Participant Observation and Phased Assertion as Research Strategies in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract

Participant observation is the basic and defining research strategy for cultural anthropologists, a useful tool for building rapport, establishing trust, and gaining an understanding of culture as experienced by its members. This article uses the author's experience working in an Inuit community in Canada to explore another use of participant observation: the acquisition of communicative competence. In small, bounded communities such as those in the Canadian Arctic, the development and display of cultural and communicative competence is necessary to overcome apathy and sometimes hostility toward researchers. Furthermore, establishment of these abilities allows for the use of phased assertion as an interview probe. Phased assertion works not only as a data collection technique, it reinforces communicative competence and improves informant rapport.

Economic Strategies, Community, and Food Networks in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada

“…It is equally important to note that the work with informants was particularly time-consuming and intensive. Because of concern about the accuracy of informants and their recall of food exchanges, informants were engaged much more often than just during the biweekly interviews, which allowed for the use of a technique called "phased assertion" to generate the data (Collings, 2009a). Such engagement was necessary to ensure accuracy and to counteract the tendency to overstate food giving and underestimate food gifts from others.…”

“…430) has been the site and subject of a good deal of social science research on several topics over the last two decades. Significant work has been done on life course development (Condon, 1987(Condon, , 1988(Condon, , 1990aCollings, 2000Collings, , 2001, and other topics include culture change (Condon, 1991(Condon, , 1992(Condon, , 1994Collings, 2005) and subsistence and land use (Usher, 1965;Smith and Wright, 1989;Condon et al, 1995;Collings, 1997;Collings et al, 1998;Collignon, 2006). More recent investigations in Ulukhaktok have examined the impacts of climate change on settlement residents (Pearce et al, 2006(Pearce et al, , 2009(Pearce et al, , 2010Ford et al, 2008).…”

Weathering Changes: Cultivating Local and Traditional Knowledge of Environmental Change in Tr'ondëk Hwëchin Traditional Territory

“…Overly structured interviews may tire out interviewees, who feel that their expertise is not being properly tapped and that they are being asked repetitive or irrelevant questions. In common with other researchers working in northern communities (Cruikshank, 1998;Huntington, 2000;Collings, 2009), the TH Heritage Department has found more success from adapting its interview styles to suit the narrative and conversational nature of TK transmission. As Huntington (2000) has observed, such semistructured interviews allow discussions to flow according to the associations made by the participants, revealing new knowledge in areas of inquiry that the researcher might not have known to ask about.…”

“…The TH Heritage Department has long-term relationships of care with community members. These are generally far deeper and more nuanced than relationships that can be nurtured by university-based researchers, who spend comparatively short times in the community (Fienup-Riordan, 1999;Collings, 2009). The relationships of care nurtured by the Heritage Department exceed the bounds of specific research projects, and in some cases they include kin relationships with knowledge holders.…”

“We Don't Know anything about Whales:” Ecological Knowledge and Ways of Knowing in Ulukhaktok, NT, Canada

“…Participation would also have been inappropriate, as we would take space in an activity to which we could not meaningfully contribute. In the absence of participant observation in hunting activities, we were somewhat hamstrung in our ability to develop an effective interviewing strategy (see Collings 2009).…”