Participant Observation - Research Project

ACTION:[1] Sit in a strategic spot at a major well trafficked intersection near the location of your church. You will be doing a statistical survey of the people you can see who are using that intersection. Select a criterion you wish to study. Some examples are:

·         Pedestrian vs. car movement;

·         Types and number of pedestrians whom you see walking in the busiest part of the square (age, race, nationality, etc.),

·         Include in your analysis reference to the gender, age, ethnic type, of the people you see. Record whether they are in clusters and how large the clusters are. What kind of dress they are wearing, if uniforms (what kind), evening wear? Are the carrying parcels? In what direction are they walking? Why?

·         What types of people—and how many—shop at specific stores on a corner, etc.

·         Also record any idiosyncratic behavior.

·         Include reference to at least 200 people in your composite. (See the Tally Sheet in the Appendix).

Sit back and soak in the scene before you. Watch the people. Who did you see in the square? What are they feeling? Let them speak to you. Reflect on what you observed.

·         Did the people concentrations in the square differ at all with the census demographics for this zip code?

·         Was there anything I observed, that might help my church to reconnect?

·         Was there any place where people would stop, relax, and have conversation with people from complex culture? Starbucks? Sports Bar? Pub? Where might Jesus be found?

Is there another square where you can do the same thing? If not, choose a different set of criteria, and do the same exercise over again. Concentrate on the new criteria. You will be astounded at how much more you will see.

REFLECTION: Here is one example of what you might find. One of my students spent two hours at the corner of 3^rd and Vermont Streets in Los Angeles. Third Street goes East and West; East goes into downtown LA, and West into Beverly Hills. She sat at a bus stop, and observed the human traffic on both sides of 3^rd Street from 5:00pm to 6:30pm.

The first thing she noticed was the bus passengers on both sides of the street. Those getting off on the East-bound bus often wore various sorts of uniforms. Those disembarking on the West-bound bus, most often wore the attire of professionals.

She then checked the signage (billboards, light post advertising, literature vending machines, etc.) in the Beverly Hills direction, and saw that it included ads for things like Avian water, theater, luxury cars, etc.. In the direction toward downtown, the ads were for products like movies, cigarettes, beer, etc..

The most important question when doing this kind of exercise is, “Why?” Why the clothing, why the signs, why in these specific directions? To answer these questions, one needs to know that there is a large working-class neighborhood between this intersection and downtown. Armed with this information, one can conclude that the professionals are heading home to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Those traveling in the opposite direction are trade people, domestics, housekeeping, drivers, and other hard-working people.

The advertising people have done their homework, and are suggesting the kinds of beverage and evening entertainment each of the passengers should enjoy. It is interesting to note that stereotypes and politically incorrect activity is part of the advertising and marketing techniques. Yet, no one seems to notice.

Next, my student noticed that there were two supermarkets on the corners, one on each side of 3^rd Street. The store on the side heading toward Beverly Hills was more upscale. The store on the side heading for downtown catered to their working-class customers. Each of the supermarkets was perfectly situated to serve its respective customers.

Neither of the two groups seemed aware of what was happening. It was just part of their everyday routine. My student, however, discovered two worlds, separated from each other by the centerline of 3rd Avenue. They were passing each other in the late afternoon on their way home from work. They were so close, yet so far from each other. And it was all happening right on the front step of the church.

Where else might you look to discover another dynamic of your community?

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[1] Adapted from: J. Timothy Kauffman. Reconnecting the Church: Finding Our Place in Complex Culture. Bloomingdale, IN: Xlibris, 2010.

Participant Observation

Participant observation is a research strategy using a range of procedures to gain a familiarity with a specific group of individuals or event. The purpose is to understand the practices of these groups through intensive involvement with them in their normal environment. The method originated in field work of social anthropologists, especially Bronislaw Malinowski and his students in Britain, the students of Franz Boas in the U.S., and in the urban research of the Chicago School of sociology founded by Robert Park.

History and Development

Participant observation has its roots in anthropology and is attributed to Frank Hamilton Cushing in the later part of the 19^th century. From there it emerged as the principal approach to studying cultures by anthropologists. It helped researchers cultivate personal relationships with local informants in order to learn about a culture, by observing and participating in the social life of a group.

The Method and Practice

Participant observation will usually involve a range of methods: direct observation of a specific human activity, activity analysis, participation in the life of the group, self-analysis, etc.

It has been used in many different contexts: in tribal situations, in small towns, and in the largest cities. When used in the city, the purpose is to gain an understanding of specific segments of societal activity, or specific communities. It can be used over just about any period of time. Shorter periods of contact can bring understanding, but longer exposure yields more reliable results.

For example, by observing, one can gain understanding when participating in a scripted event like a religious service, a court room, or a public gathering. There are many different components to any human activity:

1.      The use of symbols (On the walls, in the liturgy, on the platform, in the architecture? Always ask the question, “Why?”),

2.      Aspects of ceremonialism (time of day – specialized personnel – special objects.)

3.      The human dimension (attendance – relative numbers of men, women, adults, children, people of color, whites, etc.) Apply the same criteria to the observable leadership.

4.      The use of time (How much time is being spent on the various facets of the worship service? Why? What time of day? )

5.      The use of space (How is the room arranged? The furniture? Are there any barriers? What kinds of raised areas exist, how are they arranged, and what happens at each level? Why?)

6.      The makeup, attitudes and emotions of the participants (What is the age, ethnicity, gender of the participants? What kind of behavior, or body postures, do you observe during the various aspects of the service? Why?)

7.      The use of language (Are specialized words being used? What is scripted, and what is extemporaneous? A foreign language? What do they mean?)

Non-Scripted Contexts

Another way to use participant observation is to study contexts that are not scripted. Some examples would be: observing and recording the flow of people and traffic on a busy street corner in your city or town; or counting and categorizing the people, at different times of the day, who frequent a major intersection near your church building. Such observations would include the recording of various kinds of data, such as:

1.      The people who frequent the intersection (approximation of age, gender, ethnicity, etc.).

2.      The direction of their movement (where are they going, what side of the street are they).

3.      The signage (billboards, signs, newspaper and literature vending machines, flyers on light posts, symbols, memorials, water fountains, etc.). What are the messages? Who will be seeing them?

4.      The businesses located there (what kind of businesses are they, who goes into them, what clientele do they cater to).

5.      The direction and the ridership of the public transportation (what is the destination in both directions). Who uses the public transportation?

Look for patterns in the kinds of people and their movements.

Demographics - Action-Reflection Project

ACTION:

Examine with your congregation the demographics of the community you consider your area of ministry. You should be able to find demographic resources available in several formats and in several places.

The Bureau of Census has a website that is available to all free of charge: http://www.census.gov. Here you can get the least expensive and most comprehensive information by census tract, zip code, town, city or state. You need a little patience, at first experimenting with various options at one’s disposal. The census data is displayed either in city, suburb, town, or census-tract figures. You can copy the list and paste it into your word processor. As you examine the list of categories, decide which of them best inform you about your community.

Many denominations have research departments that will send out demographic work-ups of specific radii surrounding your church. All you need to do is to call and request the material, or do it online.

Here are a few additional resources:

There are companies, like GeoLytics, Inc. (Google demographics), who offer demographic services for a fee. These companies are able to give you the traditional numbers and percentages of various ethnic/age/economic groups living within one, two, and three miles of a church. In addition, they also provide a wide range of probable lifestyles which offer two pieces of information: a) you can use to match up the lifestyles of the church with those of the community, or b) to add to your information concerning what the needs of the community might be. If you have the option of acquiring this feature, it would be worth the expense of getting it. This feature adds an additional later of interpretive value. The table below gives some additional examples of where one might find information.

Many main libraries have books of demographic projections, for business use. Here you would have to do a lot of the extracting and interpreting of the data on your own.

REFLECTION:

You now have some significant data before you. There are several categories of people who live within the sphere of your church’s ministry. First of all, reflect on the demographic makeup of your church. Does your church reflect the demographics of your community: a) ethnicity (race and/or culture), b) age and family make-up, c) class, d) lifestyle, etc.? If not, how does it differ? What do those differences mean for the continued ministry of your church?

Cultures – There are cultures that are living in your survey’s radius. How large are their communities? Are they recent immigrants? To what extent are they churched? Reflect on how your church might serve them—plant a church in their language, begin ESL classes, etc.

Lifestyles – If you purchased demographic data from a company, you were likely given a list of at least a dozen, lifestyle groups living in your survey’s radius. The company has used the census data and the information such as age, income, marital status, number of children, the age of the children, etc., to deduce certain lifestyle tendencies. Reflect on each of these lifestyles. Are they compatible with the lifestyles of the people in your church? What would their needs be? How might your church serve them? What does your church has to offer?

Demographics

Demography is the statistical study of living human populations. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic living population, i.e., one that changes over time or space. It encompasses the study of the size, structure, and distribution of these populations, and spatial and/or temporal changes in them in response to birth, migration, aging, income, housing, ethnicity (race and culture), religion, education, death, etc.

Demographic analysis can be applied to whole societies, communities, even institutions like a local church. Demography is usually considered a field of sociology. However, in order to fully understand the ministry context in complex culture, both anthropological and sociological research tools are essential. Demographics help to give us an overview of the particular complexities of the community where any single local church is ministering. Each ministry context has its own specific mixture and density of cultural factors. Each church has its own unique place with its own singular ministry challenges.

Data and Methods

There are two types of data collection — direct and indirect — with several different methods of each type. Indirect methods are used where complete data are not available. Therefore, we will address briefly only the direct method.

Direct data come from vital statistics registries that track all births and deaths as well as certain changes in legal status such as marriage, divorce, and migration (registration of place of residence). In developed countries with good registration systems (such as the United States and much of Europe), registry statistics are the best method for estimating the number of births and deaths.

A census is the other common direct method of collecting demographic data. Demographic thoughts can be traced back to antiquity, and are present in many civilizations and cultures, like Ancient Greece, Rome, India and China. Even in Luke’s gospel we read how Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem was occasioned by a census by Caesar Augustus.

A census is usually conducted by a national government and attempts to enumerate as many people in a country as possible. However, in contrast to vital statistical data, which are typically collected continuously and summarized on an annual basis, a census typically occurs only every 10 years or so. Analyses are usually conducted after a census is taken to estimate how much over or undercounting took place. These compare the gender ratios from the census data to those estimated from natural values and mortality data.

However, a census does more than just count people. It typically collects information about families and households in addition to individual characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, literacy/education, employment status, occupation, home ownership, or geographical location. It may also collect data on migration (place of birth or previous residence), language, religion, nationality (or ethnicity or race), and citizenship. In countries in which the vital registration system may be incomplete, the census is also used as a direct source of information about fertility and mortality; for example the censuses of the People's Republic of China gather information on births and deaths that occurred in the 18 months immediately preceding the census.

For our purposes, we will be using demographics to help us to understand the context in which we are ministering. Beyond that, we want to be on the lookout for areas of need in the community so we can be the hands and feet of Jesus in their midst. For that reason, cultural differences, economic status, age, birth rate, race, educational attainment, religious affiliations and other similar features will be our focus.

You may need to tease out various combinations of the raw data in order to gather information relevant to your project. It is extremely important that you record the demographic data accurately. Include data that is verifiable and precise, so scrupulous results can be drawn. This will help you to be able to repeat it later: a) when it counts in your church, organization or the agency you are working with, and b) if you wish to use your current findings as a baseline for later updated.