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9.4 Conducting ethnographic research 243

information, bad-mouthing others, or trying to manipulate your efforts, you might
want to watch out.
The people who you choose to work closely with should also be those who can
provide good information. Someone who knows few people, doesn't get along with
others, doesn't explain things well, or is unobservant is unlikely to be a good infor-
mant (Agar, 1980) and you probably want to avoid such people.
Even if you find an initial informant—or set of informants—who is trustworthy,
seemingly unbiased, and well respected by a broad spectrum of the group, you might
be well advised to avoid becoming too closely associated with any group members.
You don't want the appearance of close ties with anyone to impair your ability to
work with other group members (Agar, 1980; Angrosino, 2007). This may be easier
said than done.
Whoever you choose to work with, you should remember that these informants
are not necessarily telling you the truth. This is not to say that they're lying—they're
simply giving you their viewpoint. The notion of truth in describing human interac-
tions is more than a bit troublesome. Your job is to use your initial informants to help
you derive questions, build theories, and plan further investigation. As we see below,
you will use subsequent interactions with other group members to help provide a
broader perspective.
Participating in a group can be difficult—you may find that you don't like the
people that you are working with, that you don't have access to the information that
you need, or that you are inappropriately identifying with the subjects of your re-
search. You may also find that you have to work to maintain relationships. A variety
of strategies, including presenting yourself as nonthreatening and acting as if you are
somewhat incompetent and need to be taught about the group that you are studying
(Lofland et al., 2006), can help you convince participants that you are someone to
be trusted.

9.4.5 INTERVIEWING, OBSERVING, ANALYZING, REPEATING,
AND THEORIZING
Ethnographic researchers have developed a variety of theoretical frameworks to
inform their investigations (Angrosino, 2007). Many of these frameworks provide
perspectives on how groups function and how meaning is constructed out of hu-
man relationships. As you go about your ethnographic research, you should always
remember that your job is to create an interpretation of the potentially biased, in-
complete, and somewhat contradictory data points that you collect from talking with
and observing members of the group. The result may not be “the truth” about this
group, but ideally it provides some understanding and explanation of how the group
functions.
Like case studies (Chapter 7), ethnographic studies rely upon multiple data col-
lection techniques to gain a broad perspective, with the hope of triangulating— using
corroborating evidence from multiple perspectives to increase confidence in the
validity of conclusions that are drawn. As with case-study research, ethnographic