Synopsis
Christine Hine considers the boundaries of internet studies and proposes ways in which to construct internet research projects, focusing on the connection between theory and methodological choices. She stresses the importance of defining one's analytic approach. Her own theoretical framework is shaped by her background in science and technology studies, as well as ethnographic scholarship. She views ethnography as an effective method for understanding contemporary society and shaping the boundaries of projects because it takes an immersive approach that engages in relevant practices both online and offline. At the same time, she believes that the meaning of technologies is constructed differently within various cultural contexts and that research methods must remain flexible, as the research objects themselves are emergent, not predetermined. She views the development of technologies as a social process and believes that social dynamics are at the heart of new technologies. Furthermore, she sees technologies as having multiple identities and "interpretative flexibility" since different social groups view them differently. Therefore, research design must be a reflexive process that is re-evaluated every stage of a project.
Themes
- Boundaries: spatial (who, what, where to start and stop a study, physical and virtual locations), temporal (time spent), relational (relationships between researchers and people they study)
- Immersion: social phenomena not uniquely confined to online or offline sites; internet as both an imagined and architected place
- Cultural complexity: adjusting methods to suit; "the interfaces, the affinities, the confrontations, the interpenetrations and the flow-through, between clusters of meaning and ways of managing meaning" (Hannerz)
Research Recommendations
- Deciding where to start (what to study) and when to stop (what to exclude) ensures that research questions are coherently addressed and adapted to the cultural landscape that emerges
- Working out methodologically the boundaries of a project is tied to where one feels a study should travel analytically
- The depth and breadth of a study must be decided within the parameters of a given disciplinary approach or theoretical framework
- Technology development and technology appropriation are well suited to ethnographic approaches
- Beginning by focusing on a culture, rather than rigid, narrowly defined questions, allows for practices, identity, and social dynamics to emerge organically
- Quality in research design relies on a good fit among question, phenomenon, and method
- In what ways does Hine address the various ethnographic strategies we've discussed, such as textual analysis, interviews, and policital ecenomy approach? What are some examples she gives?
- Hine states: "The social dynamics of production and use carve out boundaries between users and producers, create and sustain power relations and hierarchies, and define the sanctioned use of technologies." How does this challenge the contention that technologies are produced asocially?
- How does our understanding of cultural complexity challenge the traditional construction of ethnography as the study of a particular bounded field site?
- Further, how do concepts such as scapes (mediascapes, technoscapes, etc.), mobilities, networks, and trans-local connections offer new theoretical possibilities for ethnographic research?
- Hine believes ethnography is increasingly construed as the exploration and description of the practices of locating, connecting, siting, and bounding. How does this help us to understand the internet not only as a tool or place, but as a way of being?
- Hine presents various examples of innovative internet studies and addresses the issue of engagement. How active should ethnographers in virtual fields be in relation to the particular technologies that they study? What are the pros and cons?
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