ASB 300: Food and Culture
Coffee Shop Observation
ANSWER TEMPLATE
PART 1: PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION FIELDNOTES (12 points)
Copy and paste your formalized field notes here. They should be at least two pages (12-point
font, 1-inch margins, single-spaced) in length.
PART 2: DIRECT OBSERVATION TABLE (12 points)
ID
Gender Age Race/Ethnicity Appearance
Example Man
20s
White
Wearing khaki
shorts and a
plain blue
polo. Dark
brown hair cut
short. Cleanshaven. No
glasses.
Behavior
Talking to ID2
while in line.
Playing with
phone while
waiting for
order. Said
“Thank you”
Coffee/Food
Order
Grande
pumpkin
spice latte
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
PART 3: OBSERVATIONS (20 points)
Look through your notes and look for similarities (themes). You need to identify two themes from
your participant observation notes and two themes from you direct observation notes. At least
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three of your themes need to be related to topics we have covered in the course in some way and
you need to cite the course material in your discussion. Each observation write-up needs to be
50-100 words.
a. Observation 1:
b. Observation 2:
c. Observation 3:
d. Observation 4:
PART 4: REFLECTION (15 points)
e. Discuss the merits of using participant observation vs. direction observation. Which
method was more fruitful for this type of research? Why? (100-200 words)
f. In what ways do you think your own cultural identity and background affected how you
”saw” and understood the environment and activities you observed? We all have biases.
What are some actual (or possible) biases that you bring to this research? (100-200 words)
g. How has completing this assignment and the coursework (lectures, readings, videos,
discussion boards) changed the ways that you view coffee and the large categories of food
and eating? (100-200 words)
WORKS CITED (6 points)
For this assignment, you were required to cite at least three course sources. You can use any
accepted citation format (e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago). Each source listed here needs to have a
corresponding in-text citation.
FORMATTING (10 points)
Correct spelling and grammar are expected in this assignment. Additionally, you are expected to
use this template to provide your answers, which should all appear in sentence and paragraph
form. Please adhere as closely as possible to the provided word counts.
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ASB 300: Food and Culture
Coffee Shop Observation
Directions
Purpose:
In two of the readings for this module, the topic of coffee was discussed in relationship to class
(Roseberry 1996) and gender (Reitz 2007). Coffee has also analyzed for its association with
neighborliness (Taylor 1981), its role in American history (McDonald and Tapik 2008) and for
the unfamiliar language used by some coffee providers like Starbucks (Elliott 2002). These are
just a few examples of the ways in which coffee has been used as a tool to investigate a number
of different dimensions of culture. In this assignment, we are asking you to also use coffee and
the coffee shop as a lens through which to observe, record, and analyze human behavior.
Skills and Knowledge:
Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:
• Apply basic participant observation and direct observation methods
• Analyze people’s behaviors around a particular food item (coffee)
• Describe the challenges of collecting ethnographic data
• Reflect on your role as a researcher and your perceptions of food and identity
Task:
In this assignment, you will be practicing the anthropological methods of participant and direct
observation. The first step in completing this assignment is identifying a coffee shop where you
can feasibly complete this project. Please be aware that you may need to ask permission (from a
manager, for example) to hang out for a while and take notes. If necessary, explain that you are
there for a class assignment at Arizona State University. In fact, it will help if you show your
ASU ID and possible even wear an ASU shirt if you own one. Be sensitive to the fact that
managers may not want students interfering with their business and clients may be wary or even
afraid of strangers who seem to be conducting surveillance. You should adjust your behavior to
culturally-appropriate norms, the same way that anthropologists do when they are in the field.
Make sure as well that you are in a safe location. If you sense a situation becoming unsafe, leave
immediately!
After selecting a coffee shop in which you can feasibly complete this project, you will need to
find a time that you can do approximately 1-1.5 hours of observation there. Your first task to
complete 20 minutes of participant observation. During this time, you should be taking a
significant amount of notes. You should be writing down as many observations as possible. It is
strongly suggested that you handwrite these notes so that the computer does not become a barrier
between you and your environment. You might want to develop a short-hand system of
abbreviations that you can use to speed up the note-taking process. You never know what might
become important information later. (i.e. environmental conditions, color, weather, light, shapes,
time, smell, taste, season, atmosphere, and ambiance). You also need to be specific in your notes.
Don’t expect your memory to be perfect. Note the time something happens, what a sign says, etc.
Your notes should focus on the physical space, including design and layout (consider drawing a
quick map), your sensory impressions (tastes, textures, smells, and sounds), as well as
observations about the other people in the shop and their behavior. The latter will likely be the
bulk of your notes and you should focus on the following:
• Appearance: (clothing, age, gender, physical appearance). Should be noted with respect
to membership in groups – does it correlate with profession, social status, socioeconomic
class, religion or ethnicity?
• Verbal behavior and interactions: (who speaks to whom and for how long, who initiates
interaction, language or dialect spoken, tone of voice). Note gender, age, ethnicity and
profession of speakers and dynamics of interaction.
• Physical behavior and gestures: (what people do, who does what, who interacts with
whom, who is not interacting). Note how people use their bodies and voices to
communicate different emotions; how behaviors indicate feelings, social rank or
profession
• Personal space: relationship between individual preference for personal space denotes
about relationships with others
• Human traffic: (who enters, leaves, spends time). Note where people enter/exit; how long
they stay; who they are; alone or accompanied- Find people who stand out. Try to
identify people who receive a lot of attention from others or you. Note characteristics of
these people; what differentiates; are they consulted or do they approach others; are they
strangers or well-known?
Once you have completed 20 minutes of participant observation, you will need to stop and go
back through your notes, filling in any information you missed, and summarizing your
observations. Then, you will begin conducting direct observation.
For the direct observation portion of your data collection, you should focus on the service
counter at the coffee shop. You need to take note of every person who goes to the counter and
their behavior. There is a table in the Assignment Template that you should use to record the
characteristics of each person and their behaviors as you observe and interpret them. You should
complete this direct observation for 20 minutes or until you have recorded 20 people, whichever
comes first. After completing the direct observation, you will need to take time to immediately
return to your notes to fill in any missing information or provide additional details.
After you have completed both of your observations, you will need to type up your notes. You
are required to provide at least two (single-spaced) pages of notes for the participant observation
and a completed table for the direct observation. You will then need to identify four themes from
your observation (two from the participant observation and two from the direct observation). At
least three of the themes need to relate to a concept or idea that has been discussed thus far in the
course. Each theme and its associated observations needs to be discussed and for the theme
related to class concepts, course sources need to be cited.
Finally, you will reflect upon the experience of completing this assignment using the questions
posed in the assignment template.
Criteria for Success:
In order to be successful in this assignment, do the following:
• Download and use the template to answer the assignment questions.
•
•
•
Use proper spelling and grammar, including sentence and paragraph format where
appropriate.
Check out the rubric to see how the assignment will be graded. Compare your completed
assignment to the rubric to ensure you have met every expectation.
ASK QUESTIONS IF ANYTHING IS UNCLEAR!!! Please use the Hallway
Conservations board to ask us if you are unclear about any of the expectations of this
assignment.
Elliott, Charlene. 2002. Sipping Starbucks: (Re)considering Communicative Media. In New
Patterns in Canadian Communication, edited by P. Attallah and L. Shade, pp. 107-117. Toronto:
Nelson Education.
McDonald, Michelle Craig and Steven Topik. 2008. Americanizing Coffee: The Refashioning of
a Consumer Culture. In Food and Globalization: Consumption, Markets, and Politics in the
Modern World, edited by A. Nutzenadel and F. Trentmann, pp. 109-128. Berg: Bloomsbury.
Reitz, Julie Kjendal. 2007. Espresso: A Shot of Masculinity. Food, Culture & Society 10(1): 721.
Roseberry, William. 1996. The rise of yuppie coffees and the reimagination of class in the
United States. American Anthropologist 98(4): 762-775.
Taylor, Lawrence. 1981. Coffee: The Bottomless Cup. In The American Dimension: Cultural
Myths and Social Realities, 2nd Edition, edited by W. Arens and S. Montague, pp. 107-112.
Sherman Oaks, CA: Alfred Publishing.
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