Ethnography And Focus Group Essay

Forms of observation, like surveys/polls, ethnography, and focus groups have direct links to forms of governance. We can see this through how surveys/polls create the citizen consumer; how ethnography maps people into a human terrain, and through how focus groups create a ‘public’ and a social psychology. These relationships also relate to Ian Hackings ideas of ‘making up people’ and control. Hacking states that new slots were created in order to fit and enumerate people, thus this created new ways of people to be (Hacking, 161). This also has a direct relationship to forms of control (Hacking 164), as the classification of people in turn results in the ability to govern said people. Thus, surveys/polls, ethnography and focus groups create new

The public can thus be governed, as the public’s emotions can be mapped and can thus be manipulated. As organizations depend on public approval, they are faced with the issue of ‘engineering’ the publics consent in terms of programs or goals, thus the application of scientific principles, or focus groups are tied to getting support from people on the basis of said ideas and programs (Bernays, 114). Bernays also states that the ideas conveyed through these modes of observation become part of the people themselves (Bernays, 120). Therefore, when the public is convinced of an idea, it will proceed to take action (Bernays, 120). This creates modes of governance as the public is given an opinion and said opinion in turn is used to manufacture and manipulate public approval. For example, Bernays states that the engineering of consent is the very essence of the democratic process, due to the freedom to persuade and suggest (Bernays, 114). Therefore, a key factor in its approach is to influence public thought (Bernays, 115). Thus, within a democracy, one party may accomplish their win principally by the engineering of consent (Bernays,