Membership Roles in Field Research

In settings involving subcultures and deviant groups, the ethnographer must assume an active role in securing the trust of the group, thus becoming a participant in his or her object of study. The choice of role-from detached observer to complete member-affects the types of data used and how the ethnography is written. Drawing upon their own experiences as well as several contemporary ethnographic studies, Patricia and Peter Adler discuss the problems and advantages presented by each level of involvement in group study. Written for both the novice and the professional field researcher, this volume is a superb supplement for research methods courses.
An exciting book that portrays the traditions of social science field work in a creative, enlightening, nondogmatic manner. By maintaining a critical eye towards a priori ipistemological tenets while drawing on diverse examples of research to support each assertion, the Adlers provide both the experienced researcher and the interested novice a valuable assessment of fieldwork and strategies for conducting such research.
–Sociological Inquiry
Written clearly and concisely enough to be used with undergraduates, it offers the more sophisticated reader ideas and concepts that will be useful for further theoretical and empirical investigations of social action.
–Urban Life
Provides[s] numerous examples of good research that will help students better understand what it means to be a qualitative researcher and to use one’s self as a research informant… . Adler and Adler’s sound grasp of the literature provides an excellent history and philosophy of field roles in sociology… . This contribution to qualitative research methodology is a creative synthesis of a large literature.
–Qualitative Studies in Education