Research

Park ethnography is open and collaborative, inviting the active involvement of stakeholders in the research, planning, and presentation of findings. Ethnographers have found that a group's participation enhances the study's accuracy and value to the Park Service. Ethnographers make their findings available through a variety of National Park Service publications and reports.

Ethnographic research has been conducted in parks since before the Ethnography Program's inception in 1981, has covered a diversity of subjects, and has been published in a variety of media. Some of the more recent venues of publication are Common Ground and Cultural Resource Management, two of the Park Service's flagship journals.

Other articles have appeared in special features of Common Ground and Cultural Resource Management devoted entirely to ethnography.

Still others are in various NPS newsletters where ethnographic research has been summarized or its progress reported.

Finally, the results of perhaps most research have been distributed through limited-circulation reports. Sometimes referred to as "gray literature" these reports have often had the most direct influence on park planning and resource management policy.