Understanding Ethnography as a Research Method. Origin,Debates and Indian Context.

In today’s episode on Shodharthi, I sit down with Ganesh Gaigouria, a PhD scholar from the Centre for Political Studies (CPS), JNU, to discuss one of the most influential qualitative research traditions in the social sciences: Ethnography.

This conversation is designed especially for beginners, research scholars, and anyone interested in understanding how ethnography works as both a method and a methodological orientation.
In this video, we discuss:
🔹 What is Ethnography?
A clear explanation of how ethnography focuses on understanding social life from the perspective of the community being studied.

🔹 How Ethnography developed in India
We explore how Indian anthropology, colonial traditions of knowledge, village studies, and postcolonial scholarship shaped the trajectory of ethnographic work in India.

🔹 Main Debates in Ethnographic Methodology
We address important questions such as:
• Can ethnography truly represent the “native” point of view?
•Objectivity vs subjectivity
Positionality, reflexivity, and field ethi
Insider vs outsider researcher
• The politics of writing and representation

🔹 Ethnography as a Study & Research Tool
We talk about participant observation, field notes, immersion, long-term engagement, qualitative data, and narrative construction.

This video will be extremely useful for students preparing for:
• PhD/MPhil coursework
• Research methodology classes
• Fieldwork
• Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science research
• UGC NET JRF
If you enjoy in-depth, critical academic conversations, don’t forget to LIKE, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE. More videos on research methods, political theory, and philosophy are coming soon

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