Participant Observation: In and out of Virtual Worlds

 Participant Observation is the cornerstone of ethnography



  • the embodied placement of a researcher at a fieldsite as a "social actor"
  • we participate in everyday life and become well-known to our informants
  • we step into the social frame in which activities take place
  • we become directly involved in the activities of daily life-providing an intimate view of both the substance and meaning of social life
  • level of and type of participation is defined by the fieldsite itself
    • considers: gender, race, age, occupation, national origin, sexual orientation, language skills, religion, and political commitment.
    • extended presence signals continued commitment and sincere interest
Entering the field
  • establishing rapport is influenced by various skills and identity sets that the ethnographer embodies
  • also enhanced by the knowledge of social positioning and etiquette within the culture
  • successful rapport allows an ethnographer to get high response rates from informants, giving us more accurate samples
Holistic Endeavor:
  • we look to understand shared practices, meanings, social contexts, and the interrelationships between them
  • read the work of other researchers
  • authentic behaviors arise out of the everyday experiences of interacting (in and out of virtual worlds).
History of participant Observation:
  • Father of PA: Malinowski
  • Particulars of method :Boas
  • Sociology: Durkheim
Experiences: (Prof Greene does dramatic readings)
  • Malinowski: "imagine yourself suddenly set down surrounded by all your gear, alone on a tropical beach close to a native village, while the launch or dinghy which has brought you sails away out of sight"
  • Alan LaFlamme describes his fieldwork in the Bahamas...
  • Roger Keesing ...the Solomon Islands...
  • Lincoln Kaiser...gangs in Chicago...
  • John Hofstatler and Gertrude Huntington... the Hutterites...
  • Napoleon Chagnon...the Yanomamo
  • William Mitchell in Papua New Guinea
The Practice of Participant Observation:
  • participant observation is built on the alignments between engaging in everyday activities and recording and analyzing those activities
  • living and research are part of the same activity
  • online this means acquiring skills needed to play in virtual worlds.
  • informants actively shape our level of involvement
  • informants are impressed by the lvel of interest, knowledge and support an ethnographer applies to their PA
  • the greater the anthropologist's involvement in the fieldsite, the more information they are likely to get from informants (whether the world is virtual or actual)
Preparing for PA Research (suggestions): translated to actual worlds as well
  • setting up a workplace that enhances our research (home office...online, ancillary research office-offline, always consider the particular demands of the fieldsite, I would argue this is just as important in IRL ethnographic research)
  • technological issues
    • computer
    • voice recorder
    • camera
    • interactive technology
    • transcription programs
    • data programs
  • ethnographic self (needs to be prepared whether this entail virtual world skills, language skills, social etiquette, relationship savvy)
  • adopting new skills as needed
  • be receptive to unexpected experiences
  • Accept being a novice/newbie/idiot and ask questions. Respond appropriately to these questions
  • VIRTUAL: creating our "avatar" is as careful a process as presenting an appropriate persona in the field (BODIES ALWAYS CARRY MEANING)
  • respect individuals who do not want to participate in your research
    • KEY INFORMANT
      • initial encounter develops into a deeply collaborative relationship with the informant becoming an invaluable resource throughout the remainder of the process as well as potentially as a friend
      • materialize on their own
      • never the sole source of data
      • deepen ethnographers knowledge about the culture
      • provide access to other institutions and informants


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Urban Legends Interview: Discovering Language

Image
Assuming these widely-shared tales are not actually true, what makes them endure?  Urban legends are those fanciful tales that grip listeners and are spread widely across continents and oceans while repeated by individuals often claiming the facts reported in the tale happened to a “friend of a friend,” or are based on “facts” reported in news reports that the teller of the tale had allegedly read in the past.   A classic example of an enduring urban legend is the enduring tale of the blind, white alligators that inhabit the sewers of New York. In the legends, sun-seeking tourist return from Florida with pet alligators, small babies that quickly became unmanageable and their owners, unwilling to kill them, simply flush them down the toilet. In this environment rich in food (rats), but lacking in sunlight, the alligators became blind albinos, witnessed by the occasional unwary New Yorker of urban legend. they are not necessarily urban nor are they legends in the strict sense of the term
Read more

Initial Themes from Beginning of Fieldwork

Image
                                                                      Chunky Marinara Drag as Inclusion/celebration: Sandy Beach : book newer queens to work with more experienced queens. The mentor thing, it is what we do. Mimi caused a bit of a stir…drag exploded. At the same time, Ru Paul has shoved drag into the mainstream. Its exploded now. Is Ru Paul’s drag race now setting the standard? Will it go back to being cookie cutter…marketting yourself for television instead of entertainment and performance. Cleophatra:  Drag is a celebration of everything, life, unity, inclusion…it should never be something that excludes. The only label I need is my name. Gender queer punk rock aret comedy, dance, camp, queens. Drag queens do not have to conform to a mold. The performance art community is very gender fluid in Philadelophia, in drag, burlesque everywhere. Drag can be cookie cutter or open. In AC, it is open Farrah: Its  our second high school…we were bullied in high school and now the dr
Read more

Fieldwork and Field Methods

Image
  Fieldwork/Field Methods Anthropologists strive to produce DETAILED, SITUATED accounts of specific cultures in a manner that reflects the perspective of the people in that culture.  The concept of THICK DESCRIPTION describes the kind of writing that is rich in situated context (Geertz) Anthropologists have respect for those that we study and their authority Fieldwork is by definition an EMBODIED practice where the anthropologist places themselves physically within the cultural they are studying. What to make of virtual or even technologically mediated participant observation, and can this even be possible? so.... Fieldwork is the foundation of creating  ethnography  in anthropology (Malinowski) The field is the site for doing research, and  fieldworking  is the process of doing it although there are other methods,  participant-observation  is the principle method for collecting data when fieldworking P-O studies people within the context of their (sub) culture fieldworking requires an
Read more