Problem-Solving Ethnography

Ethnographic research is distinctive for its focus on meaningful, everyday action. Suppose we understand that action from a pragmatist point of view. We assume, then, that people are more like tentative experimenters than actors backloaded with stable goals or preferences that continuously drive what they do. That does not mean action is endlessly open-ended or never predictable, but that lines of collective or individual action unfold in relation to yet other lines of action, toward “ends in view” that may evolve--often within limits--but that occasionally transform too. Action over time is a varying mix of habit, instrumental planning and critical reflection. Given these groundings, ethnographers interested in social problem solving can pursue two broad sets of questions less accessible by other modes of research:

First, ethnographic researchers can inquire deeply into the process of social problem solving itself. Rather than assume pre-existing problems, ethnographers discover how and why actors construct social problems as they do. Rather than assume that solutions or improvements will be self-evident successes, ethnographers find that problem solving actors carry different understandings of success and measure success on different, sometimes shifting timelines. Actors promote some definitions of success while dropping others, and scorning, assiduously avoiding or never considering yet others. In all, ethnographers can apprehend how collective or institutional actors pursue social problem solving, from crafting problems to assessing solutions and discovering previously unanticipated problems to solve. The “how,” the process, inevitably shapes the kinds of solutions and their effectiveness for the immediately aggrieved and wider publics too.

Second, ethnographic research opens the study of problem-solving successes or failures to sensitive comparisons that reveal how policies, programs or campaigns satisfy some constituencies, not others. Given our postulates above, we cannot predict in advance exactly how a given solution will play out. But ethnographers can discover the conditions of possibility, the contexts, for the varying success of goals and policies promoted by problem solvers--be they policymakers, professional bodies, social movements, NGOs or other civic organizations. Ethnographic research also enjoys privileged access to the sometimes perplexing meanings and unintended consequences of problem solvers’ programs--the new problems and the heretofore unrecognized opportunities.