Changing ethnographic mediums: the place-based contingency of smartphones and scratchnotes
Gorman, R
Date: 1 June 2017
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SAGE Publications
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Abstract
The medium by which ethnographic notes are taken within the field is
changing. Increasingly researchers are turning to jotting short notes using
smartphone notation apps, leaving pen and paper behind. While this has
practical benefits, there is a need to recognise explicitly how the medium by
which notes are taken can influence the ...
The medium by which ethnographic notes are taken within the field is
changing. Increasingly researchers are turning to jotting short notes using
smartphone notation apps, leaving pen and paper behind. While this has
practical benefits, there is a need to recognise explicitly how the medium by
which notes are taken can influence the content, style and practice of
contemporaneous ethnographic note-taking. There is a place-based
contingency to the acceptability of the smartphone as a research tool; phones
carry different social connotations to paper notebooks, and can act to
reinforce difference, making statements of privilege, power and culture. The
medium by which fieldnotes are taken actively impacts the field and is
capable of influencing relationships with participants and altering the power
dynamic of research. The changing tools of note-taking also result in a
changing visibility of the act of writing, bringing additional challenges to
managing consent and ensuring the ethicality of research.
Geography - old structure
Collections of Former Colleges
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