Solitary Ethnography, Is It Still Enough?

Ethnography has been widely recognized as the most fundamental part of anthropological work and has been adopted by various disciplines, such as Sociology, Psychology, Economics, and Public Health. Ethnography is a description of the subject of the community being studied through sharing knowledge and experience.

The relationship between anthropology and ethnography itself—anthropological studies are ethnographic or ethnographic studies are anthropologically based—has so far been a very interesting debate among anthropologists regarding issues of knowledge production, ontology, researcher ethics and their involvement, representation, and translation of understanding of cultural differences.

Practice of Knowledge Translation

Further issues regarding ethnography as a practice of knowledge translation, representation systems and writing of knowledge production will be discussed on another occasion. This essay specifically opens up the challenge of elaborating ethnographic research in contributing to the work of knowledge production and understanding in the context of the preparation of programs and policies based on field information carried out in teamwork.

The development of ethnographic anthropological research methods in Indonesia was historically first seriously developed by Koentjaraningrat, the Father of Indonesian Anthropology, by starting a study for his dissertation entitled Anthropological Methods (1958). He dedicated the development of this discipline not through studying a community in a region, but rather compiling a provision of methods to be taught to prospective anthropologists at the various universities he pioneered. I deliberately started the historical excavation from here, because it is very relevant how this discipline was initially developed in Indonesia to be easily applied to applied work in regional development.

I deliberately started the historical excavation from here, because it is very relevant how this discipline was initially developed in Indonesia to be easily applied to applied work in regional development.

Ethnography as a research approach does not actually depend on the length of the research, but an academic attitude to understand a problem or something that is questioned based on context and needs. However, the challenge is how can we manage research with a contextual orientation while being able to adjust the schematic time? How is the process of distributing knowledge within the team as information increases through the team's work?

This essay invites a discussion of the implications of using the chosen research method while being aware of its methodological needs in the context of a project that is limited in time and scheme.

Collective or Collaborative Ethnography?

The work of anthropologists is to make themselves the main instrument of research, namely as the main actor in research design, analysis of findings, conclusion of answers to a problem, to the preparation of recommendations or policies. Anthropologists are required to be able to answer practical needs for intervention, to be able to carry out methodological developments both by modifying classical ethnographic methods and adopting contemporary methodological developments.

To continue to exist in this professional world, anthropologists are inevitably required to be able to develop an ethnographic approach and method that is characterized by having accurate data, easily verifiable analysis results and conclusions, facilitating re-research (continuation), being able to design a panel study (over time), and based on strict scientific credibility.

With the three relations between parts—researchers-subjects-audiences—we are faced with certain agreements to serve humanity in accordance with the profession of anthropology.

So, how do anthropologists need to develop studies and then be able to face changes in the research context that at least refer to three main changes in the context of the anthropology profession, namely the academic environment, market needs, and research subjects? Can ethnographic research be conducted in a relatively short time? What challenges need to be creatively developed in the future regarding methodological developments that can appropriate these needs? How do we collect reliable data on specific research situations and needs, both baseline research, monitoring and evaluation, and social action research in a short time? How can we share understanding, while the diverse capacities of researchers on issues with maximum work, covering a wide area with their respective socio-historical contexts?

It is almost certain that so far efforts are still being made to build and organize a thought towards collective and collaborative work, a spirit that is built in the development of anthropology with openness across disciplines. This spirit is professionally lived in Contemporary Anthropology (Anthropology of the Contemporary) initiated by Paul Rabinow and his friends.

Contemporary Anthropology, which developed from Postmodern Anthropology, critically questions the processes of knowledge production by ethnographers in the field, especially how and to what extent their participatory involvement in finding and recognizing their research subjects. In Stavrianakis's view (2009), the development of Contemporary Anthropology was motivated by a response to dissatisfaction with the 'individual research' model in Anthropology to create an organizational space that has two important implications. First, building collective work on the formation of concepts that are intended to be used for work orientation, dissecting, and compiling data. Second, building evaluation standards in connecting one event to another to build a complete understanding during the information gathering processes.

From this point, we can revive and renew ethnographic studies in Indonesia, especially regarding efforts to condition research management since defining the field and forming a team to build organizational space in the processes of knowledge production and sharing understanding collaboratively.