Reflections on Conducting Fieldwork under Digital Surveillance
Investigating Labour Politics in China's Tech Industry
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3985362 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hong Yu Liu (0000-0003-1754-0145, University of Cambridge, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 152-162 |
| Publication date | 2022-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Contemporary Asia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0047-2336 • E-ISSN: 1752-7554 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00472336.2021.1955293 |
| OpenAlex | W3192378314 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 21 |
This article discusses how digitally mediated state control of citizens and society are affecting fieldwork in the People’s Republic of China. The aims of this article are: (i) to present my first-hand experience of conducting fieldwork in Shanghai and Hangzhou as a foreign investigator; and (ii) to exposit two types of digital surveillance encountered during fieldwork. The first is referred to as “digital profiling”: state authorities’ profiling of researchers based on their online identity and online activities. The second is “digital monitoring”: state authorities’ monitoring of the communication and interactions between researchers and informants online. In the final part of this article, some of the ethical considerations pertaining to the conduct of fieldwork under digital surveillance in China are considered. Consequently, it is hoped that the analysis presented here will benefit researchers at all career levels who are planning to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in authoritarian countries such as China
Authoritarianism · China · Democracy · Ethnography · People's Republic · Political science · Politics · Profiling (computer programming · Public relations · Sociology · State (computer science · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Sex work and related issues
Responsive Authoritarianism in China
Let Many Civil Societies Bloom
Research, Ethics and Risk in the Authoritarian Field
Alone together
Survive and Thrive
Whistle‐blowing in the digital era
Authoritarianism as a Research Constraint
President XI's Surveillance State
Fieldwork Under Surveillance
Causal attribution in block-recursive social systems
Researching men who pay for sex
The Boundaries of Research in an Authoritarian State
The Unsayable in Arts-Based Research
Skype interviewing
Conflict chatnography
Don't Work for Free
Riders on the Storm
Good Gig, Bad Gig
Work, Employment and Society
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |