Lockdown Anthropology and Online Surveys

Unprecedented Methods for Unprecedented Times

Bibliographic Data

ID6170899
AuthorsNicholas J Long (0000-0002-4088-1661, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume8
Issue2
Pages294-297
Publication date2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Indian Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2321-0230 • E-ISSN: 2321-7472
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2321023020963839
OpenAlexW3110827956
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited8

This paper explores the value of online surveys as a methodology for conducting anthropological research on, and during, lockdowns implemented to curb the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19.I argue that despite longstanding disciplinary suspicion towards survey methods, qualitative online surveys may be more useful than conventional ethnography for developing the analytical frameworks necessary to comprehend the social realities that are emerging as a result of large-scale social distancing regimes. * * *As SARS-CoV-2 spreads across the world, it has become commonplace to suggest we live in unprecedented times.Certainly, as an anthropologist who has long worked on emergent socialities and citizens' engagements with regimes of governmentality, the pandemic presented me with an unprecedented predicament.I was eager to investigate the new social worlds instigated by the pandemic and contribute to the academic and political debates surrounding them, yet my go-to methodology of ethnographic fieldwork was impossible

Data science · Geography · Political science · Sociology · Computer Science · COVID-19 and Mental Health · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Misinformation and Its Impacts

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