Ethnography can be defined as a method of qualitative research that aims to gain an integrative description and understanding of sociocultural phenomena presented in particular groups or communities, according to the terms and attitudes of the group's members. Specifically following this simultaneously technical and ethical dimension of ethnography, this article mainly intends to promote a historical reconstitution of the reappropriation of this modality of field studies by both American and Brazilian social psychologists. Therefore, it focuses on a specific time and institution: the first half of the twentieth century and the Chicago School of Sociology, which is considered here through aspects of the lives and works of three of its principal contributors: Robert Park, George Mead, and Donald Pierson. In conclusion, the article debates some of the specificities of ethnographic practice, and bringing together past and present, defends the relevance of its use in present psychosociological research.
Social Psychology; Methodology; Qualitative research; Ethnography