Rapport and friendship in ethnographic research

TLDR

Ethnographic fieldwork stresses building rapport with participants, yet scholars warn that rapport—primarily a researcher‑serving trust mechanism—can blur boundaries, especially when its behaviors resemble friendship, potentially confounding objectivity and fostering misunderstandings. The study examines how rapport relates to friendship in ethnographic research, highlighting rapport’s instrumental value, friendship’s problematic influence, and the confusion arising from overlapping rapport‑building behaviors.

Abstract

Most ethnographic fieldwork texts advise us to develop rapport with research participants. Fewer warn us of the problems that might ensue. This paper focuses on rapport's relationship to friendship in ethnographic work and discusses the instrumental role of rapport, the problematic role of friendship, and confusion in interpreting rapport‐building behavior. In traditional ethnographic research, rapport is a trust‐building mechanism that primarily serves the interests of the researcher. Friendship is different from rapport and can confound research objectivity. Yet the similarity of rapport‐building behavior to friendship‐developing behavior can cause misunderstandings and feelings of deception by the researcher and her#shhis others.