Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Analysing documents through fieldwork

Jacobsson, Katarina LU (2025) p.155-170
Abstract (Swedish)
Ethnographic methods can advance our knowledge of a setting through its documents as well as help the researcher to grasp a document in its setting. This chapter contests the idea that the study of documents only refers to close analyses of text. Taking pictures of documents, asking about documents, and observing what people do with documents are approaches that can answer sociologically significant questions that cannot be addressed by merely analyzing the content of a text. Moreover, audio and video recordings of interactions over documents enable analyses of how documents are produced in situ as well as how documents shape and pattern interaction. The recognition of such aspects of documentary data requires fieldwork rather than... (More)
Ethnographic methods can advance our knowledge of a setting through its documents as well as help the researcher to grasp a document in its setting. This chapter contests the idea that the study of documents only refers to close analyses of text. Taking pictures of documents, asking about documents, and observing what people do with documents are approaches that can answer sociologically significant questions that cannot be addressed by merely analyzing the content of a text. Moreover, audio and video recordings of interactions over documents enable analyses of how documents are produced in situ as well as how documents shape and pattern interaction. The recognition of such aspects of documentary data requires fieldwork rather than deskwork. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
alternative title
Analys av dokument genom fältarbete
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
in press
subject
host publication
Qualitative Research
editor
Silverman, David
edition
6e
pages
15 pages
publisher
SAGE Publications
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
560e9360-aed9-4381-a131-80fffc020490
date added to LUP
2025-09-27 17:17:43
date last changed
2025-10-03 10:10:23
@inbook{560e9360-aed9-4381-a131-80fffc020490,
  abstract     = {{Ethnographic methods can advance our knowledge of a setting through its documents as well as help the researcher to grasp a document in its setting. This chapter contests the idea that the study of documents only refers to close analyses of text. Taking pictures of documents, asking about documents, and observing what people do with documents are approaches that can answer sociologically significant questions that cannot be addressed by merely analyzing the content of a text. Moreover, audio and video recordings of interactions over documents enable analyses of how documents are produced in situ as well as how documents shape and pattern interaction. The recognition of such aspects of documentary data requires fieldwork rather than deskwork.}},
  author       = {{Jacobsson, Katarina}},
  booktitle    = {{Qualitative Research}},
  editor       = {{Silverman, David}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{155--170}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  title        = {{Analysing documents through fieldwork}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}