This article considers « good-enough ethnographies » along with proposals to extend this research strategy. I present the advantages inherent in ethnographic research projects that use organizations as a unit of analysis. I then outline the main principles of the participatory approach. I illustrate the pertinence of these two research strategies based on my doctoral project, which consists of a participatory ethnography with two organizations working for access to housing for low-income households in Parc-Extension, a neighbourhood in central-west Montréal. I conclude the article by sharing my considerations of the role of ethnographers as intermediaries and as creators of connections among different social worlds, in particular the world of university research, the different communities that participate in these studies and the audiences, academic or other, that read and criticize the publications based on these studies.