The observer observed. Ethnographic discomforts and (a)symmetrical relationships in a digital ethnography

Begueria, Arantza and Beneito-Montagut, Roser ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5967-4307 2024. The observer observed. Ethnographic discomforts and (a)symmetrical relationships in a digital ethnography. Ethnography 10.1177/14661381241246254

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Abstract

This paper engages in a reflection about the use of social media to carry out fieldwork online for contemporary ethnography. The reflection is based on the ethnographer's experiences of discomforts and affects in digital fieldwork, in which she used her own social media accounts to interact with the interlocutors recruited for the project as a means to create reciprocity with them. This article uses these discomforts as generators of ethical, epistemological, and political reflections by discussing the positionality of the ethnographer in a digital fieldwork. First, it delves into the potential of these discomforts as a reflective tool for knowledge generation. It also reflects on the power dynamics consequence of the position that the anthropologist occupies in the field. Finally, the article initiates a political reflection on academic life when extensive exposure to fieldwork breaks down the boundaries between work and personal life.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	1466-1381
Funders:	Recercaixa - ACUP (Spain)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 February 2024
Date of Acceptance:	19 February 2024
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2024 16:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166535

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