Confronta i metodi

	Etnografia	Netnografia	Osservazione partecipante
Campo	Qualitativo	Qualitativo	Ricerca qualitativa
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	c. 1922 (Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific)	1997 (coined); 2010 (first comprehensive methodology book)	1922
Ideatore	Bronisław Malinowski (modern ethnography); rooted in 19th-century anthropology	Robert V. Kozinets	Bronislaw Malinowski
Tipo	Qualitative fieldwork tradition	Qualitative research method	Method
Fonte seminale	Hammersley, M. & Atkinson, P. (2019). Ethnography: Principles in Practice (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 978-1138504462	Kozinets, R. V. (2010). Netnography: Doing Ethnographic Research Online. Sage. ISBN: 978-1847875907	Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. ISBN: 978-0465026432
Alias	Etnografi, participant observation, fieldwork, ethnographic research	online ethnography, virtual ethnography, cyber-ethnography, digital ethnography	ethnographic observation, participatory observation, overt observation, immersive observation
Correlati	5	6	4
Sintesi	Ethnography is a qualitative research tradition in which a researcher immerses themselves in a social group or community over an extended period — typically three to six months or longer — to study its culture, values, and behaviours in their natural setting. Originating in social and cultural anthropology, and consolidated as a rigorous method by Bronisław Malinowski in the early twentieth century, ethnography produces rich, contextualised accounts of how people live, work, and make meaning together.	Netnography is a qualitative research method that adapts the principles of cultural ethnography to the study of online communities and social media environments. Coined by Robert Kozinets in 1997 and systematised in his 2010 handbook, netnography treats digital spaces — forums, social networks, blogs, review sites — as naturally occurring field sites where communities gather, share meanings, and construct identities. The method combines unobtrusive observation of digital traces with active participation and, where appropriate, direct member interaction.	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.