Rethinking digital ethnography

A qualitative approach to understanding interfaces

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2404124
AutoresChristian S Ritter (0000-0001-7394-2646, Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture (MEDIT), Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School (BFM), Tallinn University, Estonia, autor de correspondencia)
Año2022
Volumen22
Número6
Páginas916-932
Fecha de publicación2022-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQualitative Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1468-7941 • E-ISSN: 1741-3109
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/14687941211000540
OpenAlexW3138887514
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas27
Referencias citadas24

Contemporary everyday cultures are increasingly pervaded by digital platforms, making a rethinking of observational research into sociocultural phenomena necessary. Observational practices that remain confined to physical localities face various impasses in the era of digital platforms. Combining participant observation in workplaces where digital platforms are accessed with technical walkthroughs of their interfaces, I make a case for renewing interface ethnography. On one hand, technical walkthroughs reveal the sociocultural assumptions embedded in interfaces and the ways in which their affordances generate symbolic meanings. However, on the other hand, participant observation foregrounds emic perspectives on digital platforms within communities of practice. Based on an ethnographic study of a Norwegian software firm, I argue that the integration of the walkthrough method with participant observation enables researchers to trace the twofold meaning construction inherent in communities of practice whose skilled labor is orientated toward digital platforms. This fusion of methods expands the scope of ethnographic knowledge across the digital-physical continuum

Affordance · Emic and etic · Epistemology · Ethnography · Human–computer interaction · Participant observation · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Software development · Software walkthrough · Anthropology · Computer Science · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction · Open Source Software Innovations · Software