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  • An Anthropolo Gical Approach To Locating The Web: Methods For Studying The Impact of New Media On - and Off-Line - PGRA 2010 Conference

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    Anthropological approaches to the Internet and new technologies are rapidly expanding areas of inquiry within the social sciences. While the existence of desktop hardware and wireless devices is self-evident, the elusive placelessness of the web has caused profound practical and analytical issues. In popular science, the study of virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft makes headlines for challenging what we know about place-based society. Such arguments have prompted field researchers to fundamentally rethink the methodologies that have traditionally been applied to ethnographic fieldwork in order to explore virtual networks and online communities on their own terms. However, online concerns are not separate or detached from offline realities. New technologies are thoroughly embedded in our everyday lives. My research adventure has therefore been to locate the Internet. I embraced traditional on-the-ground methods to bypass virtuality in making sense of the “placeless cloud” that we take for granted. How do we situate websites, Facebook, email and texting within a communicative framework that is continually evolving in crosscutting trajectories with other forms of paper, wired and wireless media? Are “Web 2.0” and “social media” anything new? Is the Internet a social tool or an ego-centric, individualizing entity? Is it bounded by traditional categories of social stratification like class, gender and geography, or does it efface and transgress them? My doctoral research, based on 15 months of intensive participant observation in a Catalan city, tackled these issues head-on with a multifaceted approach to understanding the social impact of new media in a contemporary urban setting. I present here a critical review of my methods for Internet research wherein I explored technology as a continuous aspect of physical geography and reveal key findings which proved these methods to be worthwhile.

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    Anthropological approaches to the Internet and new technologies are rapidly expanding areas of inquiry within the social sciences. While the existence of desktop hardware and wireless devices is self-evident, the elusive placelessness of the web has caused profound practical and analytical issues. In popular science, the study of virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft makes headlines for challenging what we know about place-based society. Such arguments have prompted field researchers to fundamentally rethink the methodologies that have traditionally been applied to ethnographic fieldwork in order to explore virtual networks and online communities on their own terms. However, online concerns are not separate or detached from offline realities. New technologies are thoroughly embedded in our everyday lives. My research adventure has therefore been to locate the Internet. I embraced traditional on-the-ground methods to bypass virtuality in making sense of the “placeless cloud” that we take for granted. How do we situate websites, Facebook, email and texting within a communicative framework that is continually evolving in crosscutting trajectories with other forms of paper, wired and wireless media? Are “Web 2.0” and “social media” anything new? Is the Internet a social tool or an ego-centric, individualizing entity? Is it bounded by traditional categories of social stratification like class, gender and geography, or does it efface and transgress them? My doctoral research, based on 15 months of intensive participant observation in a Catalan city, tackled these issues head-on with a multifaceted approach to understanding the social impact of new media in a contemporary urban setting. I present here a critical review of my methods for Internet research wherein I explored technology as a continuous aspect of physical geography and reveal key findings which proved these methods to be worthwhile.

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    An Anthropolo Gical Approach To Locating The Web: Methods For Studying The Impact of New Media On - and Off-Line - PGRA 2010 Conference

    Uploaded by

    Fran Barone
    Anthropological approaches to the Internet and new technologies are rapidly expanding areas of inquiry within the social sciences. While the existence of desktop hardware and wireless devices is self-evident, the elusive placelessness of the web has caused profound practical and analytical issues. In popular science, the study of virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft makes headlines for challenging what we know about place-based society. Such arguments have prompted field researchers to fundamentally rethink the methodologies that have traditionally been applied to ethnographic fieldwork in order to explore virtual networks and online communities on their own terms. However, online concerns are not separate or detached from offline realities. New technologies are thoroughly embedded in our everyday lives. My research adventure has therefore been to locate the Internet. I embraced traditional on-the-ground methods to bypass virtuality in making sense of the “placeless cloud” that we take for granted. How do we situate websites, Facebook, email and texting within a communicative framework that is continually evolving in crosscutting trajectories with other forms of paper, wired and wireless media? Are “Web 2.0” and “social media” anything new? Is the Internet a social tool or an ego-centric, individualizing entity? Is it bounded by traditional categories of social stratification like class, gender and geography, or does it efface and transgress them? My doctoral research, based on 15 months of intensive participant observation in a Catalan city, tackled these issues head-on with a multifaceted approach to understanding the social impact of new media in a contemporary urban setting. I present here a critical review of my methods for Internet research wherein I explored technology as a continuous aspect of physical geography and reveal key findings which proved these methods to be worthwhile.

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    of 15

    An anthropological approach to

    locating the web


    Methods for studying the impact
    of new media on- and off-line

    Francine Barone
    PhD Candidate (Social Anthropology), University of Kent
    Administrator, Open Anthropology Cooperative
    email: fb51@kent.ac.uk
    web: http://kent.academia.edu/FrancineBarone
    http://openanthcoop.ning.com
    Presentation Overview
    • Research as adventure
    • Moving beyond “real” and “virtual”
    • Methods in practice
    • Findings from the field
    • Conclusion: Place and the web
    Introduction to anthropological
    adventure
    • The ethnographic method and participant-
    observation
    • Locating “the field”: where is the Internet?

    Image: infreemation.com
    Expectations of new media

    • The internet and debates about the impact


    of technology on humanity
    • The real and the virtual
    • Potentialities of utopia and dystopia
    • The "global village" with "no sense of place"
    (Appadurai 1996) has yet to arrive
    Moving beyond “real” and
    “virtual”
    • Online and offline are not opposed
    • Technological determinism
    • People are not passive recipients of new
    media, but actively make and re-make it
    according to their needs
    • Continuum of social, cultural and
    technological tools and media
    How?

    • How can we study the internet as embedded


    in everyday life?
    • “Virtual” methods are not enough
    • Place is important! The internet exists in
    nations, cities, towns, villages and homes.
    • Return to offline research to discover the
    meaning of online practices
    Field Location: Figueres,
    Catalonia, Spain
    City of Figueres
    • Population (2008): ~45,000
    • Commercial city, Dali
    • Catalan city

    Teatre-Museu Salvador Dali, Figueres Street in Figueres


    Research Questions

    • How is the Internet being used?


    • What impact(s) does the web have on social
    life, relationships, families and/or
    communities?
    • What do people think about technology and
    modernity?
    • First: What about Figuerenc society?
    Methods in Practice (1)
    Web-based:
    • Pre-field data gathering; web trawling
    • Fieldwork blog
    • Figueres Forum
    • Online surveys
    • Participation in online social networking
    (Facebook, Fotolog, Badoo, YouTube,
    Tumblr, Flickr)
    Online material
    Methods in Practice (2)
    In the field:
    • Participation and observation
    – Street/public events, everyday affairs
    • Interviews
    – Formal, informal, content-aided
    • Surveys, questionnaires
    • Technology mapping – phones, internet,
    cybercafes
    Findings from the field
    • Cross-over: online and offline practices
    • Youth protests: Facebook, graffiti, print
    media and football

    Youth protest outside the Town Hall, Figueres


    Conclusions

    • Online concerns are invariably tied to offline


    realities
    • Place and physical geography remain
    important when dealing with technology
    • Cyberspace is not “placeless”, it is tethered
    to the ground
    • Online research alone is insufficient and can
    be misleading
    Thank you …

    Questions?

    Are you interested in anthropology? Want to learn more?


    With nearly 3,500 members, the Open Anthropology Cooperative
    is the world's largest online community of anthropologists and it is
    freely open to anyone with an interest in the study of humanity,
    culture and society.
    http://openanthcoop.ning.com

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