Quantitative research has dominated applied litigation research, but it seems to lack the flexibility needed to link pretrial research to ongoing courtroom events. Participant observation is a methodology which seems more suitable for studying the dynamic environment of a trial. A 6-day civil trial is used to evaluate participant observation reports against pretrial survey analysis and trial si...

OBJECTIVE To assess the validity of sexual behaviour data collected from African adolescents using five methods. METHODS 9280 Tanzanian adolescents participated in a biological marker and face to face questionnaire survey and 6079 in an assisted self-completion questionnaire survey; 74 participated in in-depth interviews and 56 person weeks of participant observation were conducted. RESULTS...

The ethnographic, or participant observation, approach to the study of culture originated in anthropology and has been a feature of anthropological and sociological research for over one hundred years. Possibly the earliest example of this approach is the work of Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay, who spent a decade from 1871 to 1882, studying the way of life of the people of the Madong district in New G...

Purpose of this paper This paper examines customers’ participation in the production of commercial hospitality. Drawing on a study of queer consumers (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals), the paper considers the ways in which frequently circulated understandings, or myths, shaped consumers’ actions. The case study is used to highlight previously under examined dimen...

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, diverse sciences grounded in natural history made a virtue of field research that somehow tested scientists' endurance; disciplinary change derived from the premise that witnesses were made reliable by character-molding trials. The turn to the field was a function of structural transformations in various quarters, including (but hardly limited to) g...

BACKGROUND The impact of vertical programs on health systems is a much-debated topic, and more evidence on this complex relationship is needed. This article describes a research protocol developed to assess the relationship between the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, routine immunization, and primary health care in multiple settings. METHODS/DESIGN This protocol was designed as a combina...

OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to assess non-technical aspects of patient safety practices using non-participant observation in different clinical areas. DESIGN Qualitative study using non-participant observation and thematic analysis. SETTING Two eye care units in Uganda. PARTICIPANTS Staff members in each hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A set of observations of patient safety prac...

The study reported here sought to understand the rationales of safer sex practices adopted by newly diagnosed HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM). Guided by a socio-ecological framework, an ethnography was conducted among newly diagnosed HIV-positive MSM. In-depth interviews and participant observation were employed to produce an account of the social and cultural settings that was fai...

Achievements and capabilities influence the self-esteem of skilled adventure athletes. Self-esteem affects individual mental health. Aging commonly reduces adventure capabilities. To avoid loss in self-esteem, aging adventure athletes are forced to adjust their aspirations. Here, I examine this process using participant observation, ethnographic and autoethnographic approaches. The qualitative ...