Explain the researcher’s role in qualitative research. Discuss the unique issues that researchers should be concerned about in regards to their role in research, and explain how this is specifically a challenge in ethnographical research. Discuss specific actions researchers can take to ensure they retain their ethical and neutral stance in performing qualitative research and reporting their qualitative research results.

Regarding Alice Goffman’s recent ethnographical work in inner-city Philadelphia, and based on what you know from the text and your own research on ethnographic immersion, determine whether or not Goffman maintained an ethical and neutral stance, and provide justification of the approach Goffman chose to take. Based on what you have been able to ascertain from Goffman’s work, discuss the information that was gained by performing a qualitative ethnography into the social problems of inner-city Philadelphia. Explain whether or not this could have been possible with a quantitative research study.

Discuss what you have learned in regards to qualitative research and in particular ethnographic research in supporting decision making and the creation of public policy.

Goffman, A. (2009) On the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto.

Kotlowitz, A. (2014) Deep Cover: Alice Goffman’s ‘On the Run’. The New York Times. June 26, 2014.

Kumar, Priyanka (2014) Life, Prison and Pursuit of Happiness. LA Review of Books. August 22, 2014

Schuessler, J. (2014) Fieldwork of Total Immersion. The New York Times. April 29, 2014.