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We provide social science research for international health projects and clinical trials
Focused ethnography
Offering focused ethnography, we complement your medical and
epidemiological investigation or project’s implementation in the field.
Our team consists of social scientists and epidemiologists with
extensive field experience in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern
Europe.
Drawing on our expertise, we carry out field research tailored to your needs.
• Short term assignments targeted at specific research questions
• Long term participation as partners in consortia Focused ethnography
Research Strategies
The research strategy of our field work is adapted to the nature of the research question
and the local socio-cultural context but most commonly include:
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is an iterative, cumulative process. Starting from
an open research question, it collects information through various
methods, analyses/interprets this information, adjusts the questions or
develops new questions based on what emerges from the preliminary
interpretations, collects more information, interprets that
information until a point of saturation is reached – i.e. when
no more new information emerges from the data, and no new insights are
generated. This approach requires flexibility in the adopted methods,
in the number of participants recruited and the number and frequency of
interviews, focus groups, etc.
Qualitative methods are often identified with participant observation,
in-depth interviewing, fieldwork and ethnographic study. These
anthropological techniques emphasise the immersion of the researcher in the research
setting and the effort to uncover the meaning and significance of
social phenomena for individuals in those settings. These techniques
are ideal when studying social situations at the grassroots level; they
help to gain insight into communities’ social structure and
relationships and play an essential role in evaluating people’s
acceptance of new public health interventions.
Quantitative Research
Basic patterns and relationships between previously assessed social phenomena are further evaluated through surveys targeting the most relevant sectors of the population.
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