In the current climate, rapid ethnographic assessments are the research method we need

Rapid responses in the social sciences require rapid research methods. In this Q&A, Thurka Sangaramoorthy and Karen Kroeger, authors of Rapid Ethnographic Assessments: A Practical Approach and Toolkit for Collaborative Community Research (Routledge 2020), discuss the benefits and limitations of rapid ethnographic assessments. Unlike traditional ethnographic research methods which are lengthy and resource intensive, REAs provide timely, low-cost data collection and dissemination that can produce rich understandings of social, economic and policy factors that contribute to the root causes of emerging situations in a variety of contexts.