Dear Chinthaka,

I assume that many people, especially ethnographers, would say that there is not much difference between ethnography and participant observation because participant observation has meanwhile become the almost identity-giving  method for the disciplines and fields most ethnographers work in. One could, however, make the point that participant observation is only one of many methods that ethnographers use when doing ethnography. Other methods frequently used in ethnographic approaches are, for example, narrative interviews and artifact analysis.

Ruth Benedict's famous book "The chrysanthemum and the Sword" is an example for an analysis that is frequently called "ethnographic" but did not focus on participant observation. It rather relied on document and literary analysis as well as on some interviews. Benedict's contribution is a famous case of the "culture at a distance"-approach, an approach that produced some ethnographic material without employing participant observation.  

Hello  Chinthaka

This is a chapter from - I think - the first edition, 1994, of this key qualitative research handbook:

Atkinson, P., & Hammersley, M. (1994). Ethnography and participant observation. IN: Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, 248-261.

http://www.uky.edu/~tmute2/geography_methods/readingPDFs/atkinson-hammersley.pdf

These papers are available on ResearchGate but I have only seen the abstracts/titles:

Sandiford, P. J. (2015). Participant Observation as Ethnography or Ethnography as Participant Observation in Organizational Research. The Palgrave Handbook of Research Design in Business and Management, 411-446.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273128723_Participant_Observation_as_Ethnography_or_Ethnography_as_Participant_Observation_in_Organizational_Research

Forsey, M. (2010). Ethnography and the myth of participant observation. IN Studies in Qualitative Methodology 11:65-79 · 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241699493_Chapter_4_Ethnography_and_the_myth_of_participant_observation

Gray, D. E. (2013). Chapter 17, Ethnography and participant observation, IN Doing research in the real world. Sage.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239938433_Gray_Chapter_17_Ethnography_and_participant_observation

Very best wishes

Mary

Chapter Participant Observation as Ethnography or Ethnography as Par...

Article Chapter 4 Ethnography and the myth of participant observation

Data Gray Chapter 17 Ethnography and participant observation

Dear Chinthaka,

Ethnography is conducted to study cultures and groups through their history , routines and practices, discussion of their environment, languages etc. It can be conducted using a variety of methods. Participant observation is one of the many methods that an ethnographer uses. Hope this answers your question.

 Thank you all for your valuable answers and links for related academic works. They are very useful. Thank you very much again. 

You might also want to look at James Clifford, Routes, Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century, Cambridge and London: Harvard U P, 1997. It has some really interesting material on the kinds of issues people have already mentioned.

Ethnography is a broader concept, a subject which tries to understand the culture holistically . Participant observation is one tool or mechanism to do ethnography  which involves the researcher to be a participant in their setting and helps in getting the information. While doing ethnographic studies the scientist may use other tools apart from participant observation.

Participant observation is one method amongst others by which anthropologists gather data. Ethnography is colloquially used as both a broad shorthand for anthropological method (in that one can 'do' ethnography), but also refers to the written product, an ethnography/ethnographic monograph/ ethnographic chapter/article. Literally, ethnography = writing (grapho) people (ethnos)

Reason for asking this question is when I found these terms are used interchangeably in some studies. Thank you everyone again for your valuable inputs which I think are more than useful to anyone finding the answers to the question. 

Ethnography is the systematic study of people and their cultures. Various methodologies are used in carrying out a systematic study, for example, being a participant, an observer, or combining both approaches in gathering and interpreting one's findings. 

 Ethnography is the study of specific cultures or sub-cultures. As an umbrella term, it has a number of different things that fall under it. These things include methods and priorities.

Participant observation is one of the best known methods that falls under. Participant observation is used across a wide range of disciplines. Often outside of anthropology, participant observation will be implemented and then the overall inquiry is described as "ethnographic". However, one of the principles of ethnographic research is that multiple methods should be used to allow for triangulation. Thus an approach relying solely on participant observation should not be refereed to as "ethnographic".

The way I understand ethnography, which may not be the regular way, is that ethnography is about being 'immersed' in the subject matter. From within this position, the ethnographer is then able to translate the phenomena to the reader.

Observation is a tool that ethnographers use but it is not the only one. Observation on its own seems to fall short of the complete immersion process.

Dear Chinthaka

Ethnography is a discipline and participant observation is a method (on the same way, anthropology is a "science" and critical discourse analysis is a method...).

best regards

Ethnography is a scientific and methodological field, essential to anthropology. Anthropology makes using a comparative and critical method of the information collected by ethnography. Ethnography is the science that studies very specific people, group and culture (subculture). She achieves this goal, using various methodologies (bibliographical study, document analysis, and field studies), triangulating and testing the information collected by these methodologies. In the field research is include the participant observation. When possible, it is the method that most highlights ethnography and gives more consistency in information collected. So rich is this methodology, which was applied for other social studies.

With this methodological approach the researcher immerses in the community that studies, with depth and proximity.

This methodology has its risks: possibility of loss objectivity, by emotions; possibility of interference of the researcher in the field of study. These risks must be taken into account and undertaken by the researcher in the publication of their study.

(Sorry for my English).

In Colombia in some cases it has tried both approaches to the "Other". This is a balance about it

http://www.luguiva.net/articulos/detalle.aspx?id=80

Seems to me that the question wades into a highly contested field. Many academics who define their work as ethnography do not observe and do not feel deeply related to traditional anthropology. The point of connection is the minutiae of concerns with human social and cultural matters.

ethnography is a field of studies, a discipline, which makes use of many methods and processes to achieve its goals.  participant observation is one such method.  it is also a method that is used in OTHER disciplines (broadly the social sciences.)

Participant observation is one method used by ethnographers/anthropologists in carrying out the ethnographic fieldwork to enable him/her to  "immerse" into the society/community he/she is studying.  By doing that, it is expected that the ethnographers/anthropologists would be able to understand thoroughly the meaning construction by the people underlying their actions and practices. Ethnography is thus a tool for anthropologists not only to collect data, but also to represent society and culture he/she is delivering.

No distinction: one theory, one method. Ethnography derives from Ethnology (i. e. Cultural Anthropology) and originally is what a cultural anthropologist does when he/she writes during the fieldwork. Furthermore, ethnography opens an interdisciplinary approach, very important today. On the methodological side, "participant" involves ethics, and that makes this kind of research very particular if not unique. 

You've already received some great answers. And some strong technical answers too. So I'll answer more from my personal experience as a researcher. Participant Observation is a method of data collection: it can seem inherently messy, scrappy, tangential, arbitrary and unpredictable. Ethnography is the way in which we write it up. In other words, Ethnography is the systematic ordering and organic discovery of data gathered from Participant Observation into a layered and in-depth written account of the people/ topic being studied. When I got back from the field, my Participant Observation notes were a mess. I wondered how I would ever find my way through. Then, with the help of my top professors, and as an Ethnographer in training, I managed to use the power of language, description and anthropological theory as the means to make sense of the mess that eventually became chapters of my thesis.  

 La observacion participante es un metodo de trabajo que aporta informacion directa que el investigador puede utilizar en su trabajo etnografico.

Ethnography is the description and analysis of a cultural situation (organizational, institutional, etc.). Among other research techniques (methods of research), you can use the participant observation, as well as interviews, etc.

Ethnography is the systematic description of human culture, involving both the  process and the product. 

Anthropologists use participant observation method to understand human culture, to interpret, and to provide a systematic knowledge about that  culture. By doing this, they produce  the final product as thesis/papers/texts to disseminate this knowledge in other societies.

Participant observation provides  two distinct perspectives to anthropologists: (1) insider's view or emic perspective and (2) outsider's view or etic perspective. 

Ethnography is a field of study, whereas, participant observation is a method for research.  As a comparison, chemistry is a field of study and experiments are methods for research. These are broad general distinctions that are very important to understand, just as are theories and research methods.

This question has kept me too wondering for sometime. However, one can conclude that ethnography is a broad field of study and participant observation is a very effective tool to carry that out.

Ethnography is the science of engaging in the culture, customs habits and existence of humans.Many tools may be employed such as observation, interviews, focus groups, surveys to elicit data. PAR is a great tool for engaging in ethnography especially using emic participation.

Ethnography: description about people and their cultures.

Participant observation: a tool or technique which is applied to collect ethnographic data. It requires the ethnographer to be an active observer, listener and participant in daily lives of the study population. It may require the ethnographer to learn the local language and live in the community for an extended period of time. Participant observation thus both a process and a product (i.e., text that will be produced based on the collected and observed data at the end.

yes, good detail on po. ehnography is mroe than just a description- it's a systematic/scientific study based on research

Appreciate comprehensive discussions.

Ethnography denotes both the product and the process of doing research. On the other hand, participant observation is one of the methods doing ethnography or generate ethnographic data/information.

Ethnography is a "descriptive science;" participant obsevation is a method, a research tchnique