The Googled ethnographer
Saltmarsh, Sue
Saltmarsh, Sue
Author
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how researcher positionality is reconfigured by internet use.
Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on recent ethnographic studies conducted in Australia and Canada, the paper considers here how participant agency is symbolically and materially enacted through technology use.
Findings: The use of information communication technologies by researchers, research participants and industry partners in online information searching, and the production and dissemination of text poses challenges to conventional assumptions of unequal power relations in research sites.
Research limitations/implications: The paper explores methodological, theoretical and practical implications of being a Googled ethnographer whose life, work, professional activities and networks as represented online are available for public scrutiny.
Originality/value: The paper argues, taking inspiration from Sarah Pink's recent work, that the author's and others’ use of information and communication technologies implicates us in shared “entanglements” of responsibility within and beyond research sites. The importance of these entanglements for contemporary thinking about researcher positionality, research relationships and researched/researching subjectivities is also considered.
Keywords
information technology, qualitative research, ethnography
Date
2013
Type
Journal article
Journal
Qualitative Research Journal
Book
Volume
13
Issue
3
Page Range
236-243