act as exemplars for those wishing to apply the methodology. For example, Arnould
and Price’s (1993) much quoted “River magic”, Hill’s (1991) study of homeless women
and the meaning of possessions, and Schouten and McAlexander’s (1995) longitudinal
study of the new “biker” culture in the USA. From a British perspective Ritson and
Elliott’s (1999) analysis of adolescents and their use of advertisements was based on
extended encounters with groups of teenagers, including teaching part-time in the
schools that they were attending in order to develop trust and rapport, and gain a sense
of the dynamics and systems within the environment. Ethnography, therefore, has its
own distinct procedures for collecting data, but it is also highly concerned with the
cultural context. The next part of this paper attempts to contextualise ethnography
before examining the primary techniques associated with ethnographic research.