How much should ethnographers involve themselves with the people, places, and processes they study? One answer has become increasingly popular: invert the standard method of participant observation into observant participation. This article draws on an ethnography of ambulance work to consider the trade-offs between these approaches. My fieldwork…

Ethnography is an exceptionally difficult subject to teach and learn in a classroom setting. This article, written by an ethnography professor and five graduate ethnography students, reflects on how a short-term and collectively executed fieldwork study can help alleviate this problem. Within three months, we logged over 100 hours of observations…