Revisiting ethnography by proxy

Abstract

Prompted by discovering a paper written in 1980 which described a process of ‘ethnography by proxy’, I revisit this concept in the light of two research projects: a workplace study of an electronics company conducted in the early 1990s and a later home-based study of young children’s encounters with toys and technology. The paper defines ethnography by proxy as the process of delegating some of the ethnographer’s activities to participants in the research setting. It discusses a pragmatic response to some of the challenges of conducting fieldwork and considers the implications of delegating non-academic proxies to fulfil aspects of the ethnographer’s role, the different guises that may be taken by the ethnographer and what this shift in research relationships might mean for the interpretation of data. The concept of proxy has implications for some of the tenets of ethnographic research as it requires a re-examination of our roles and the relationship between researcher and researched.     

Elderly chinese and their family caregivers' perceptions of good care: a qualitative study in shandong, china

This study aims to understand what older Chinese people with chronic illness and their family caregivers perceive to be good care, and to compare perspectives of those living in rural and urban areas. We conducted semistructured interviews with 24 care recipients and 23 caregivers in Shandong, China. Two major themes were identified: (a) filial piety as the standard, and (b) modifying cultural ideals to meet reality. There was overall consistency in perceptions of study participants. Variations between rural and urban elders' perceptions appear to reflect differences in socioeconomic development and institutional structures.     

Global sourcing in integrated network structures: The case of hybrid purchasing organizations

An issue for companies in globally competitive markets is to adapt their organizational structures and governance in increasingly complex organizations. At the functional level of purchasing, companies are turning to hybrid purchasing organizations in order to leverage global sourcing benefits. One of the key challenges in this context is to distinguish between categories to be integrated across sites and those that are to remain under the authority of each purchasing location in order to maximize purchasing synergies.This paper presents a purchasing portfolio model that provides a comprehensive view of relevant global synergy dimensions. Based on a literature review, a theoretically-grounded purchasing portfolio model for global sourcing is developed. The theoretical basis stems from information processing theory, organizational buying behavior (OBB) and transaction cost economics. The validity of the model is explored by means of case study research. Complementing the extant literature, the theoretical contribution of the paper lies in not only addressing category selection criteria for exploiting economies of scale, but also for economies of information and learning and economies of process. Furthermore, it provides insights regarding integrated network coordination mechanisms at the functional level of purchasing.     

Risk aversion in the small and in the large: Calibration results for betweenness functionals

A reasonable level of risk aversion with respect to small gambles leads to a high, and absurd, level of risk aversion with respect to large gambles. This was demonstrated by Rabin (Econometrica 68:1281–1292, 2000) for expected utility theory. Later, Safra and Segal (Econometrica, 2008) extended this result by showing that similar arguments apply to many non-expected utility theories, provided they are Gateaux differentiable. In this paper we drop the differentiability assumption and by restricting attention to betweenness theories we show that much weaker conditions are sufficient for the derivation of similar calibration results.

Evaluation of the importance of ornamental plants for pollinators in urban and suburban areas in Stuttgart,Germany

Urban Ecosystems - Urban landscapes are often characterized by a wide range of diverse flowering plants consisting of native and exotic plants. These flower-rich habitats have proven to be...     

Assessing and communicating heterogeneity of treatment effects for patient subpopulations: Panel discussion on considerations in design and analysis

Clinical trials are primarily conducted to understand the average effects treatments have on patients. However, patients are heterogeneous in the severity of the condition and in ways that affect what treatment effect they can expect. It is therefore important to understand and characterize how treatment effects vary. The design and analysis of clinical studies play critical roles in evaluating and characterizing heterogeneous treatment effects. This panel discussed considerations in design and analysis under the recognition that there are heterogeneous treatment effects across subgroups of patients. Panel members discussed many questions including: What is a good estimate of the treatment effect in me, a 65-year-old, bald, Caucasian-American, male patient? What magnitude of heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE) is sufficiently large to merit attention? What role can prior evidence about HTE play in confirmatory trial design and analysis? Is there anything described in the 21st Century Cures Act that would benefit from greater attention to HTE? An example of a Bayesian approach addressing multiplicity when testing for treatment effects in subgroups will be provided. We can do more or better at understanding heterogeneous treatment effects and providing the best information on heterogeneous treatment effects.     

Commentary on Mills’ “toward a theory of myth”

In his provocative article on theorizing about myth, Jon Mills kindly cites my own work on the subject. Let me confine my remarks to his comments on me. I now see, thanks to Mills, how confusing some of my statements have perhaps been.