Ethnography or ethogenics?

I've finally got my hands on a copy of John Smith's paper, The Ethogenics of Music Performance, in which he undertakes a social-psychologist's analysis of behaviours and roles in his local folk club, the Glebe Live Music Club in Sunderland.

The links between this and my own research are obvious and, glancing through the pages, I noted immediately some similarities in his approach. For example, he discusses the spatial arrangements of the club room and the impact this has as an environment on human interaction and role enactment - a theme I also addressed in my conference papers in Newcastle and Birmingham.

Another point that struck me was the similarity in organisation, routine and indeed repertoire encountered at a folk club in Sunderland in 1985 with those features today of many folk clubs that I have visited in the English Midlands. Although I did expect this to be the case.

What I didn't expect was the opportunity this paper provides to reflect on methodology and ethics.

Ethogenics is a term I hadn't seriously explored up until now, but according to some sources it does address some of the methodological problems of ethnography, not least because it takes into account the ability of researcher to share or empathise with the cultural knowledge and values of those being researched. In this case, the author was analysing the folk club that he himself ran and took part in. Rather than pretend to put on a social scientist's hat as he wrote up his results, he was able to apply the social psychologist's tools of analysis from a more informed basis. In many ways, this approach is similar to David Grazian's study of a Chicago Blues Club that I have discussed earlier.

At the same time this also raises an ethical consideration. Should the researcher let on to his fellow singers, musicians and auience members that he is studying their behaviour? If they know, would it change the way they behave, or the way they feel about the presence of the researcher? Because I attend folk clubs anyway, usually as a floorsinger, occasionally as a guest or a guest host, my presence at these events is accepted as normal. But I don't turn up armed with tape or video recorders, or laptop, or even a notebook and pen. Recording my observations relies on my sometimes precarious memory but I still feel more comfortable with that than drawing attention to my role as a researcher at the venue itself. It seems to me that this problem is inherent and inevitable for the ethogenist (if that's the right word!) more than it is for the ethnographer.

Hopefully I'll have more insight when I actually read John Smith's paper. Will report on that soon - and continue with the overall lit review, (now that my computer is back online).

John L.Smith    Glebe Live Music Club    ethogenics     ethnography     folk clubs     David Grazian     ethics