En búsqueda de la esencia de la etonografía

Invest. educ. enferm; 21 (2), 2003
Publication year: 2003

In june 16, 2003 Harry Wolcott gave The Bornemouth talk revisited for Medellín lecture. The talk deals with the search for the essence of ethnography and answers the question what makes a study ethnographic? The lecturer in his carreer has identified twelve attributes that can reasonably be expected in a ethnographic report. Therefore ethnography is holistic, comparative, of first-hand experience, conducted in natural setting, requires intimate and long-term acquaintance, is non evaluative, basically descriptive, specific, adaptive, corroborative and finally idiosyncratic and individualistic.All those attributes are discussed in the lecture with the warning that there is no absolute set of attributes. Then he could conclude that anyone can borrow the research techniques, and we all draw our data from everyday experience, both our own and of others. The result is far more likely to produce ethnography when a researcher sets out to create ethnography and has a clear idea of what is involved.