digital methods

With the Phone in the Field: Making the Ethnographic Toolbox Resilient to Change

close-up phooto of an eye looking to the right
SIGNE HELBO GREGERS SØRENSEN Alexandra Institute The characteristic smell that makes you think of a summer cabin and the warm feeling when touching a wooden surface. It was such sensory insights that we hoped to obtain during a study with the aim to explore people’s experiences of living in wooden houses. But then the COVID pandemic hit. Instead, we had to find ways of entering people’s homes through digital means and at a distance. One day during the study we received a message from one of the informants via the app that was used to collect snapshots of their homes: “ (..) But I see no reason in showcasing my private home on video and if you can’t proceed without it, I’m done with your silly study…” With the phone in the field, what had suddenly happened? This submission explores these digitally mediated encounters with a post-phenomenological lens, as it can give us insight as to what happens when trying to make ethnography resilient to change. By reflecting on technology’s mediating role, we can harvest...

Tutorial: Digital Ethnography in Domestic Spaces

JENNY KENNEDY RMIT University ROWAN WILKEN RMIT University Overview This tutorial explores research in people’s homes through digital methods. The instructors focus on how to utilize participant’s existing digital skills and materials to undertake ethnographic research on and in their home environment, and develop a greater awareness of how geographical and socio-economic circumstances impact the research process. Participants collaborate to discuss how understanding of domestic contexts might frame our research design and specific methods, and consider ways for enhancing the collaborative and participatory process of data collection in the domestic space. This tutorial was presented in full at EPIC202020. The video includes instructor presentations; discussions and breakout sessions are excluded for the privacy of the participants. Instructors BROWSE ALL TUTORIALS...