While some critics denounce participant observation as a quixotic approach to coming to grips with the data, the proponents of participant observation celebrate its utility arguing that in comparison to other research methods, participant observation is less likely to be unreliable, biased, or invalid. They claim that the data gathered under such a method is highly likely to be unreliable, invalid, and over-generalized because of “observer bias”, “going native”, and “hearsay” (McCall and Simmons, 1969: 2). Secondly, they say that the researcher has to rely almost entirely on impressionistic interpretation of the information to reach generalizations (Van Krieken et al., 2000). Critics first argue that the people being studied or specific social setting in one way or another are inevitably affected by the presence of the researcher. The use of participant observation has not escaped criticisms. Suffice it to say that it is a method of data collection that takes the researcher into the actual social setting or field enabling him or her to gain first hand experience and understanding of its complexity and inner realities. Participant observation can be defined in various ways. Instead of limiting the research, participant observation helps fulfil the research objective and purpose. Participant observation is not a single method but a complex blend of methods and techniques such as observation, informant interviewing, respondent interviewing, and document analysis employed in researching particular types of subject matter. This in turn helps advance our collective knowledge of social phenomena, improve social interaction, and enhance human social life. In terms of applied sociology, this is very important because, through participant observation, a better understanding of a social world is made possible. Participant observation permits an understanding of the people being studied and their behaviour in direct reference to their own constructs and meanings about their subjective world. In the final analysis, therefore, participant observation attempts to unearth, make accessible, and expose the meanings people assign to their daily lives. The world of everyday life, as perceived from the insider’s perspective, is the quintessential reality to be delineated by participant observation. The world of everyday life is a social construction (Berger and Luckman, 1966) and the conception of reality, by the insiders of this world, is not directly accessible to strangers (Schutz, 1967). People experience social situations as ‘reality’, although they could be mistaken or hold an erroneous belief about it, because it has real consequences (Thomas and Thomas, 1928). On a day-to-day basis people make sense of their subjective world through interaction with each other and the meanings they assign to their actions and their environments (Blumer, 1969 Denzin, 1978). In this light, this paper therefore discusses participant observation as a reflexive methodology that shows how the application of sociology can positively affect the researcher’s identity and worldview. Sociologists’ role then is not only to interpret the world but wherever warranted to change it including him or herself. Only participant observation allowed me to enter the world’s largest Islamic revivalist movement through its Sydney group and gain an understanding about its social and cultural world – an understanding useful for sociology of religion and applied sociology.Īlso, I want to argue that applied sociological research methods have the power to affect social change, including the researcher, and sociology as an academic discipline and practice needs to appreciate that ‘doing’ sociology has the power to change not only society, but ourselves as sociologists. I argue that, given the ‘religious’ nature of the Tablighi Jama’at, no other research method, whether qualitative or quantitative in nature, would have proven more useful and applicable other than participant observation. The purpose of this paper is to offer a practical demonstration of the utility of participant observation as a method of social enquiry. Researchers and social science practitioners use participant observation to gain a meaningful knowledge about the existence of a specific social world through experiencing “real” social milieus or through lived experience. It is a complex blend of methods and techniques of observation, informant interviewing, respondent interviewing, and document analysis. Participant observation has long been an important social inquiry tool in sociological investigation of the social world and in applied sociology.
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