Learning from the field : a guide from experience / William Foote Whyte with the collaboration of Kathleen King Whyte.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whyte, William Foote, 1914-2000.

Contributor:

Whyte, Kathleen King.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences--Fieldwork.

Social sciences.

Sociology--Fieldwork.

Sociology.

Participant observation.

Interviewing.

Physical Description:

295 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Beverly Hills : Sage Publications, [1984]

Summary:

The father of field research tells us how he has plied his craft for the past 50 years. William Foote Whyte, in collaboration with his wife. Kathleen, describes the successes -- and failures -- he has had in studying street corner society in Boston, oil companies in Oklahoma and Venezuela, restaurants in Chicago, worker cooperatives in Spain, factories in New York State, and villages in Peru. With the goal of taking readers into the field with him. Whyte discusses and dissects his chief tools -- participant observation and the semistructured interview.

Using case studies as well as personal recollections. Whyte paints a realistic picture of the problems waiting in the field for the researcher. This book is simply a must for both the neophyte and the seasoned social scientist.

Contents:

2. Participant Observation: Rationale and Roles 23

Participant Observer Roles 28

Overt or Covert Research? 30

From Participation to Research 31

3. Planning the Project and Entering the Field 35

Entering the Community 37

The Middletown Studies 38

Yankee City 39

Deep South 40

Street Corner Society 42

Tally's Corner 51

A Place on the Corner 52

Honor and the American Dream 54

Entering the Workplace 56

Participant Observer in Japan 56

Studying Phillips Petroleum Co. 58

Studying Restaurants 60

Access Routes 62

4. Field Relations 65

Formalizing Field Methods 67

Conflicting Group Identifications 70

Passive Informant or Active Collaborator? 72

Motives for Collaborating with the Researcher 78

5. Observational Methods 83

Focus on Structure and Leadership 83

Charting Spatial Relations 85

Classifying and Quantifying Verbal Content 88

Work Flow, Work Stations, and Status 91

Combining Interviewing with Observation 93

Placing Observations in Context 94

6. Interviewing Strategy and Tactics 97

Nature of the Interview 97

Focusing on Events 101

Specifying Process and People 103

Stages in Interviewing 104

Projective Aids to Interviewing 105

Reciprocity or Cash? 108

Studies from a Distance 109

7. Recording, Indexing, and Evaluating Interview Data 113

Recording the Interview 113

Indexing 116

Evaluating Interview Data 119

The Informant's Report of Evaluative Data 121

The Informant's Report of Descriptive Data 124

8. Integrating Methods of Team Research 129

Recognizing the Need for Integration 130

The IEP-Cornell Program 130

Integrating Methods in Comparative Case Studies 131

Focusing Anthropological Research on Behavior and Social Processes 135

On Restudies and Team Research 139

On Managing the Integration of Field Methods 140

The Swiss Cheese Phenomenon 143

Participation Versus Standardization: The 1969 Resurvey 145

Gaining Acceptance for Integration of Methods 147

9. Using History in Social Research 153

The Mantaro Valley 153

The Chancay Valley 156

10. Types of Applied Social Research 163

ASR-1 The Researcher as Professional Expert 164

ASR-2 Research in an Organization Development Framework 165

ASR-3 Participatory Action Research 168

The Norwegian Industrial Democracy Program 168

The Sky River Project 174

Cornell's New Systems of Work and Participation Program 181

The Xerox-Amalgamated Job Preservation Program 185

11. Ethics in Field Research and Publication 193

Relations with Sponsors 194

Relations with Informants and Colleagues 200

Deceptive Practices 206

The Role of the U.S. Researcher in Developing Nations 210

12. Focusing the Study and Analyzing the Data 225

Depth Versus Breadth 226

How Do You Analyze a Case? 228

From Methods and Orienting Theory to Problem Definition 229

Analyzing Anthropological Case Studies 233

Who Goes Union and Why? 234

Why Do Waitresses Cry? 242

From Action to Theory 245

13. From Data Analysis to Reshaping Conceptual Schemes 251

The Myth of the Passive Peasant 251

Integrating Technology and Work with Human Relations 257

14. Science and Styles of Social Research 263

Biology as an Alternative Model 267

On the Importance of Classification 269

On the Evolution of My Work 274

From Orienting Theory to Substantive and Formal Theory 278

Social Inventions as the Next Frontier 282.

Notes:

Bibliography: pages 287-294.

ISBN:

0803921616

OCLC:

10998693