Recently ( July- August) in the Philippines ( Central LUZON) I spent some time visiting farmers & field workers in the fields. Nothing special transpired - except that my wife reported back to me later that the peope I had talked to were very impressed as foreigners do not usually speak directly to them. I had no research agenda - but this experience confirmed to me the value of friendship in conversation- with the strong likelihood that there would be improved returns for anyone undertaking ethnographic research

Thanks very much for your reply, Mike - it's interesting to have the international and cross-cultural dimension, albeit rather worrying to hear that the farmers and field workers you met had previously had rather negative encounters with researchers, who did not engage directly with them. With thanks and all best wishes.

Hi Jacquelyn,

Are you talking about participant observation? If so, could you please elaborate as to what "friendship" brings to participant observation that is not already implied by that methodological approach to an ethnographic study? I am having difficulty understanding how one can undertake participant observation without entering into a friendship with the subjects of the study.

Thanks,

Gwen

This is a strange expression 'friendship' and research !

Hi Gwendolyn & Theodora

Many thanks for your interest and for taking the time to respond. Gwendolyn: the project was actually interview based, which is why the friendship angle interested myself and my co-researcher so much. As you say, with participant observation, there is usually a degree of friendship (of some form) involved in any case, but with interviews, the 'friendship-as-method' *(Tillmann Healy) perspective is not so widely adopted or discussed in the literature. In the study, my co-researcher had prior existing and ongoing friendship relationships with some participants and it was the friend-researcher nexus that required endless, shifting negotiation, as you can imagine. It is this that we sought to explore in the article in the Jnl of Contemporary Ethnography.

Thanks again for your thoughts, Jacquelyn

Hi Jacquelyn,

What an exciting dynamic -- it really alters my perception that because of ongoing technological innovation, interviewing is becoming more quantitative than qualitative as a research methodology. Hip, Hip, Hooray! It is obvious that you and your co-researcher didn't formulate your interview questions so that they could be fed into a computer in order to produce quantifiable data. Unfortunately, that is one of the problems with conducting interviews in a Digital Age, the temptation is too great to think "What questions should I ask to make sure 'my programmer' can work with the data?"

Kudos to you and your co-researcher, Jacquelyn, I think you may have hit on something that can combine the structured setting of an interview with the open-ended exploration of participant observation. As a Qualitative Sociologist and ethnographer, I salute you.

Gwen

Very interesting ! thank you for taking the time to elaborate to teach someone as novice as me in this type of work!

Regards

Hi Theodora - we are all learning together! Thank you for your interest in this topic. Kind regards, Jaqui

Thank you so much for your positive feedback, Gwendolyn, particularly appreciated from a fellow (there should be a better female version of 'fellow', I always feel!) qual sociologist and ethnographer. It is indeed an exciting - and sometimes very daunting - approach. Full credit to my excellent co-researcher, Dr Helen Owton, for embracing such a challenging, but also a rewarding approach. Onwards, onwards! Kindest regards, Jaqui

Dearest Jaqui,

Please forgive my naivete I am only a third year Soci/Anth student. I am very interested if you found anyone else that used friendship as a method approach. The idea sounds both interesting and questionable to me. Like I say; I am far from my doctorate, and definitely hold no authority or expertise.

The questionable part I see is How does a person convince their audience that their research is not muddied by ones own point of view. The word friendship implies empathy and perceiving beyond the overt. This is mind boggling to me. It just brushes too close to intuition, which I believe we are still a long way from accepting as scientific methodology.

You can send me "slap" if I am way off base here. I would not be asking you about this if the idea did not intrigue me. I am on here to learn.

Best regards, Rhonda

Dear Rhonda

Many thanks for your interest in the question, and I most certainly won't 'slap' you down! It's always interesting to have fellow sociologists' and anthropologists' thoughts and ideas. In terms of the 'friendship as method' approach, you might want to have a look at Lisa Tillmann Healy's excellent work as a starting point. I don't know if you are using participant observation for your sociology/anth research or dissertation, but if so, there are usually all sorts of ethical issues surrounding how 'close' we should become to/with our participants.

With regard to the 'bias' question that you raise - and it's always an interesting one! - for me as a qualitative researcher who usually works within an interpretivist paradigm, there is no 'objective' position or knowledge, even the most 'scientific', lab-based experiment is affected by one's own point of view, one's values and preconceptions. We have to be highly reflexive about our positionality in relation to our research and our participants.

I hope that addresses some of your questions, Rhonda - and thanks again for taking the time to engage with the discussion! All best wishes, Jaqui

Re: "[T]here is no 'objective' position or knowledge, even the most 'scientific', lab-based experiment is affected by one's own point of view, one's values and preconceptions."

Hi Jaqui,

So right you are with the above comment. Now, if only "quantitative types" could strive to remain aware of this fact of human nature as they form research questions with a mind to producing "quantifiable data".

Gwen

I wonder if we are straying a bit from the original question? If we accept that all knowledge is subjective, then the employment of friendship in a research method makes perfect sense. Furthemore there is little risk to this approach long-term, as no knowledge is absolute either. Laws , human rights and the eternal questions all carry the baggage of their age. What has been so original about Jacquelin's question is that it attempts to integrate the efficiencies of friendship into the research methodology. Liverpool ,England is a city defined more than most by its extraordinarily out going people . It is an existentialist's paradise , in which reality shifts constantly : as John Lenno wrote :“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.”

Great quote, Mike! From a rather existentialist singer/songwriter...

Hi Gwen - well, I've spent many an hour debating such things with positivists/quants folk... and I guess I shall probably spend a good many more. All good grist to the methodological mill.

Best wishes to you both, have a happy festive season!

Jaqui

Thank You Jaqui, Gwendolyn and Mike!

Yes, Jaqui I am using participant observation and admittedly because I am not yet at a point of carrying any authority with my name I am still tip-toeing. This is why I ask the questions and want as many respected references as I can come up with before venturing into new areas. I will check out Lisa Tillmann Healy's work as well.

Thank you again

Rhonda

Hi again Rhonda - just let me know if you would like a copy of the article (full version) that Helen and I wrote in Jnl Contemp Ethnography - you can email me at: [email protected]. Helen in particular has quite some experience of using the friendship approach.

Good luck with your research!

Jaqui

Dear colleagues,

I still have not found the Question?

Is there research in the field of ethnography, with the sociology research?

Please write clear and distinct that I could learn.

With best regards,

Aref

Dear Mohammad

My original question related to whether other colleagues had used the 'friendship as method' approach, originally described by Lisa Tillmann-Healy in her work. Dr Helen Owton and I used this approach in a recent interview-based research project on the lived experience of asthma, and we were keen to find out if others had adopted analogous approaches.

I hope that helps clarify the nature of the question.

Kind regards, Jacquelyn

Just a quick update on the 'Friendship as Method/ology' discussion. My co-author on the original article in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Dr Helen Owton, has recently taken part in a podcast on this subject. You can follow the link below:

http://www.hartresearch.org.uk/2014/02/25/hart-research-available-via-podcast/

Thanks everyone, for all your interest in this topic!

Kind regards,

Jacquelyn

In my article, Gurdin, J. Barry. 1986. "The Therapy of Friendship," (17)4: 444-457, Small Group Behavior: An International Journal of Therapy, Counseling, and Training, I outline similarities and differences between the roles of friends and therapists, and review the literature to date that led me to design friendship development groups, which I illustrate in a second article with a real friendship development group that was videotaped and analyzed. See: Gurdin, J. Barry. 1988. "Groups for the Development of Friendship," 19 (1): 57-66. Small Group Behavior: An International Journal of Therapy, Counseling, and Training. In my book, J. Barry Gurdin. 2002. Amitié/Friendship: An Investigation into Cross-Cultural Styles in Canada and the United States (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002), a social phenomenology and clinical sociology of friendship, I use Montreal as a microcosm from which to draw a broader perspective on the influence of ethnicity, gender, class, marital status, and age on the nuances in configurations of friendship. I compare my findings in Canada to my own and others' research conducted in the United States and France.

Many thanks / merci beaucoup for this information, J Barry - the social phenomenology and clinical sociology of friendship sounds very interesting indeed, particularly as I also work from a social/sociological phenomenological perspective. With thanks for taking the time to write, and all best wishes, Jacquelyn

Its a interesting point of view, from the IAP methdology -Investigación Acción Participante- (Action Participative Research) there´s no object, just a subject-subject relation that may aproach the researcher to the social and cultural realities. If we´re on social studies also need to feel like part of societies that we´re looking, so friendship as an etnographic tool i think is a good human way to research and thnik in the social struggles in a greater perspective. I was working with some similar methodology studying paramilitarism in Colombia in 2008-2010, were as a researcher i could probably never get out of there, so i went to field playng guitar and selling handicrafts, situation that opens to me doors that will be close if i´ll be there as an antropologist. Alternative methods are too necesary in contemporary world were we need to solve social problems form the inside. State policys are too far from society, and human aproaches to these topics are, in mi opinion, more effective to understand "the others" on fieldwork.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply, Victor - and for sharing your experiences of the research in Colombia, which, I can imagine, would be highly problematic if you had sought entry to the field as an overt anthropological researcher. I particularly like the notion guitar-playing as part of the 'insider' researcher role.

Our paper in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography has certainly stimulated some interesting discussions, and I'm grateful to everyone who has responded via ResearchGate.

Many thanks, all.

Hi Jacquelyn - I am interested in this, since I am currently making an ethnographic film entitled 'Partners' which is a bout friendships that develop through shared practices and in shared places.  I am making four short films about four pairs of Partners whose relationships are dependent in some way on an interesting or unusual practice.  In one of these films, (the final one, still in process, I am one of the participants in a pair, as well as the researcher).  Here is a Vimeo link to one of the films https://vimeo.com/113892559

Hi Andrew - many thanks indeed for sending on the details - I've just replied to you directly also.  Look forward to viewing your film.

All very best wishes, Jacquelyn

Hi there!

I know this thread has not been active for a while but I hope someone can help me out. I've stumbled upon your question while researching the method of a best-friend interview, which a professor suggested I use for my bachelor thesis. According to her, it is a guided interview with an interviewer and two best friends as interviewees. Has anyone had any experience with this technique or some literature concering this? Unfortunately, this particular professor is not available at the moment.

Thank you!

Hi Leonora - I've never personally used an additional interviewer alongside the two friends, and I wonder if the addition of a third person might constrain the discussion? There are advantages and disadvantages of course with interviewing a friend, but one of the advantages (ethical issues carefully considered) can be the intimacy of the conversation. A colleague/friend Helen Owton and I have written on friendship as method(ology) - authors' accepted manuscript attached below, in case of any help to you. It may be that

It may be that others can provide you with references regarding a guided interview with experienced interviewer and the best friends as interviewees.

Good luck with your research!

Thank you so much for your answer!

I will be researching the effect of Instagram on young women's images of themselves. The participants will alter a picture of themselves until they find themselves beautiful and afterwards I want to use this interviewing method to talk to them about the changes the have made.

I have done some more research and at least found out the name of the interview method: friendship pair interview. I will inform myself further and see where it goes. Any more tips are much appreciated!

You are very welcome! Your research sounds very interesting, and I hope the friendship-pair interviews are very productive. All best wishes for the research.