[Air-L] virtual ethnography

Fueg, Oliver O.C.Fueg at exeter.ac.uk
Tue Feb 3 04:08:23 PST 2009


Pearse (and everybody else),

thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, which I, for one, have found very interesting.

On a point of terminological clarification, could you perhaps elaborate a bit on the distinction between virtual ethnography and cyberanthropology, since I think you referred to it before, and I'm not quite clear on what to make of it...

When you say that good ethnography should be reflexive and holistic, do you consider these criteria to be characteristic of scientific practice, or of (good) thinking in general? The point being that your informants / natives etc. may well have an inherently more holistic approach to the subject matter, and more so, if they are to some extent reflexive... so, how do you conceive of your role as an ethnographer in reflecting upon / presenting / interpreting those observed practices? And where do those reflections and the -graphy part of it belong - do they have to (and can they) be dissociated from the field context to be legitimate? Does virtual ethnography allow for greater dissociation, and are there special considerations in crossing the virtual/real boundary? I do see the 'factual' link that you refer to, but if I think about Castronova's 'Exodus to the Virtual World', this may well be becoming increasingly frail... ?

Best

Oliver

________________________________________
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Pearse Stokes [pearsestokes at gmail.com]
Sent: 03 February 2009 11:32
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] virtual ethnography

This debate is really getting going now!

As far as virtual ethnography is concerned (and I think even our
discussion here falls into some of these traps) there are some problems
with it as it is generally performed.

This first is just as Rhiannon illustrated "there is a tendency for
internet researchers to play fast and loose with the term "ethnography."
Interviewing on-line participants or "observing" on-line interaction is
often just plain old qualitative research (which is perfectly
legitimate) and the latter on its own might be discourse analysis. Part
of what makes work ethnographic is the presentation of the data. I
expect "thick descriptions" and substantial verbatim comments covering a
range of participant experience, not a few illustrative snippets."
Perhaps this stems from people conducting ethnography without 'proper
training' or a wider cultural shift towards shorter, more journalistic
articles (I'm certainly guilty of this) and reports for business
consumption (also guilty).

Furthermore within this discussion we talk about the 'virtual field'. My
understanding of good ethnography is that is should be reflexive and
holistic. Meaning we should perform a method (of research, of
participation, of 'writing the culture') that is best suited to the
particular field site. The 'virtual' is not a field site any more than
'the real' is. And so virtual ethnographers often fall into that same
dichotomous relationship anthropologists of old did (and anthropologists
since have worked so hard to shift) ... that is the 'anthropological
gaze' upon the 'other'.

Each research project should be approached with an awareness that the
'site' does not necessarily conform to our expectations in terms of
where it begins and ends. In my recent research I have been writing
about the 'Pro-Anorexia' phenomena. This started with some 'virtual
ethnography' but I knew it would be more like cyber-anthropology once I
started to really get down to it. A great deal of the report is
identifying 'where' 'Pro-Ana' is, because just like all 'virtual'
phenomena it transcends the 'virtual'. I'm sure everyone who is involved
in this discussion will agree - as they are sitting in the REAL world,
thinking and physically typing. So to research the 'virtual' is to
assume a shape of your field site. It would be like Malinowski going to
one Island in the Trobriands and deciding that was his only site or
research - he would miss out on the whole Kula Ring!!

As Laetitia said " we coul interpret this as a bit elitist." and
Laetitia is right, but isn't this the place for such elitist discussion? ;)

If you would like to read my report its here:
cyberanthropology.wordpress.com

Thanks for this great debate!!

Pearse

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