Observation - as a deliberate, organized and systematic form of 'looking' or 'watching' - is integral to all scientific inquiry. It is a process that is guided by rational principles and assumptions, and motivated by an interest in obtaining data on occurrences, events, processes, reactions, forms of conduct and relationships. This collection, drawing together key contributions on observation methods in social research, provides comprehensive coverage of the historical development of observational methods and techniques and offers analytic reflection on the various issues involved in the scientific practice of observation. The volumes demonstrate the rich diversity of observational methods, techniques and associated innovations, as well as providing examples of results obtained by studies now considered to be social science classics. The volumes contain important material concerned with the development and refinement of observational methods, as well as the theoretical and philosophical understandings and assumptions integral to observation as a process. Sources that explore the practical matters involved in the stages of preparing for, engaging in, and analysing observations also feature, along with material from classic studies using observational methods. Finally, in addition to critiques of methods of observation, there are sources responding to recent developments within observational methods which utilise the possibilities afforded by contemporary digital and information technology in creative ways.

Table of Contents:
VOLUME ONE: PART ONE: OBSERVATION: PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE AND ART The Bucket and the Searchlight - Karl Popper Two Theories of Knowledge Revolutions as Changes of World View - Thomas Kuhn Techniques of the Observer - Jonathan Crary Interpretation - William Thompson Observer Effects Seeing and Knowing - Michel Foucault Rules for the Observation of Social Facts - Emile Durkheim Weber′s Verstehen and the History of Qualitative Research - Jennifer Platt The Missing Link The Definitions of Sociology and of Social Action - Max Weber Social Relationships between Contemporaries and Indirect Social Observation - Alfred Sch tz Some Basic Problems of Interpretive Sociology - Alfred Sch tz Unexpected Interactions - Matthias Gross Georg Simmel and the Observation of Nature Scopic Regimes of Modernity - Martin Jay Foucault′s Art of Seeing - John Rajchman PART TWO: REFLECTIONS ON THE PRACTICE OF OBSERVATION Excerpt from The Observation of Savage Peoples - Joseph-Marie baron de Gérando Roles in Sociological Field Observation - Raymond Gold Performing Ethnography and Ethnography of Performance - Paul Atkinson Accounts, Interviews and Observations - Robert Dingwall Observational Fieldwork - Robert Emerson Everett C Hughes and the Development of Fieldwork in Sociology - Jean-Michel Chapoulie The Chicago School and First-Hand Data - Jennifer Platt Mass Observation - Penny Summerfield Social Research or Social Movement? VOLUME TWO: A Problem of Sociological Praxis - Michal Bodemann The Case for Interventive Observation in Fieldwork Benefits of ′Observer Effects′ - Torin Monahan and Jill Fisher Lessons from the Field Can There Be a Feminist Ethnography? - Judith Stacey On Tricky Ground - Linda Tuhiwai Smith Researching the Native in the Age of Uncertainty Ethnographic Showcases, 1870-1930 - Raymond Corbey Why Look at Animals - John Berger PART ONE: ETHICS, RISK AND OBSERVATION Ethical Challenges in Participant Observation - Jun Li A Reflection on Ethnographic Fieldwork The Risk of ′Going Observationalist′ - Robert Labaree Negotiating the Hidden Dilemmas of Being an Insider Participant Observer Informed Consent, Anticipatory Regulation and Ethnographic Practice - Elizabeth Murphy and Robert Dingwall The Art and Politics of Covert Research - David Calvey Doing ′Situated Ethics in the Field Covert Participant Observation - Richard Hilbert On Its Nature and Practice Between Overt and Covert Research - Peter Lugosi Concealment and Disclosure in an Ethnographic Study of a Commercial Hospitality Ethical Covert Research - Paul Spicker Lone Researchers at Sea - Helen Sampson and Michelle Thomas Gender Risk and Responsibility When Is Disguise Justified? Alternatives to Covert Participation Observation - Martin Bulmer A Comment on Disguised Observation in Sociology - Kai Erikson New Jersey: Transaction - Laud Humphreys Controversies Surrounding Laud Humphreys′ Tearoom Trade - Michael Lenza An Unsettling Example of Politics and Power in Methodological Critiques Working in Hostile Environments - Nigel Fielding Dangerous Fieldwork Re-Examined - Pamela Nilan The Question of Researcher Subject Position Doing Participant Observation in a Psychiatric Hospital - Christine Oeye, Anne Karen Bjelland and Aina Skorpen Research Ethics Resumed The Researcher as Hooligan - Geoff Pearson Where ′Participant′ Observation Means Breaking the Law Ethnographic Intimacy - Maria Pérez-y-Pérez and Tony Stanley Thinking through the Ethics of Social Research in Sex Worlds VOLUME THREE PART ONE : PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION The Con Man as a Model Organism - Michael Pettit The Methodological Roots of Erving Goffman′s Dramaturgical Self A Note on Participant Observation - Colin Bell A Contribution to the Theory of Participant Observation - Jiri Kolaja Problems of Inference and Proof in Participant Observation - Howard Becker Part of the Action or ′Going Native′? Learning to Cope with the ′Politics of Integration′ - Duncan Fuller The Participant Observer and ′Over-Rapport′ - S. M. Miller Role Boundaries and Paying Back - Jacqueline Wade ′Switching Hats′ in Participant Observation Deep Play - Clifford Geertz Notes on the Balinese Cockfight Participant Observation as a Tool for Understanding the Field of Safety and Security - Frédéric Diaz Participant Observation in Prison - James Jacobs A Spy, a Shill, a Go-Between or a Sociologist - Susan Murray Unveiling the ′Observer′ in Participant Observer PART TWO: INTERPRETATION AND PRESENTATION OF OBSERVATIONAL DATA On Writing Fieldnotes - Nicholas Wolfinger Collection Strategies and Background Expectancies Thick Description - Clifford Geertz Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture Thinking through Fieldwork - Judith Okely On the Analysis of Observational Data - M. Bloor A Discussion of the Worth and Uses of Inductive Techniques and Respondent Validation The Presentation of Everyday Life - Kenneth Stoddart Some Textual Strategies for ′Adequate Ethnography′ Representation, Legitimation and Auto-Ethnography - Nicholas Holt An Auto-Ethnographic Writing Story PART THREE: OBSERVATIONAL SCREENS: PHOTOGRAPHY, CCTV AND INTERNET Looking Emotionally - Mónica Moreno Figueroa Photography, Racism and Intimacy in Research Using CCTV to Study Visitors in the New Art Gallery, Walsall, U.K. - Ela Beaumont Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication - Angela Garcia et al Ethnography, the Internet, Youth Culture - Brian Wilson Strategies for Examining Social Resistance and ′Online-Offline′ Relationships VOLUME FOUR: PART ONE: OBSERVING WORKPLACES AND WORKERS Social Access in the Workplace - Simon Carmel Are Ethnographers Gossips The Sweat-Shop in Summer - Annie Marion Maclean On Doctor Watching - Sandra Danziger Fieldwork in Medical Settings Two Weeks in Department Stores - Annie Marion Maclean An Observational Study of Shoplifting - Abigail Buckle and David Farrington Glimpses at the Mind of a Waitress - Amy Tanner Extracts from Living the Kitchen Life and Appendix: Ethnography in the Kitchen - Gary Alan Fine PART TWO: STUDYING UP: OBSERVING THE UNOBSERVED Up the Anthropologist - Laura Nader Perspectives Gained from Studying up Ethnography in/of the World System - George Marcus The Emergence of Multisited Ethnography Studying up Revisited - Hugh Gusterson After Method? Ethnography in the Knowledge Economy - David Mills and Richard Ratcliffe Fast Capitalism - Douglas Holmes and George Marcus Para-Ethnography and the Rise of the Symbolic Analyst Anthropology Goes to Wall Street - Karen Ho Researching Police Deviance - Maurice Punch A Personal Encounter with the Limitations and Liabilities of Fieldwork Potential Sources of Observer Bias in Police Observational Data - Richard Spano Observing the Observers - Thomas Kemple and Laura Huey Researching Surveillance and Counter-Surveillance on ′Skid Row′ Whistle-Blower Disclosures and Management Retaliation - Joyce Rothschild and Terence Miethe The Battle to Control Information about Organizational Corruption