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Crafting Ethnographic Relationships During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Germany Using Voice-Based Technologies

Bibliographic Data

ID4564483
AuthorsSibille Merz (0000-0001-9967-6462, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin, Germany, corresponding author), Franziska König (0000-0003-1148-0268, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin, Germany), J Paul (0000-0003-3732-6357, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin, Germany), Andreas Bergholz (0000-0002-0953-1954, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin, Germany), Christine Holmberg (0000-0002-8852-4620, Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane, Neuruppin, Germany)
Year2024
Volume43
Issue3
Pages219-232
Publication date2024-04-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMedical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0145-9740 • E-ISSN: 1545-5882
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01459740.2024.2324891
PMID38451490
OpenAlexW4392562775
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited37

Drawing on a two-year ethnography of care practices during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, we discuss the affordances of voice-based technologies (smartphones, basic mobile phones, and landline telephones) in collecting ethnographic data and crafting relationships with participants. We illustrate how such technologies allowed us to move with participants, eased data collection through the social expectations around their use, and reoriented our attention to the multiple qualities of sound. Adapting research on the performativity of technology, we argue that voice-based technologies integrated us into participants' everyday lives while also maintaining physical distance in times of infectious sociality

Aesthetics · Affordance · Art · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Data collection · Ethnography · Landline · Linguistics · Materiality (auditing · Media studies · Pandemic · Performativity · Phone · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociality · Sociology · Anthropology · Focus Groups and Qualitative Methods · Gender Studies · Medicine · Psychology

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Unique citing works1
Citations per year1
Citation span2026 - 2026 (1)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 1
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