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	Note sul Campo	Osservazione partecipante	Diario di Ricerca
Campo	Metodologia delle indagini	Ricerca qualitativa	Metodologia delle indagini
Famiglia	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Anno di origine	Late 19th century (formalized in 20th century)	1922	1981 (methodological codification); diary use in research dates to 19th-century anthropology
Ideatore	Rooted in 19th-century anthropology and sociology; systematized by ethnographers such as Bronislaw Malinowski and later Robert Emerson et al.	Bronislaw Malinowski	Robert G. Burgess (systematic methodological treatment)
Tipo	Qualitative data collection and recording technique	Method	Qualitative data collection and reflexivity tool
Fonte seminale	Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 978-0226206813	Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. ISBN: 978-0465026432	Burgess, R. G. (1981). Keeping a research diary. Cambridge Journal of Education, 11(1), 75–83.
Alias	fieldnotes, observational notes, ethnographic notes, jottings	ethnographic observation, participatory observation, overt observation, immersive observation	researcher diary, field diary, research journal, reflexive diary
Correlati	6	4	6
Sintesi	Field notes are detailed written records created by researchers during or immediately after direct observation in a naturalistic setting. They capture what is seen, heard, and experienced — including behaviors, interactions, physical environments, and the researcher's own analytic impressions — forming the primary data source for ethnographic and observational studies.	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.	A research diary is a systematic, dated log maintained by the researcher throughout a study to record methodological decisions, emergent observations, analytical hunches, and reflections on researcher positionality. Unlike a participant diary, it is authored by the researcher and functions simultaneously as a data source, an audit trail, and a reflexivity instrument.