In qualitative research the term “thick description” is used as a way of describing observations and interpretations that incorporate a level contextual detail. Thick descriptions take into account the directly unobservable contextual understandings that make an action or social event meaningful. Developed by anthropologist Clifford Geertz in the early 1970s to describe his own approach to ethnographic research, thick description has since been adopted by qualitative researchers across various disciplines. The approach remains relevant as an accepted norm for the collection of rich qualitative data in much of ethnographic and qualitative case study research.