Ethnography First? Rethinking the Integration of Ethnography and Survey Methods in Mixed-Methods Research

This paper reimagines the integration of ethnography and survey research by demonstrating how ethnographic methods can fundamentally shape survey development by centring epistemological collaboration, rather than being relegated to the margins of mixed methods. Through a critical assessment of current literature—where the overwhelmingly positivist framing limits ethnography’s potential—this article posits for the need of an approach foregrounding ethnography - provocatively framed here as ‘ethnography first’. Drawing on a study of digital media use among unhoused people in Berlin, this article illustrates how an ethnographic approach woven throughout the research and writing process can yield insights that surpass ‘contextual framing.’ In doing so, it offers a model for genuinely integrated mixed-methods research that makes use of the epistemological and ethical insights of ethnography.