Ethnography in the Open Science and Digital Age: New Debates, Dilemmas, and Issues

Download or read book Ethnography in the Open Science and Digital Age: New Debates, Dilemmas, and Issues written by Colin Jerolmack and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2024-06-19 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the current moment, ethnography is caught up in a number of debates that have led ethnographers to reflect on classic methodological and ethical dilemmas in new ways. The “replication crisis” had led to a movement for “open science” (e.g., registering hypotheses in advance; sharing codes and data), but it seems unclear that recommended best practices are appropriate to ethnography. It’s even up for debate whether ethnography is more of a social science or a genre. The fact that many ethnographies are widely read invites questions and criticisms from beyond the ivory tower–including our subjects–about the ethics of representation (e.g., who has license to write about whom) and the extent to which journalistic standards of data verification and transparency (e.g., fact checking, naming sources) should apply to qualitative research. Some ethnographers are calling for more open, critical discussions about the embodied dimensions of fieldwork, including not only emotions but also issues like sexual intimacy and harassment. There’s also a growing expectation that ethnographers empower our subjects to represent and analyze themselves. What’s more, as more of social life is lived online, it becomes increasingly unclear where the boundaries of the “field site” should be drawn and whether ethnographic conventions can be applied wholesale to the study of digital spaces.