Interactive exercise: Burawoy (2009: 204) notes that as participant observers, ‘we don’t have access to some Archimedean standpoint’ (a hypothetical vantage point from which an observer can objectively perceive the subject of inquiry): instead we are always located somewhere ‘in the site, which has grave consequences to what we say’. In groups or pairs, discuss how this statement relates to the four types of observational research presented above. What are the implications of the different standpoints for researchers and research participants? What kind of observational research is the most useful/the most problematic?