Category: Sustainable Fashion

There is a common conception about ethnography as a discipline that only involves long research. Nonetheless, short-term ethnography is more and more being used, where people use diverse methods to analyze something in a shorter period of time, but often with more intensity in order to compensate for the shorter time. However, there are many people who criticizes short term ethnography as superficial,  as it might not derive in the same conclusions as long term research because it is less extensive.  The authors of this article are not trying to define the characteristics or methods used in short-term ethnography, but rather try to argue short-term ethnography can be as good as long-term  ethnography.  They conducted a research to try to understand the everyday work of healthcare professionals. In this research both Pink and Morgan were physically involved as they went to the sites to interview and record people working there. This can be opposite to long term ethnography, where researchers observe for longer time withouth getting involved too much. A possible disadvantage I find in this type of research is that they were very intrusive so people working in these places might have described what they do innaccurately or lied about their emotions.  The same could happen when they started to record them as they might have changed their behaviour after knowing they were being recorded.  An interesting remark made by the authors is the use of visuals in short-term ethnography because even though they migh record something for a short period of time, ethnographers can reproduce this recording multiple times in order to anaylze it in detail which can have similar results than long-term ethnography.  I think short-term ethnography is not a better but different technique and I think depending on what you are researching about, it might be more useful than using long term ethnography.  

The authors of this piece are defending short-term ethnographic research by detailing the many aspects that make it stand out amongst more traditional ways of doing ethnographic research. They state that many scholars criticize short-term ethnographic research for being too superficial and that it does not account for every layered aspect of people and cultures. However, I believe that they did a great job in explaining why the method is not inferior and why it is being used widely to address contemporary issues.

I’ve always believed that long term ethnographic research and observation are crucial in determining or addressing issues related to culture and humanity because of how intersectional and contextualized these issues can be. Especially when presenting quantitative data, there are risks related to how accurate and non-partisan the outcome can be. However, the authors argue that short-term research can actually be intensive and provide more embodied experience of participants because of scholars’ intervention in observations. The writers also bring up the benefit of not having to seek apprenticeship when observing highly technical fields of study. Rather, they believe that having detail oriented observations can lead to an alternative conclusion. With the usage of social media and the internet, the writers also state that a long lasting relationship can be formed and maintained throughout the study and beyond.

Clearly, all the points provided above show how effective short-term ethnographic research can be. But I am not convinced that they will replace pre-existing methods of long-term research. While having intensive observations can be a source of more in depth experiences, the possibility of participants willing to form such bonds is uncertain. It can rather go the opposite direction and seem too intrusive for the study subjects. Also, there is the possibility that participatory observations can have more bias. Clearly, the inaccuracies and partiality of short-term research are inevitable but combining these two methods in ethnographic research can bring about interesting findings. But overall, I think that the authors did a great job in presenting their arguments for why short-term ethnographic research is on the rise and why people shouldn’t overlook its potential to bring different perspective to research.

Sophie Woodward talks about the accidental sustainability that people practice through the purchase, wear, and storage of clothing items. She says that the practice of sustainability and fashion are inherently embedded in cultures and an ethnographic study of many different spheres in life can allow us to come to design practices that are applicable in our society.

I thought that her piece was quite relevant to the growing discussion among the proponents of slow fashion. Young designers in the fashion industry are slowly trying to step away from prioritizing mass production and economic gains by introducing more innovative methods to create high quality and price sensible clothing. Also, there are cultural practices like the ‘salaula’ in Zambia where people make use of second hand clothing or off the rack items from department stores. Many trends like vintage shopping are taking over in many parts of the world, all going against the traditional fast fashion practices in the 20th century.

I believe that with the need to pave the way for a sustainable future and to satiate a more ethically conscious consumer base, fashion designers should focus more attention on ethnographic research like Woodward suggests to induce buyers to practice purposeful sustainability. This research will not only benefit the consumer base by making them more aware of pressing issues related to the environment, but also build up brand reputation and status.