According to Lofland analytical enquiry of social phenomena is made up of three aspects: the character the causes and the consequences and the forms and varieties they display. He suggests that the first is qualitative and the second and third are quantitative aspects. There are, of course examples of qualitative research frameworks that encompass all three, eg: grounded theory but fundamentally qualitative research is the first, 'seeing into the life of things' towards a spiral of understanding. It is a quest for accuracy and depth of understanding and ways of conveying this to others that keeps faith with accuracy and depth and to Wolcott conceptual frameworks are sufficient and theorising is not necessary. Ethnography is a picture of a way of life of some interacting human group and to Woods it is the faithfulness to culture as it is found and the description through conceptualisation of general and essential characteristics of interactions that are paramount.This paper will unpack some of the contextual aspects of qualitative fieldwork, an activity essential for the 'thick description' we desire. These contexts can be illuminated by such activities as asking questions - who, when, where, what, how , how much, why, through the importation of small theories - hypothesis, ideas, assumptions, hunches and notions (Wolcott 1995) - as sensitizing theories (Strauss and Corbin 1990), through examining intentions - often left out in observational only research - and by locating the studied phenomena in its social milieu, and particularly for interactionist ethnographers, to investigate the process and flux.