The Anthropological ‘Field’ Is Often Thought of in Terms of a Bounded, Geographical Locality. What Specific Methodological Problems Are Raised by This Definition?

The Anthropological ‘Field’ Is Often Thought of in Terms of a Bounded, Geographical Locality. What Specific Methodological Problems Are Raised by This Definition?

Ethnography has seen fundamental changes from its colonial origins and yet, through increasing processes of globalisation, Malinowski’s principles of fieldwork and method of participant observation are still core contributors to much successful ethnographic research today. As a method it has become much more multifaceted; the traditional approach of “living without other white men, right among the natives” (Malinowski 1922:6) has been made redundant, or at least been reinterpreted, by ‘halfie’ anthropologists who de-exoticised the ‘other’ in terms of geographical location and language. This principle in particular naturally creates a heavy barrier across opportunities for online community research, unless we interpret ‘living with’ as a virtual state of being amongst or speaking with community members, due to the lack of physical human presence and wide mobility of each online individual. In this respect, and given that anthropology is a malleable practice, which by nature appreciates the certainty and fluidity of cultural change, it may be worth questioning to what extent Malinowski’s fieldwork guidelines are relevant today and whether they will always be open to interpretation.
Cyberspace invites the rethinking of western notions of culture as linked to location. This paper aims to touch on the significance of the Western approach to fieldwork in cyberspace but with a focus on the concept of the discursive as a method to understanding online communities. My findings in this respect will question the virtual human experience as different and segregated from ‘real’ experience, relating to the supposed boundary between on and offline.


Bounded in Space and Temporality

Questions over methodology come into light when considering the temporal issues linked to cyber-culture, being that online research must be conducted in relatively small gaps of human communication compared to offline ethnography; the nature of online communities are such that it would be...

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