Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Embodied and Virtual Ethnography: Doing Research in the Digital Age

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt

Part of the book series: Information Technology and Global Governance ((ITGG))

  • 1076 Accesses

Abstract

Radsch offers a pioneering approach to conducting research in communities that span the online and offline world. She proposes new ways to conduct ethnographic research and participant observation online, and how to link these methods with the more standard repertoire of sociological and communications research. Radsch provides an innovative theoretical framework while providing a set of practical considerations and guidance for putting theory into practice. She looks at how wasta and social networking can help the researcher gain access to the field, whether virtual or embodied, showing how a more robust approach to studying the uses and impact of new information and communication technologies can provide insights that just one or the other would not.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adler, Patricia, and Peter Adler. 1994. Observational Techniques. In Handbook of Qualitative Research, eds. P.A. Adler, P. Adler, N.K. Denzin, and Y.S. Lincoln, 377–392. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, Paul, Aamanda Coffey, and Sara Delamont. 2003. Key Themes in Qualitative Research: Continuities and Changes. Lanham: Altamira Press.

  • Becker, Howard Saul. 1992. Cases, Conjunctures, Stories, and Imagery. In What is a Case?: Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry, eds. Charles C. Ragin and Howard Saul Becker, 205–216. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burawoy, Michael. 2000. Global Ethnography : Forces, Connections, and Imaginations in a Postmodern World. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charmaz, Kathy. 2001. Grounded Theory. In Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, ed. Robert M. Emerson, 335–352. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicognana, Anna. 2003. Architectural Designs for Online Environments. In Virtual Publics: Policy and Community in An Electronic Age, ed. Beth E. Kolko, 83–111. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, Robert, and Yasin K. Sarayrah. 1993. Wasta: The Hidden Force in Middle Eastern Society. Westport, CT: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunningham, Robert and Yasin K. Sarayrah. 1994. Taming Wasta to Achieve Development. Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ) 16(3): 29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duneier, Mitchell. 2001. On the Evolution of Sidewalk. In Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, ed. Robert M. Emerson, 167–187. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, Robert M., ed. 2001. Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. 1995. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, Robert M. and Melvin Pollner. 2001. Constructing Participant/Observation Relations. In Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, ed. Robert M. Emerson, 239–259. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etling, Bruse, John Kelly, Robert Faris, and John Palfrey. 2009. Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent. Cambridge: Berkman Center for the Internet & Society at Harvard University. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Mapping_the_Arabic_Blogosphere_0.pdf

  • Evans, Michael R. 2004. The Promises and Pitfalls of Ethnographic Research in International Communication Studies. In New Frontiers in International Communication Theory, ed. Mehdi Semati, 201–225. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, Martha S., Jeannine Bell, and Michele Tracy Berger, eds. 2003. Gaining Access: A Practical and Theoretical Guide for Qualitative Researchers. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnemore, Martha. 1996. National Interests in International Society. New York: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gans, H.J. 1999. Participant Observation in the Era of Ethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 28(5): 540–548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geertz, Clifford. 1979. Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight. In Interpretive Social Science: A Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow and William M. Sullivan. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2000a. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2000b. Local Knowledge : Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbs, Graham. 2007. Analysing Qualitative Data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Glaser, Barney G., and Anselm L. Strauss. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory; Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago: Aldine Pub. Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving. 2001. On Fieldwork. In Contemporary Field Research: Perspectives and Formulations, ed. Robert M. Emerson, 153–166. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, Alma. 2006. Ethnography: Theory and Methods. In A Handbook for Social Science Field Research: Essays & Bibliographic Sources on Research Design and Methods, ed. Ellen Perecman and Sara R. Curran, 47–66. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, Antonio 1992. Prison Notebooks. Trans. Joseph A. Buttigieg. European Perspectives. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hine, Christina. 2000. Virtual Ethnography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchings, Kate, and David Weir. 2006. Understanding Networking in China and the Arab World: Lessons for International Managers. Journal of European Industrial Training 30(4): 272–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, Patrick T. 2006. Making Sense of Making Sense: Configurational Analysis and the Double Hermeneutic. In Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn, eds. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, 264–280. New York: Sharpe Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, George, and Daryl R. Moen. 2007. What Good is Journalism?: How Reporters and Editors Are Saving America’s Way of Life. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraidy, Marwan. 2005. Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization. Philadelphia: PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laitin, David D. 1995. Disciplining Political Science. The American Political Science Review 89(2): 454–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The Savage Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mankekar, Purnima. 1999. Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohamed, Ahmed Amin and Hadia Hamdy. 2008. The Stigma of Wasta: The Effect of Wasta on Perceived Competence and Morality. The German University in Cairo, Faculty of Management Technology Working Paper, no. 5: 9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moran-Ellis, J., V.D. Alexander, A. Cronin, M. Dickinson, J. Fielding, J. Sleney, and H. Thomas. 2006. Triangulation and Integration: Processes, Claims and Implications. Qualitative Research 6(1): 45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • OpenNet Initiative. Country profiles: Egypt. 2007. 20 July. http://opennet.net/research/profiles/egypt. Accessed 28 March 2008.

  • Ottaway, Marina and Amr Hamzawy. 2011. Protest Movements and Political Change in the Arab World. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. http://carnegieendowment.org/files/OttawayHamzawy_Outlook_Jan11_ProtestMovements.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Papacharissi, Zizi. 2002. The Self Online: The Utility of Personal Home Pages. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 46(3): 346–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pax, Salam. 2003. Salam Pax: The Clandestine Diary of an Ordinary Iraqi. New York City: Grove Press.

  • Radsch, Courtney. 2007a. Blogging in Egypt. Reset: Dialogue on Civilizations, no. Sept-Oct. http://www.resetdoc.org/EN/Radsch-blogging.php. Accessed 5 April 2008.

  • ———. 2007c. Speaking Truth to Power: The Changing Role of Journalism in Egypt. Paper Presented at International Studies Association, Chicago, 28 Feb-3 March.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2009a. Mideast Ramadan Advertising Falls Amid Crisis. AlArabiya.net. www.alarabiya.net/save_pdf.php?cont_id=85957. Accessed 2 February 2010.

  • Singerman, Diane, ed. 2010. Cairo Contested. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Marc A., and Peter Kollock. 1999. Communities in Cyberspace. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, Sidney. 1997. Cycles of Collective Action: Between Moments of Madness and the Repertoire of Contention. In Social Movements: Readings on their Emergence, Mobilization, and Dynamics, ed. Doug McAdam and David A. Snow, 328–339. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Pub.

    Google Scholar 

  • Theyabi, Jameel. 2006. The Brotherhood’s Power Display. Dar al-Hayat, 18 Dec. http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/12-2006/Article-20061218-95ae9eb8-c0a8-10ed-00b1-7119b3684228/story.html. Accessed 12 December 2007.

  • Tuchman, Gaye. 1972. Objectivity as Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen’s Notions of Objectivity. The American Journal of Sociology 77(4): 660–679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dijk, Teun. 1993. Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse & Society 4(2): 249–283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolcott, Harry F. 1999. Ethnography: A Way of Seeing. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolcott, Harry F 2004. The Art of Fieldwork. Walnut Creek, CA: Rowman AltaMira.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaharna, R.S. 1995. Understanding Cultural Preferences of Arab Communication Patterns. Public Relations Review 21(3): 241–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Committee to Protect Journalists, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Courtney C. Radsch

Authors
  1. Courtney C. Radsch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Radsch, C.C. (2016). Embodied and Virtual Ethnography: Doing Research in the Digital Age. In: Cyberactivism and Citizen Journalism in Egypt. Information Technology and Global Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48069-9_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation