Penetrating social worlds: conducting ethnographic research into alcohol and other drug use within Australia

Despite growing interest in the potential usefulness of ethnography with respect to alcohol and other drug studies, the literature on such a method in the Australian context is sparse. This paper focuses on the practical conduct of ethnographic research into alcohol and other drug use in Australia, using two research experiences as illustrations. It covers the establishment and maintenance of access to the 'field', methods of data collection, the process of analysis (which is intertwined with data collection), and the production of written texts. The paper's purpose is to provide prospective ethnographers in the alcohol and other drug field with some sense of the nature and texture of ethnographic fieldwork and analysis.