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The link between housing and health comes to the forefront in times of housing instability and subsequent transition. Ethnographic observation is particularly applicable in the study of the relationship between low-income older adults and their home environments. In this research encounter, older adults transfer historical and personal significance of involuntary displacement while the interviewers assess the older adults’ well-being. This study of displacement due to urban regeneration utilizes ethnographic approaches to gain intergenerational insights, namely the reactions of student and instructor interviewers (n=40) from five local universities to the older adults’ demeanor, navigation of space, and their living environment. This presentation focuses on the content of the field notes and the experience of using team-based ethnography in qualitative research.
Methods: The larger study utilized interviews (including PTSD and social network measures) and ethnographic field notes. The sample was comprised of older adults relocated from a single building, where participants were recruited from lists of residents held by community partner agencies (e.g., grocery delivery lists). All interviews were conducted in residences of older adults by one to two members of the research team. Both the interviews and field notes were analyzed for recurrent themes and patterns.
Results: The content of the field notes were divided into four main themes: Impressions of physical space/place, impressions of emotional/spiritual/mental health status, impressions of physical health status, and behavior/non-verbal cues. In addition, other notes were taken by the research team such as needs identified/mentioned, methodological comments, and reactions of the research team. As the team included nursing and social work students and instructors, it is important to examine where the comments and shorthand approaches reflect professional training. Examples include a client’s monthly costs or health conditions (e.g., gait) or type of food seen in the residence.
Conclusions and Implications:
Given the importance of the field note process as a genre in the social sciences, the analysis of the interdisciplinary influence on the construction of a field note will inform creative ways that field notes serve as documentary evidence of a research encounter. Moreover, field note observations of an older adult’s living space complement interview data. Building on social work’s emphasis on the person-in-environment and on the recent work on the Social is Fundamental, knowing how to document the social environment is a skill to be developed for social work practitioners and researchers.