Presenting the ‘Structured and Annotated Participantdriven Appraisal’ Technique in Ethnography: Towards the Universal Realization of Multivocality in Ethnographic Studies

Abstract

This paper begins by tracing the history of Ethnography and Ethnographic studies over the course of the past few centuries, and reviews existing approaches and techniques used in the field of Ethnography with a view to ascertain their salient features, strengths and possible lacunae and limitations. This paper also traces the methods used in the field of Anthropology from the very early days, and reviews the most current and uptodate techniques in the field of Anthropology such as Developmental Anthropology, Advocacy, Action Anthropology, Action Research and Corporate Anthropology and provides a short overview of current debates that dominate the field. The ‘Structured and Annotated Participant-driven Appraisal’ technique proposed in this paper stems from the weaknesses and limitations of existing approaches, and is in keeping with Twenty-first century realities and a pro-active approach to socio-cultural change. It is also in keeping with the requirements of the ‘Globalization of Science’, and involves an search for cases and subjects with differing perspectives to ensure that policy formulation is more culture sensitive, and is based on the realities of the ground. This paper also discusses the drawbacks or current Emic approaches and lays out the underlying philosophy, guiding principles and salient features of our approach such as identification of source and target cultures, responses to policy frameworks, capturing unvoiced perceptions, and making annotations.