To Tango or to Disentangle? Making Ethnography Public in the Digital Age
A new study reveals how digital platforms like WhatsApp and VRChat are reshaping social research.
Deep Dive
A new research paper examines how ethnographers study sensitive social issues like race and caste on digital platforms like VRChat and WhatsApp. It explores the practical and ethical challenges of conducting research in hybrid online-offline environments. The authors propose a new framework called 'emergent relationality' to understand how researchers, platforms, and public communities shape each other. The work was accepted for presentation at the CSCW 2026 conference.
Why It Matters
It provides a crucial framework for ethically studying sensitive social dynamics in our increasingly digital world.