SOC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Alice Goffman, Quantitative Research, Participant Observation
Document Summary
Measurable variables: gender, race, age, social class, time poverty, (time poor or not time poor) Gender inequalities and class inequalities in respect to time poverty. Some free time is higher quality than other free time (prime example would be the weekend, when you have free time with others) Qualitative research: understanding the meanings that people attach to their lived experience. Ethnography: technique that involves interpreting the symbolic action of others. The participant observer is always taking notes on how to interpret the language, gestures, etc, within a specific culture. Rich description: when an ethnographer writes up their notes they do so with rich description and use lots of details. Alice goffman wanted to do an ethnography in a video store to observe the tension/interaction between employees and workers (employees thinking they are better than the costumers) Alice failed to get access to do an ethnography there because she didn"t know enough about films.
