Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow:  The Art and Science of Ethnography

Text:  Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design by John W. Creswell

     Must everything be done in reaction to something?  Can one not make a decision about life style based simply on one’s observations of right and wrong, ethical or unethical?  Is it necessary to cross an X on the hand to let someone know how you will behave?

     Ross Haenfler’s (2004) technique was lengthy and detailed. His data gathering technique shows beautifully the circle of interrelated activities that best represents the qualitative research process.  Ethnography in its best form engages in activities that go far beyond the gathering of data.  His study of the sXers was a longitudinal study.

1.      He used 60 sXers locally and another 30 sXe and non-sXe acquaintance associated with the hardcore scene (metropolitan). 

2.      Interaction occurred at hardcore shows and socializing. 

3.      For supplementary material, unstructured, in-depth interviews, 17 men and 11 women aged 17-30.

4.      For variety, he used old and new adherents, central or peripheral to life experience.

5.      Interviews were unstructured and free from disturbances, organized around themes, but flexible.

6.      He was able to cross-correlate in order to re-examine results because of large numbers of participants, and a wide variety of experience to view how participants’ actions differed from their stated objectives. 

7.      He consciously distanced himself from setting to maintain a critical outlook.

8.       He used a variety of sources including scenes from other cities.

     He obviously considered the multiple phases of gathering data that extend beyond a reference point considered typical of observation and interviews.  He committed himself to studying and being more than an observer of the movement, partly because he did not want to fall prey to the “cool” behavior of his relatives and friends.  During the years between 1989 and 2001, he was fascinated by the subculture.  He developed a description of and shared patterns of a culture-sharing group, a different method, of course, than developing a theory or understanding a lived experience or exploring a life experience. 

As in narrative, phenomenology, and grounded theory study, he created and organized files, created codes.  Differently, he described the case and contents, looked for themes and patterns, used direct interpretation, and presented an in-depth picture of the case.  As in phenomenology, he used tables and figures.  As is used in the narrative method, he presented a narrative, but used the figures to augment, whereas the narrative method focused on general and unique features of the life.  He states that he “reconceptualizes subcultural resistance” (p. 309), and that the individual studies held their own meanings attached to the movement as well as buying in to the collective experiences.  Their experiences were expressed both politically and personally.  Many sXers reported that joining the movement gave then a way to be accepted as members of a group without using.  Does one have “complete control” if one must be accepted as member of a group?  Just another “groupthink”.  One man’s opinion.  Were I to engage in ethnographic research, I would certainly have to distance myself from my personal views, as Mr. Haenfler required himself so to do.  I am a little proud of him, because all of this makes me think of just another cult with all its limitations.  But that is not the point, I am realizing.  It happened.  Let’s report it.  And report it well.  His conclusions are interesting, and give me a report card on the last 20 years of our society. 

     As the study progressed, I interpreted that a spiritual progression had taken place.  It began with human rights and ended with the rights of animals. It was not simply, as I thought initially, “a stylistic reaction to mainstream culture” (p. 329).  While having a complex amalgomy of reactions and philosophies promulgated by sXers, the author seems to feel that the whole was a reaction to the disenchantment, homelessness, and the overall contemporary zeitgeist of cultural disorientation. A subculture reacted to another subculture that was seen as damaging and antihuman.  Who can blame them? Perhaps the age-old process of renewal, regeneration, and evolution of the species is still alive and well.