The ethnographic project is intended to provide you with a firsthand glimpse of the fieldwork experience. This project will convey the complex issues that come into play in the process of doing...

The ethnographic project is intended to provide you with a firsthand glimpse of the fieldwork experience. This project will convey the complex issues that come into play in the process of doing participant-observation. You must choose a field-site, which can be the laundry-mat, a coffee shop, a church, a library, a store, a bank, or any other public space. You must conduct two sessions of at least one to two hours of fieldwork. I suggest that you vary the time and day of your two separate observation periods. When you are conducting participant observation at your field-site, you will record your observations and reflections in a field notebook. There is no page limit to these field-notes, but try to keep them legible since you will be scanning them in to the instructor. You can note the spatial organization of your field-site as well as the different behaviors of people there. I have read more than my fair share of ethnographies about Starbucks, so I have decided that you MAY NOT choose this as a location ;). Set One due. Your final paper must be three to four pages, double-spaced, and typed. In this paper, you will include a brief description of your field-site (1 page). Your paper must have a thesis making one central argument about your field-site. The body of your final paper should be devoted to supporting your central thesis. At some point in your paper, you should also reflect on the process of conducting ethnographic observation. Did anyone react to your presence in the field? What may have surprised you about the behavior you witnessed? How did you feel while doing the observation? What kind of response do you think your observations had on the behaviors observed? The ethnographic project is the signature assignment for the core objectives.