The key elements to the success of any ethnography is the quality of the informants. Yet, since the beginning of the practice of ethnography, the selection of those key informants has almost always been left to serendipity or to the necessity of accepting anyone willing to talk. Are these the people who can provide the most accurate and complete picture of the culture they describe? Recent controversies show the perils of an unsystematic approach.In this concise book, Johnson demonstrates that ethnographic informants can be selected in a systematic fashion, maximizing the amount of accurate information given to the ethnographer and the variety of viewpoints the researcher has access to. Using recent work on cultural consensus and network analysis, Johnson offers simple techniques for determining the number and categories of informants needed in a given setting and how to pinpoint key people to approach for information. Replete with examples from a variety of settings, Selecting Ethnographic Informants is a valuable methodological aid to all engaged in fieldwork.

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