Since ethnography is the study of people and cultures, it is important to be able to observe people in depth to obtain full comprehension of people’s actions and motives behind them. While this benefits from long term studies, as people’s behaviors have specific patterns over time, the length of the study is not what makes it successful, as Pink and Morgan point out. Long term studies allow ethnographers to see changes over time, but the process can be uneventful when they must wait to see action. However, short term studies can be equally as effective through deeper participant studies and focus on details.
This article was especially helpful as a guide for how to make good observations for our future field study at Shanghai fabric wholesale markets, in which we only have a couple hours to obtain data. In this extremely short term study, it is important for me to have focus and drive to make note of specific details, which will help me make conclusions for the question at hand. With only a tiny window to observe how the fabric markets operate, simply observing may not be enough to get a comprehensive understanding of how they function. As the article said, it may require being more assertive and asking vendors and customers about their choices in order to make sound conclusions. Additionally, our smartphones will serve as important tools for us to record data and the environment, so that we will be able to look back at the media and re-engage with the subject. This will aid in pointing out smaller details and making additional observations that were missed when we were there in person. However, consent from vendors and customers to make recordings may hinder our ability to make use of these techniques. Nonetheless, Pink and Morgan’s article shows that if we have the focus to observe and implicate ourselves in the middle of the action, we can still have a good study in this short amount of time.