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Digital Ethnography for Social Design: Challenges and Opportunities in the Pandemic

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Advances in Industrial Design (AHFE 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 260))

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Abstract

The restrictions on mobility and several social distancing rules during the Pandemic have ruled out the possibility of carrying out traditional ethnographic research. This paper discusses various opportunities that the digital medium has to offer in terms of redefining and constructing a social space within an ethnographic field, establishing a connection and trust with the participants and the ethical considerations. This paper also seeks to discuss the challenges faced and highlights the limitations of the digital medium while conducting ethnographic research with socially marginalised group of women during Covid-19 Pandemic. The paper is based on the analysis of the experiences of conducting ethnographic research with marginalized communities and on the expertise of other digital anthropologists to understand and highlight the changing role of ethnographic research in the time of a Pandemic.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    During initial research it was found that not all women belonging to the marginalized group (to be studied) owned a smartphone. Hence, only those women were contacted for the study who either owned or had access to smartphone (along with Internet and WhatsApp).

  2. 2.

    This process of handling and processing the raw data eventually became very time consuming. The researchers need to be careful not to get lost in the process of collecting data through digital means.

  3. 3.

    Due to low literacy level of the participants, in some cases, ‘typing’ function acted as a barrier and thus required multiple rounds of communication using a combination of voice calls and voice messages, screenshots etc.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Design and the SRC Chair for providing the resources and support for the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Krity Gera & Peter Hasdell

Authors
  1. Krity Gera
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  2. Peter Hasdell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Krity Gera .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Cliff Sungsoo Shin

  2. Dipartimento di Architettura, Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio, Pescara, Italy

    Giuseppe Di Bucchianico

  3. System Design and Management, Keio University, Musashino, Japan

    Shuichi Fukuda

  4. DAAP School of Design, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Yong-Gyun Ghim

  5. Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Gianni Montagna

  6. Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Cristina Carvalho

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Gera, K., Hasdell, P. (2021). Digital Ethnography for Social Design: Challenges and Opportunities in the Pandemic. In: Shin, C.S., Di Bucchianico, G., Fukuda, S., Ghim , YG., Montagna, G., Carvalho, C. (eds) Advances in Industrial Design. AHFE 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 260. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80829-7_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80829-7_26

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80828-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80829-7

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