Elsevier

Social Science & Medicine

Volume 55, Issue 8, October 2002, Pages 1325-1336
Social Science & Medicine

Researching sexual and reproductive behaviour: a peer ethnographic approach

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(01)00277-5Get rights and content

Abstract

In recent years, ethnographic research has challenged the notion within demography that fertility-related behaviour is the outcome of individualistic calculations of the costs and benefits of having children. Anthropology has further criticised the abstraction in demographic analysis of sexual behaviour and fertility decision-making from the socio-cultural and political context in which the individual or couple is located. Within demography itself, institutional and political-economic analyses have argued strongly that sexual and reproductive behaviour must be understood within locally specific social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Positivist and empiricist research methods, such as the sample survey and focus groups, which continue to dominate demographic inquiry and applied research into sexual and reproductive behaviour, have been shown to be limited in their ability to inform about the process of behaviour change and contexts within which different behaviours occur. The article introduces a new methodology for researching sexual and reproductive behaviour, called the peer ethnographic approach, which the authors have developed in an attempt to address some of the limitations of the methods which currently dominate research into sexual and reproductive behaviour. The peer ethnographic methodology is discussed in detail and the results of recent field-testing are reported, which show that, although the approach has limitations, it also has the potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of sexual and reproductive behaviour.

Introduction

In this article we introduce a new methodology for researching sexual and reproductive behaviour, what we are calling the ‘peer ethnographic approach’. We have developed the approach in an attempt to address some of the limitations of the methods that currently dominate sexual and reproductive health and behavioural research. After reviewing the dominant theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of sexual and reproductive behaviour, we discuss the peer ethnographic methodology in detail and present the results of recent field-testing. The article concludes with our reflections on the peer ethnographic approach: although the approach has limitations, it also has the potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of sexual and reproductive behaviour.

Section snippets

The social context of sexual and reproductive behaviour

Demography has been criticised for paying insufficient attention to the social, cultural and political-economic contexts of sexual, and particularly reproductive behaviour (Greenhalgh, 1995; Kertzer & Fricke, 1997; Price & Thomas, 1999), and for failing to take on board methodological advances made in cognate disciplines such as anthropology (Fricke, 1997, p. 249; Kertzer (1990), Greenhalgh (1996); Kertzer, 1995, p. 29; McNicoll, 1992, p. 400).

One strand of criticism focuses on the limitations

Researching sexual and reproductive behaviour: methodological issues

Economic-utilitarianism and cultural diffusionism are informed by functionalist theories of social organisation, in which behaviour (or social action) is understood as being driven by an individualistic means-end rationality. Social order is considered to be achieved through the integration of individual goal-oriented actions into a shared system of cultural and moral values, reinforced and maintained through sets of socially sanctioned norms and rules. Until recent years, mainstream

The peer ethnographic method

The peer ethnographic method is derived from the anthropological approach of ethnographic fieldwork, which holds that building a relationship of trust and rapport with the community is a prerequisite for researching social life. The ethnographic approach used by anthropologists is based on the premise that what people say about social life and behaviour changes according to the level of familiarity and trust established between the researcher and researched. In recognition of the extensive

Field-testing the peer ethnographic method

The peer ethnographic tools were field-tested in collaboration with CARE International in Zambia through their Partnership for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (PALS) project in Lusaka, which seeks to improve the sexual and reproductive health of young people. The initial design of PALS was informed by a PLA appraisal process, involving 10,000 young people (see Shah, Zambezi, & Simasiku, 1999). Following the PLA exercise, the PALS project was designed with the following key components:

Categorisation of social groups

The interviews showed a surprising consistency in the terms and categories used by young people to describe the different groups of people that live in their compounds. For young people, ethnicity was not an important category in describing their social world. Rather, categorisations were based on perceived social behaviours, placed within a predominantly moral framework. The most common categories used by interviewees to describe the people in their compounds were churchgoers, school-goers,

The data analysis

The data presentation above amounts to what could be considered as our ‘meta-analysis’, in which we have drawn on the peer researchers’ narratives as our primary ethnographic data. In undertaking this analysis the peer researchers became our key informants. We complemented our in-depth interviewing of the peer researchers (as our key informants) with participant observation that we carried out in the compounds during the training, supervision and data-collection process. During our visits to

Conclusion: reflections on the method

The peer ethnographic method was designed to address some of the limitations of other applied research methods. However, it does have limitations of its own, as well as considerable strengths. One of the most important outcomes of the data collection and analysis process was the ensuing dialogue that it generated, both between the peer researchers and the CARE programme staff and between the peer researchers and other young people in their social networks. In this respect, we consider that the

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge with gratitude funding for our current research which was provided by the Department for International Development, UK. We are also grateful to CARE International in Zambia for their cooperation in field-testing our peer ethnographic tools in the context of their PALS (Partnership for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health) project in Lusaka. However, the opinions expressed in this article are ours alone, and we accept full responsibility for any errors or

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    Formerly lecturer in anthropology and development at the Centre for Development Studies, is currently a freelance researcher and consultant. Address: c/o Centre for Development Studies, University of Wales, Swansea.

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