Virtual Ethnography

Using the Internet to Study Gay Culture in Japan

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2392679
AutoresMark J Mclelland (The University of Queensland), Mark Mclelland (The University of Queensland, autor correspondente)
Ano2002
Volume5
Fascículo4
Páginas387-406
Data de publicação2002-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSexualities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1363460702005004001
OpenAlexW1970581179
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas25
Referências citadas14

After English and Chinese, Japanese is the most widely represented language on the internet and yet few studies have been made of how communities in Japan engage with this new technology. This article looks at the internet both as a virtual space in which Japanese and foreign gay men can meet as well as a means for making offline assignations. The author reflects on his own use of the internet in his research on gay communities in Japan, suggesting that the internet has made it possible to reach out to and work with a wider variety of Japanese gay men than was previously possible. It is suggested that gay men's use of the internet in Japan is illustrative of Appadurai's argument that this new technology provides a unique opportunity for relationship building between individuals who are otherwise deterritorialized, diasporic and transnational

Argument (complex analysis · Ethnography · Media studies · Sociology · Space (punctuation) · The Internet · Variety (cybernetics · Virtual space · World Wide Web · Anthropology · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Computer Science · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Japanese History and Culture