Sociology is the science of the formation, development, and functioning of social communities, processes, relationships, and the ways, forms, and methods of implementation of all of them. The main category of sociology is a community, so sociologists need to find interesting people. In the community, there are all the relationships inherent in both the individual and society. Sociologists might choose to work under less than ideal conditions to use observation and ethnography to explore critical issues of concern to the community.
Very often, sociologists use the method of observation in sociological research during extreme working conditions. A person working in sociology tries to develop a deep understanding of how people think and behave (Tong & Guo, 2019). Thus, sociologists also use the method of ethnography. This is the desire for a more detailed and comprehensive representation of reality (Bulmer, 2017). Hence, the result of ethnographic research is often a theory or research commentary and a description of the social phenomenon being studied. A real-life example can be when an American sociologist went to southern Africa and lived with the Bushmen for several months; they used to lead a nomadic lifestyle (Kim, 2019). Houses were usually built of the simplest materials, such as sizeable dry grass, and they led an ascetic lifestyle. Despite the difficulties with observation and ethnography, sociologists have conducted many studies of these people.
In conclusion, sociologists are interested in observing the behavior of a group from the side with the registration in a particular form of types of actions, reactions, and conditions of relationships. The sociologist often tries to understand the purpose of certain people’s behavior and document what he sees for further research. Often, even extreme conditions do not stop on the way to finding new information. The purpose of being in poor conditions for a sociologist is to acquire new knowledge to spread it to the masses.
References
Bulmer, M. (2017). Sociological research methods. Taylor & Francis.
Kim, Y. (2019). New opportunities for sociological research: A discussion of the usefulness of mixed methods with data science. Journal of Asian Sociology, 48(3), 343-358.
Tong, G., & Guo, G. (2019). Meta-analysis in sociological research: Power and heterogeneity. Sociological Methods & Research, 004912411988247.