Abstract
The incorporation of various information and communication technologies (ICTs) in ethnographic methods mandates a reconsideration of the understanding and practice of fieldwork. In this article, we explore how the ‘field site’ may be reimagined in today’s highly mobile, ICT-facilitated world. Based on our research among Indian transnational families and young migrant workers from Malaysia, we argue that the field may be conceived as a collection of ‘field events’ that are co-created by ethnographers, their study participants, and ICTs. As ICTs are increasingly intertwined with people’s lives and thereby feature importantly in ethnographic fieldwork, we encourage ethnographers to carefully consider how these devices and platforms actively shape their ethnographic data as well as their relations with study participants.
Highlights
Late one evening in 2014, Tanja Ahlin was sitting at the kitchen table in a home in Kerala, South India, enjoying a quiet moment after dinner, when the sound of an incoming Skype call came from one of the bedrooms
We explore what may become of the field when the ethnographer follows her study participants by traveling to some of them and by interacting with others via information and communication technologies (ICTs)
Based on two research projects that we conducted individually among South Asians, namely Indian transnational families of nurses (Ahlin; see Ahlin 2018a, 2018b) and Malaysian highly mobile youth (Li), we argue that the notion of ‘field events’ may help to understand various ways that ICTs and people collaborate in ethnographic work
Summary
Late one evening in 2014, Tanja Ahlin was sitting at the kitchen table in a home in Kerala, South India, enjoying a quiet moment after dinner, when the sound of an incoming Skype call came from one of the bedrooms. We propose the notion of ‘field event’ to shift the focus from the field as something that is situated in geographic and social spaces (‘site’), whether physical or digital/virtual (Marcus 1995; Hine 2000; Pink et al 2015), towards understanding the field as a collection of ‘events’ that are co-created within specific practices by ethnographers, their study participants, and ICTs. Based on two research projects that we conducted individually among South Asians, namely Indian transnational families of nurses (Ahlin; see Ahlin 2018a, 2018b) and Malaysian highly mobile youth (Li), we argue that the notion of ‘field events’ may help to understand various ways that ICTs and people collaborate in ethnographic work.
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