Microcredential komex Ethnography and (Video-)Interaction Analysis

This three-day in-person course introduces ethnographic observation with detailed video interaction analysis, providing participants with practical insights and skills in doing qualitative research. 

What Is This Course About?
This three-day in-person course introduces participants to the procedures, details, and practical challenges of doing ethnomethodological ethnography, i.e., combining ethnographic observation with detailed video analysis. Participants are encouraged to bring their own empirical materials (if available), while the course will also provide opportunities to engage in small participants’ research projects, such as: observations and/or recordings of activities in everyday life and easily accessible institutional contexts (e. g. tourist information, citizens’ office, university cantina). We will cover and reflect hands-on the entire research process: from initial observations, developing research questions, forms of data collection and analysis, different ways of representing findings and empirical materials, as well as sociological writing. Participants will practice analytical reasoning and interpretation, in order to get skilled in assessing and dealing with practical challenges of ethnography and interaction analysis.

Learning Goals
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to

• Have an understanding of central principles of ethnography, ethnomethodology and conversation analysis
• Fundamentally question everyday practices to develop sociological reasoning
• Recognize advantages and limits of analyzing naturally occurring activities
• Get skilled in practices of analyzing various data types
• Theoretically situate and practically reflect their understanding of qualitative methodologies
• Be able to better situate and reflect various research methods, by focusing on the methodological adequacy in regard to the particular empirical phenomena in question.

Assignments for the Course
Short reading assignments before the course and daily assignments (not graded), such as: ethnographic observations, writing a research protocol, transcribing video data, exemplary analysis, methodological reflection.

Schedule

• 09.00-10.30 – Course
• 10.30-11.00 – Break
• 11.00-12.30 – Course
• 12.30-13.30 – Lunch break
• 13.30-14.30 – Course

Recommended Readings for the Course

• Bergmann, Jörg (2010): “Conversation Analysis.” In: In: A Companion to Qualitative Research. Flick, U./Kardorff, E./Steinke, I. (Eds). London a.o.: Sage, 296–202.
• Eisenmann, Clemens/Mitchell, Robert (2022): “Doing Ethnomethodological Ethnography. Moving between Autoethnography and the Phenomenon in ‘Hybrid Studies’ of Taiji, Ballet, and Yoga.” In: Qualitative Research: https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221132956.
• Silverman, David (2001): Interpreting Qualitative Data. Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction. Lodon a.o.: Sage, 159–192

Who Is Your Instructor?
Dr. Frank Oberzaucher is a research associate, senior lecturer for qualitative methods and interaction analysis at the department of Sociology and History/University of Konstanz and managing director of Binational Center of Qualitative Methods of the University of Constanze and the Thurgau University of Teacher Education. He finished his PhD-program at International Graduate School of Sociology in 2012 at Bielefeld University (Germany). Based on audio and video recordings, his thesis analyzes hand-overs and communicative behavior during team interactions and provides an ethnomethodological understanding of ethnography.