Insight through ethnography: researching children in a different way

Shows how ethnographic research improves our knowledge of children by observing how they live their daily lives, contrasting this approach with qualitative research; the latter, though useful, tends to be driven by the client’s own marketing agenda and is less appropriate for new product development. Outlines the observational techniques used, both in person and remote, including brainstorming sessions and workshops following the research. Concludes that children tend to operate in groups when outside the home; that children who have grown up with reality TV tend to be less inhibited than adults when being filmed or filming themselves; and that participant observation and ethnographic offer wide research applications and point to new opportunities for clients in different areas of a child’s life.