Comparer des méthodes

	Observation participante	La réflexivité en recherche qualitative
Domaine	Recherche qualitative	Recherche qualitative
Famille	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Année d'origine	1922	1990
Auteur d'origine	Bronislaw Malinowski	Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu
Type	Method	Concept
Source fondatrice	Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. ISBN: 978-0465026432	Finlay, L. (2002). Outing the researcher: The provenance, process, and practice of reflexivity. Qualitative Health Research, 12(4), 531-545.
Alias	ethnographic observation, participatory observation, overt observation, immersive observation	reflexive practice, researcher reflexivity, positionality, reflective practice
Apparentées	4	4
Résumé	Participant observation is a qualitative research method in which the researcher embeds themselves within a community, organization, or social setting for an extended period, engaging in the activities and relationships of the group while systematically observing and documenting behavior, interactions, and cultural meaning. Pioneered by Malinowski in the 1920s and developed in anthropology, the method has been adopted across sociology, education, health sciences, and organizational research. The researcher functions as both insider (participating in group activities) and outsider (maintaining analytical distance), generating thick description—rich accounts of context, behavior, and meaning that reveal how people actually live and interact.	Reflexivity is the practice of examining how the researcher's identity, assumptions, relationships, and values influence the research process and findings. Rather than treating objectivity as achievable detachment, reflexivity acknowledges that the researcher is embedded within the research and cannot be fully separated from it. Originating in sociology and anthropology, reflexivity has become central to qualitative research rigor across disciplines. Reflexive researchers critically examine their own influence at each stage: research design, participant recruitment, data collection, interpretation, and presentation. This transparency strengthens rigor by making visible the lens through which data are collected and interpreted.