1. A smartphone case method: Using smartphone data to reboot classic, ethnographic case studies.
- Subjects
CASE studies ,TRACE analysis ,SOCIAL problems ,SOCIAL sciences education ,ETHNOLOGY - Abstract
This paper documents how using smartphones can enrich classic, ethnographic studies of youth and social problems by extending the scope of a case using everyday communication. Two study models in the field of children and media inform the proposed, methodological intervention. I demonstrate how and why to conduct case studies on and off the phone and across settings to capture interaction more accurately and robustly. To illustrate the smartphone case method, I walked through my collaborative fieldwork with JayVon, an eighteen-year-old from Harlem (New York, NY). The fieldwork uses network analysis of contacts and trace ethnography of activity logs and text-message content in the course of a traditional, ethnographic study. I show how the ecology of a case opens up naturally by analyzing smartphone data ethnographically. I then discuss the significant, ethical challenges that accompany networked access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019