In ethnographic research we usually use theories when they help us understand the phenomena in question, and often need to adapt existing theories or adopt new theoretical ideas of our own to help us make sense of what is going on around us. A theory is only useful in as much as it helps us make sense of the world around us, so we apply theories to our data to see if they help us make sense of what we have heard and seen, using the bits that help, discarding those that do not, and in this way contributing to the ongoing development of theoretical ideas in social science.