiment rien sur l'argument.

J'espère que ma thèse puisse stimuler plus d'études sur l'argument, dans le futur (mais je n'en suis pas trop sûr!).

Bonne journée et, une fois de plus, merci d'avoir contribué à ce forum.

mao

Reza,

I did have a fill in the gaps approach yes and validations refreshed over time.I have some references supporting this and was wondering if there were more possibilities to add.

Hi,

you can look at the ethnographic work on Walser of  P.P Viazzo, 1989, Upland Communities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bonjour Pierre et Irène,

Effectivement, les prélèvements organiques recueillis sur les vases (parois int./ext.) donnent souvent d'excellents résultats et permettent de livrer non seulement des informations sur les contenus transportés mais également sur les techniques d'étanchéification dont parle l'auteur ancien Collumelle.

Bien à vous

Catherine

Dear Gianmarco,

In the United States, the most common primitive house-type constructed on the ever-westward-moving frontier (of the European settlement), was built of two log "pens" (rooms) interconnected with a open "breezeway" (all under a single roof-plan), which was often later enclosed (as a wide hallway or third-room) as the pioneer settlers became more established or gained enough wealth to upgrade their early dwellings. This style of house was called the "dog-trot" style (because the settlers' dogs were frequently using this intervening open-space as a place to lounge and shelter themselves). However, it was utilized by the human inhabitants as the common place where many/most domestic chores were usually performed.

There are many books published that deal with history and architecture of the American "dog-trot" [one of the best entitled Texas Log Buildings: a folk architecture, by Professor Terry G. Jordan) ... if you have an intense interest, I may be able to find a PDF of this or one-or-two other good ones I can provide for you from my digital library.

The book is available online, here:

From the original publisher (The University of Texas Press), here:

and, also, very reasonably priced used copies can usually be found on Amazon.

Regards,

Bob

Gianmarco,

Correction: a mortar being concave like a bowl allows the larger grain particles to stay in the center.

 Huckell (A Ground Stone Implement Quarry on the Lower Colorado River, Northwestern Arizona. 1986:9) notes that there were 331 metate preforms found at a quarry site in Arizona. Except for a 3 that were smaller than 31x36 cm and 2 that were larger than 90x100 cm, all fell within a range of 40 to 100 cm long and 25 to 60 cm wide. As you can see by his Figure 4 length vs. width chart, most lengths clustered between about 44 and 70 cm, while widths clustered from about 30 to 50 cm. He says on Page 49 that Mohave informants "suggested that it was not unusual for there to be more than one metate in a given household." Thus they divided the work.

Please refer some articles on virtual communities and you may find answer.

Some time ago I tried to argue that the figures of the kind might mark some border/transitional point where different modes of behaviour switch from one to another. Thus, say, symmetry in the figure of Animal Mistress in Scythian (as well as Greek etc) art with her hands spread apart and holding two minor figures. And - the scenes of the same symmetrical (frontal) figure as giving birth or with the accent at her privates

About Walser in Italy, there are may books edited by Enrico Rizzi, Proceedings of Walser Annual Meetings

Several essays by Pier Paolo Viazzo on Alagna Valsesia

Mantenimento, variazione e morte della lingua nel Walser di Formazza by Silvia Dal Negro

Pomatt : una storia, una comunità, una lingua (formazza) by Angela Bacher

If you mean Ladins, for example:

POTENTIAL FOR CONFLICTS IN AREAS OF ETHNO-LINGUISTIC MINORITIES OF THE EASTERN ALPS (pdf)

The Effects of Amenity Migration on Ethnic Minorities in the Alps Case Study: the Italian Alps (pdf)

CONTACT MODELS AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS IN AN ITALIAN AREA BORDERING ON AUSTRIA (pdf)

Not sure this will be sufficiently critical to your taste you - good luck with your talk!

Cheers,

JP

One obvious possibility is to include both an insider account, and in a separate section, an outsider account.  Some journal reviewers will insist on both insider and outsider views being included in a paper. When I am able, I send my participants a copy of the case summaries for them to review.  These should reflect their viewpoint in their words.  They can offer additions, alterations and deletions at that time.  It is certainly possible to be studying multiple groups in the same setting who do not look at things in the same way.  Some fieldworkers have argued you have to develop a close relationship with a group over a considerable period of time before the researcher really understands where the group is coming from.  Your question leaves the impression you found things you were ill at ease with.  When the views of a group are described from a sympathetic point of view, some people will criticize certain views are "ethical relativism."  These critics obviously want to impose outside standards.  At the same time, there is the problem of "ethnocentrism," where people view their own cultural views as superior, and look down at those of others.  If you plan to report insider views, and critical outsider views, you have to consider what is and is not fair to your participants. Field researchers generally must guard against doing harm to their participants. You could show them the case summaries first to get their feedback in terms of the accuracy of the summaries.  Later, you could show them the other section you evidently have in mind to see what their reaction is.  You never know, you may learn something from their reaction.  You might consider including this reaction.  Without knowing more of the specifics, it is hard for me to say much more.  Good luck with your fieldwork.

You may be interested in an article from my own Phd research http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/pap/2012/00000040/00000003/art00007

Depending upon how one defines 'ethnographical gifts' - the New-York Historical Society has some material pertaining to the dominant classes of American society gifted by Astor. And the Museum of the City of New York holds mainly documentary evidence of the same, including images of the old man himself, but they may have more than that.

Are these publications helpful?

You might also contact Dr De Klerk, The Netherlands Institute of Social Research

(http://www.scp.nl/Organisatie/Alle_medewerkers/Klerk_de_Mirjam. Sent an e-mail via "Stuur een bericht")

Harold.

Thank you for your answer Philipp, and thanks also for enhancing the question.

FLACSO is definitely the starting point, I just find it curious that there is so little information on this process when the attention given to ITT has been enormous. Regarding anthropology on Ecuadorian Amazon, thanks for the two names (they were unfamiliar to me), there is quite a lot (Descola, Rival etc.) to hang on to including the Whittens, but little from the Yasuni area which is currently very interesting. I asked the question because I was and still is to some degree considering the possibility of developing a project for a master thesis on this. However, as there has been quite some scholarly attention towards Yasuni ITT there are a lot of publications of different qualities. Still, the debate appears complex, extremely polarized / politicized and somewhat more fit for a ph.d project which would be a more feasible option. So I will see and figure it out. My last idea which links to the question above was the possibility of doing participant observation with PetroEcuador as they establish themselves on the new camps in Yasuni. I think that could have some fruitful possibilities, and that was the reason I asked about the current progress of the oil extraction in the national park.

Anyway, thank you very much once again, Philipp. We stay in touch.

Regards, 

Gard

I wouldn't call it observation, because you have a static set of text-based data that will not change. So it is the same as analysing historical documents, sets of emails, websites, books or letters. I'd call it document analysis. This is a separate question to what sort of analysis you might choose to use with this data, although you would obviously want to choose a methodology that is suitable for text-based data and related to your research question, such as discourse analysis, content analysis, or narrative analysis.

sorry! I am of no help! all the best

silvia