Ethnography and Qualitative Research Staying Relevant [closed]

Question

How must ethnography be re-calibrated for a moment driven by the study of complex phenomena like globalization or mass mediation, things ethnography was decidedly not concocted to study?

Answer 1

Ethnography has been 're-calibrated' for Computer-Mediated Communication and related complex cultural phenomena, because anthropology, sociology and psychology (to name some) have never stop analysing them.

Technologically mediated environments prevent researchers from directly observing research participants. The online environment requires adjustments in how ethnographers define the setting of their research, conduct participant observation and interviews, obtain access to settings and research subjects, and deal with the ethical dilemmas posed by the medium.

Some publications / articles you can check, just to name a few:

• Ethnography goes online: towards a user-centred methodology to research interpersonal communication on the internet

• Ethnographic Approaches to the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication

• Virtual Ethnography: Interactive Interviewing Online as Method

• The Boundaries of Ethnography

If you think the subjects ethnology was not concocted to study in its beginning are not complex, take a second look at ties of kinship or religious studies. Culture always means a complex analysis!