Fieldwork through the Zoomiverse

Abstract

We have been conducting collaborative ethnographic research together for over 20 years. Over the past 12 months, this collaboration has included face-to-face encounters, both in Kampala, Uganda, and in Perth, Australia. However, since the advent of COVID-19-related ‘lockdowns’ in our respective countries, our engagements have been conducted exclusively over online platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook and – increasingly – Zoom. In this article, we reflect upon our shared experience of conducting ethnography through this platform as a tool for understanding the effects of the pandemic in Uganda. We argue that, despite all kinds of material constraints (at both ends), Zoom has much to off er the ethnographer particularly because it can generate an intimate understanding of experience and time. However, against this advantage, some aspects of social life remain beyond the range of its channels, for which an assemblage of additional methods are required. We finish by reflecting upon what these methods have contributed to our long-term study of emergent cultures of mobility in Uganda – a study which is now being conducted in an ostensible context of immobility.

COVID-19 and child welfare policy in Chile: The experience of front-line workers

“…This method allowed us to use different virtual methodologies to enhance ethnographic research (Born and Haworth, 2017) in a context of confinement. We proposed three interrelated data production techniques: (1) active interviews (Denzin, 2001), (2) group workshops (Davies and Gannon, 2006), and (3) digital work diaries (Vokes and Atukunda, 2021). The entire data collection process was conducted through the Zoom platform, except in digital work diaries where other technological means (i.e.…”