Workshop: Modes of making ethnographies
Chairs: Laura Hirvi (University of Jyväskylä, laura.j.hirvi (at) jyu.fi) & Anna Haverinen (University of Turku)
Preferred workshop language: English
Ethnologists seek to achieve a better understanding of the human experience through the exploration of different kinds of cultural representations. Findings are often presented in the form of an ethnography based on data that researchers collected in their ethnographic fieldwork.
However, much time has passed since the birth of ethnography. By now the array of what ethnographers consider as eligible research tools as well as research sites has significantly grown. Today, for example, the Internet offers ethnographers an important research tool, but also a research site that they increasingly set out to explore. The traditional field in ethnography is no longer a static location, but a fluent experience which is constructed in the actual fieldwork as well as in the writing process of the ethnography.
This workshop is open for papers that explore the where and how in ethnography and reflect on questions such as how far the choice and design of a research site affects the manner in which ethnographies are done, and what role the researcher plays in the making of ethnographies in the 21st century.
Presentations:
Hirvi, Laura
The role of the Internet in the study of mobile people
When the field is marked by a high degree of mobility and dispersion, and its literal location is unknown, are conventional fieldwork methods apt enough to kick off the fieldwork enterprise? Or is there perhaps, as I argue, a need to officially enlarge the corpus of traditional fieldwork methods by welcoming the Internet as a research tool into the fold?
This paper seeks to reflect on the various ways in which the Internet can assists in conducting multi-local fieldwork amongst mobile people. My fieldwork conducted amongst Sikhs with an immigrant background, living in Yuba City (California) and Helsinki (Finland), will serve as a case study. In particular, this paper will highlight the usefulness of the Internet, and especially the social network service Facebook, for getting and staying in contact with informants. Question concerning research ethics and how to exit the field will be discussed briefly in the end of the presentation.
Haataja, Anne
Ethnography “here”, “there” and virtually “in between”: on modern-day multi-sitedness in transnational anthropology
Transnational anthropology is interested in the nature and construction of (as well as interaction between) different geographical, political, social and cultural locations. Transnational subjects, like international migrants and other modern-day nomads, move in and between various separate but simultaneously interconnected ‘places’ and ‘spaces’. The social anthropologist’s task is to grasp the complex relations and networks constructed and maintained across national and cultural boundaries. Moreover, technical innovations, such as the internet, continuously diversify the ways in which transnational social relations and communities are constructed and kept alive. In research settings constructing of “anthropology at home” and many other geographically dispersed and even ‘imagined’ locations deemed meaningful by the research subjects, traditional definitions for basic concepts - such as those of ‘field’ and ‘community’ - may no longer apply. Face-to-face interaction and physical participant observation are still perceived as the corner stones of anthropological research today, but the importance of transnational communication conducted in virtual reality can no longer be dismissed. In this presentation, I discuss the relation between “traditional” field work methods and modern-day virtual ethnography in relation to my ongoing PhD study on migrants of North African descent in Finland. I contemplate some chances and challenges imposed by multiple possible sites of doing ethnography, including virtual reality understood as a kind of ‘space’.
Suenson, Espen
Etnografi i datorernas tid
(jeg kan holde foredraget på enten svensk eller engelsk)
Etnografi er en beskrivelsesform, der forsøger at give et indtryk af et folkeslags karakter ved at give en bred beskrivelse, der viser sammenhængene mellem de forskellige dele af folkelivet. Der er således to sider af etnografisk metode. Dels de metoder, som man bruger til at konstruere den etnografiske beskrivelse, det vil sige deltagerobservation, interviews og andre. Dels den metode at bruge den etnografiske beskrivelse som grundlag for den videre forskning, hvad man også kunne kalde etnografisk analyse.
Som eksempel vil jeg diskutere min forskning i arbejdslivets praksis blandt programmører. Min forskning benytter sig af de klassiske etnografiske metoder: Interview, deltagerobservation, og, i mindre grad, fotografi og indsamling af artefakter. Materialet analyseres etnografisk i den forstand, at jeg forsøger at sætte selve arbejdsaktiviteten, programmering, i sammenhæng med alle de fænomener, der omgiver den. Den etnografiske indsamling og analysemetode er valgt, fordi jeg grundlæggende antager, at praksis må ses og forstås i sammenhæng med de omgivelser, der former den.
Jeg vil derudover komme ind på brugen af internettet i etnografisk undersøgelse, og hvorfor jeg til at starte med har fravalgt denne indsamlingsmetode. Det materiale, der er synligt på internettet, er ofte en del af en mere omfattende praksis, der rækker ud over internettet - eksempler på dette er Facebook og programmørernes arbejdsrelaterede brug af internettet.
