Ethnography of Scientific Evidence

A qualitative research method that immerses the ethnographer in a scientific setting to observe how evidence is literally produced, handled, and mobilized. Ethnographers watch lab technicians run experiments, note how data are cleaned, how outliers are discarded, and how uncertainty is communicated. They interview scientists about their “gut feelings” regarding evidence. This approach reveals that evidence is not a static object but a dynamic process—something scientists do, not just something they have. It captures the tacit, embodied, and social dimensions that formal accounts miss.

Ethnography of Scientific Evidence Example: “The ethnography of a clinical trial lab showed that ‘clean’ data were often the result of a postdoc’s judgment calls about which subjects to exclude. Those judgments became invisible in the final paper, but they shaped the evidence.”

Ethnography of Scientific Evidence by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal June 1, 2026