Ethnography of Virtual Worlds Research Papers (original) (raw)

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- Gender and Sexuality, Virtual Ethnography, Sex Work, Online social networks

In this blog post, I attempt to define the feelings that impress binary gender expectations in place with the concept of hetero-comfortability from my ongoing ethnographic work in VRChat. Hetero-comfortability is a process of recognition, where feelings of familiarity — historically established through hetero-conditioning — create impressions that allow one to find comfort in the continuing appearance of hetero-signifiers. As Sara Ahmed (2004b) notes, “To follow the rules of heterosexuality is to be at ease in a world that reflects back the couple form one inhabits as an ideal.”

- by Noel Brett
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- Gender Studies, Queer Theory, Bodies and Culture, Digital Ethnography

In research on Massively Multiple Online Games and Worlds (MMOs) like World of Warcraft, Everquest or Second Life, the term “worldness” addresses how the various layers of a virtual world–the animated 3D pictorial spectacle, the interactive world of mobile nonplayer
characters, the virtual community of other players– all hang together as an autonomous “world.” This article deploys Bakhtinian concepts of chronotopes operating at different scales to explore the worldness of one such online “world” (Ryzom’s Atys). I will show that these different layered chronotopes become visible at moments of crisis. In each crisis, the chronotopic worldness of Atys affords developers and players not only a domain for potential conflict, but also political collaboration and engagement.
(This is a prepublication draft, please contact me for the published paper)

The ethnographic field guide was a short-lived genre in the annals of anthropology. In this chapter I experimentally attempt to revive it. The original guides provided the ethnographer with a set of practical pointers on how to organise fieldwork, set up camp, maintain relations, and negotiate access in a particular geographical region of the world. The present field guide attempts to do so while entertaining (and eventually discarding) the idea that the World Wide Web has similar areal qualities and constitutes a field in which the techno-anthropologist can go to do work. It is not a straightforward analogy, and although a guide turns out to be somewhat impossible the attempt at writing it casts of all kinds of interesting contradictions. What is highlighted in the process is that the Web is distinctly spatial in ways that must be taken seriously, that it is home to a very special breed of digital natives, and that maintaining relations with these natives presents a challenge of its own. I argue that these challenges must be taken seriously, and that techno-anthropology could be ideally suited to do just that.

This thesis uses the philosophy of deep ecology as a theoretical framework to explore ecospiritual themes as a key feature of increasing discourse around the ayahuasca phenomenon. The broad objective of the research is to use contemporary ayahuasca discourse to reveal the way cross-cultural seekers engage with and discuss shamanic practices that inform a postmodern ecosophical ontology and deep ecological praxis. Three convergent discourses inform this research; the transcultural ayahuasca phenomenon, nature-based spiritualities of the New Age and the philosophy of deep ecology. Threading through these discourses are ecological and spiritual themes that capture a web of meanings for contextualising the transcultural emergence of ayahuasca spirituality. A key paradigmatic shift suggested by contemporary ayahuasca discourse is a shift in human consciousness toward a non-dualistic ontology regarding humanity’s place in nature. An ecocultural studies approach provides theoretical support for interpreting how the elements of this paradigmatic shift are discussed, understood and practised. As the internet functions as a superlative site for discursive formations of ayahuasca, a thematic content analysis of selected discussion forums within the Ayahuasca.com website was conducted using a multiparadigmatic, deductive and inductive approach. Naess and Sessions’ (1984) eight platform principles of deep ecology were used as a framework to deductively locate textual articulations of the philosophy. Further inductive analysis revealed not only embedded deep ecological themes but also articulations of an ecocentric praxis arising from experiences of unitary consciousness and plant sentience. The deep ecology articulated in contemporary ayahuasca discourse further raised an explicit challenge to hegemonic anthropocentricism through expressions of an expanded sense of self that accentuates the countercultural bearings of entheogenic informed ecospirituality.

- by Jef Baker
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- New Religious Movements, Digital Humanities, Ecopsychology, Online Communities

O presente artigo trata de uma etnografia virtual (HINE, 2000) e análise das narrativas de uma comunidade online destinada a adeptos/as de pegging, uma prática sexual na qual uma mulher penetra um homem heterossexual pelo ânus usando um cintaralho (strap-on dildo). Por causa de ideologias heteronormativas que não diferenciam identidade sexual e práticas sexuais, e que vinculam o prazer anal dos homens à homossexualidade masculina (SÁEZ e CARRASCOSA, 2011), os homens heterossexuais que praticam o pegging frequentemente sofrem ou temem sofrer preconceitos (e.g. são rotulados de “gays enrustidos” ou vistos como “não masculinos”). Através de um posicionamento queer (BUTLER, 1993; PRECIADO, 2000; LOURO, 2004) e considerando as narrativas como uma maneira de intervir no social para mudar ideologias normatizantes e estigmatizantes (THREADGOLD, 2005; MOITA LOPES, 2008), analisamos as performances identitárias de masculinidade e heterossexualidade na comunidade online, com o objetivo de ver como narrativas digitais podem contribuir para mudar roteiros sociais de gênero e sexualidade. Concentramo-nos sobre como os adeptos de pegging desestabilizam a associação ideológica entre prazer anal e homossexualidade e sobre a “linha tênue” entre a subversão e a reafirmação da heteronormatividade e masculinidade hegemônica nas performances narrativas.

This report addresses this gap by investigating the role of the Internet and digital technologies in the processes of human smuggling and trafficking in the United Kingdom (UK). The research presented here consists in an extensive examination of how the Internet and digital technologies facilitates i. the (a) recruitment and (b) transportation/entry phases of people smuggling towards and/or into the UK, and; ii. the (a) recruitment (b) transportation and (c) exploitation phases of the trafficking process in the UK sex and labour markets. Our research relies primarily on a UK-based virtual ethnography to acquire primary data, conducted between November 2015 and February 2017. As a research method, virtual ethnography extends the ethnographic field and situated observation from the examination of face-to-face researcher-informant interactions. Furthermore, the research has involved an “off-line” component, namely, 16 semistructured interviews that took place with a variety of key actors in the UK, including non-governmental organisation representatives (NGOs), law enforcement agents (LEAs), smugglers, and experts on cybercrime and/or human trafficking and smuggling.

- by Parisa Diba and +2
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- Criminology, Human Trafficking, Virtual Ethnography, Digital Ethnography
- by Owwei Chow
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- New Media, Internet Studies, Digital Media, Music Video

Using the virtual world Second Life as a case study, the chapter begins a social psychological exploration of how living in virtual worlds may be transforming the experience of the self in contemporary society, from the ‘insider viewpoint’ of virtual world residents. The relationship between the virtual self and the ‘real life’ self is explored using data collected and key themes elicited from 40 textual interviews conducted inworld and inductive thematic analysis. The findings indicate a variety of complex relationships between the self experienced in the physical world and Second Life. First, the degree of similarity between the actual and virtual self varies according to experience. Second, the avatar tends to be seen as a separate entity. Finally, social processes within Second Life affects how the self is experienced, by allowing exploration of aspects of the self not possible in the physical world.

- by Simon Evans
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- Social Psychology, Self and Identity, Online Communities, Multiplayer Online Games

Users and avatars of online virtual worlds are sometimes referred to as inhabitants, although this term is almost never defined. The purpose of this article is to characterize what makes that an inhabitant “inhabits” a virtual world. We consider that immersion is a prerequisite to inhabit a virtual world, since it implies experiencing an "interior". Then, thanks to observations carried out inside virtual worlds as well as a series of interviews resulting from preliminary work, we describe the ways of "doing with space" of the avatars thanks to the notions of anchor, catch and trace. The concept of “inhabit” is then apprehended as the coupling resulting from the updating of these three notions, encapsulated in a virtual world, by the actions of a user. Thus, we propose four figures of the inhabitant of virtual worlds to account for the diversity of ways of constructing spatial, and therefore social, experiences. At least, if not all users inhabit in a virtual world, our heuristic grid allows us to characterize some of its aspects and effects.

- by Jean-François Lucas
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- Sociology, Second Life, Virtual Ethnography, Virtual Worlds

With the evolution of computer-mediated communication and the arrival of new virtual environments, there are potential implications for how the Self may be conceptualised. This paper considers these implications by examining the continuities and discontinuities between the Self in virtual and non-virtual environments, and contemporary and historical settings. Symbolic Interaction and Activity Theory approaches emphasise the Self as emerging in context, through Self-Other and Self-environment interactions in the minutiae of everyday life, but to some extent foreground physical rather than virtual interactions. Interactions in virtual environments are characterised by specific forms of embodiment and the experience of “presence”, with avatars providing embodiment for interaction separate from the physical world and interaction with others being one of the determinants of presence. The complexion of Self-Other interactions in virtual environments is circumscribed by the characteristics of communications and relationships that occur in them, which are constrained by reduced social cues but overcome through the invention of techniques driven by the desire to socially interact. This paper highlights the role of symbolic mediation in the emergence of Self in virtual environments and posits that, while emergence of Self is interactive in nature, virtual environments are particular sites for a Self where the specific role of social interaction must be foregrounded.

- by Simon Evans
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- Social Psychology, Self and Identity, Multiplayer Online Games, Symbolic Interaction

Increasingly, individual and communal religious actors are engaging with media religiously or encountering religion through various forms of digital media. This study emerges in the midst of this encounter. The central contention is that Latinx Muslims are engaged in a complex process of creating a distinct cosmopolitan Latinx Muslim identity in the context of a global umma through social media sites such as the “Latino Muslim” Facebook group (LMFG), which act as digital borderlands wherein to do so. This thesis will be explicated by sharing the preliminary results of multiple months of a social media-based ethnography centered around the aforementioned LMFG and augmented by previous ethnographic study of the wider Latinx Muslim community. Through these means it will be illustrated that via status updates, “likes,” pictures, videos, and other social media interactions, Latinx Muslims are crafting a distinct and cosmopolitan Latinx Muslim identity in the context of a digitally connected transnational umma. Thus, this study contributes to an increasing number of anthropological works that seeks to expand our field of vision – and research – to include social worlds that bridge between the analogue and the digital, often through the ubiquitous presence and use of mobile apps.

- by Ken Chitwood
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- Anthropology, Ethnography, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Studies

In our days, Internet needs to be studied not only as a technological phenomenon but also as a social and cultural one with the aim to achieve the needed balance between humanity and technology. This exploration is possible in the context of Folklore despite the pessimistic predictions of its future, in a world which dominated by global economic integration - which is also a global market of ideas and values - science and high technology. Folklorists should integrate the internet into their field of research, particularly in the field of ethnographic research. The internet is offered to transfer the research from the traditionals and real communities to the virtuals.

- by Open Access Publishing Group
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- Folklore, Education, Social Sciences, Internet Studies

CLICK LINK FOR OPEN ACCESS VERSION FROM THE PUBLISHERS.
PAPER RECENTLY WON THE IFITT.ORG JOURNAL PAPER OF THE YEAR (2013)
The proliferation of digital devices and online social media and networking technologies has altered the backpacking landscape in recent years. Thanks to the ready availability of online communication, travelers are now able to stay in continuous touch with friends, family and other travelers while on the move. This article introduces the practice of ‘flashpacking’ to describe this emerging trend and interrogates the patterns of connection and disconnection that become possible as corporeal travel and social technologies converge. Drawing on the concepts of ‘assemblages’ and ‘affordances’, we outline several aspects of this new sociality: virtual mooring, following, collaborating, and (dis)connecting. The conclusion situates this discussion alongside broader questions about the shifting nature of social life in an increasingly mobile and mediated world and suggests directions for future research at the intersection of tourism and technology

- by Cody Paris
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- Sociology, Anthropology, Communication, Tourism Studies

This article reviews digital methodologies in the context of
digital religion. We offer a tripod model for approaching digital
methods: (a) defining research within digital environments, (b)
the utilization of digital tools, and (c) applying unique digital
frames. Through a critical review of multiple research projects,
we explore three dominant research methods employed within
the study of digital religion, namely, the use of textual analysis,
interviews, and ethnography. Thus, we highlight the opportunities
and challenges of using digital methods.

- by Aya Yadlin and +1
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- Sociology of Religion, Media Studies, Research Methodology, Ethnography

The aim of this chapter is to consider the role and implications for taking the 'insider perspective' in the context of virtual worlds research, and use this approach to understand the role of activities in users' experience of virtual worlds. It has its basis in the author's ongoing research, which explores how participation in virtual worlds may reflect a transformation in the experience of Self in contemporary society. The chapter provides an outline of, and the case for, the author's approach to research which emphasises the 'insider perspective' when seeking to understand social phenomena that occur in virtual worlds. The strategy is informed by theories that emphasise the emergence of Self through everyday actions and interactions in specific contexts (Symbolic Interaction, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory), and has an approach that places emphasis on the person, immersion into the virtual environment, and inductive techniques. The chapter indicates that foregrounding the perspective of virtual world users is essential for gaining insight into their experience within virtual worlds and avoiding the risk of imposing the predetermined objectives of the researcher's perspective. It also provides an application of this approach to developing a 'Player Taxonomy', with an outline of the methods used and exploring some of the issues arising from them. Because the study seeks to develop an understanding of the Self from the 'insider perspective' of virtual world users, it employs a variety of research methods, focusing on the virtual world Second Life as a case study. Methods include inworld individual and group interviews, and physical world face-to-face interviews and observations. The chapter indicates that conducting research of virtual worlds that emphasises the 'insider perspective' is a non-trivial task: it requires the immersion of the researcher into the world they are researching, and detailed inductive research techniques and analysis that allow the 'insider perspective' to emerge.

- by Simon Evans
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- Second Life, Digital Ethnography, Virtual Worlds, Ethnography of Virtual Worlds

The research around children's use of the Internet has focused on some of the benefits and risks of online play, as well as the digital skills children require to use the Internet safely, particularly virtual worlds. These benefits, risks and digital skills have been examined in European studies, but minimal research attention has been given to young Australian children's use of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are simulated environments embedded with social network functions, which allow young children to explore and experiment with identity formation, interactive play and social networking. These Web sites for young children have become increasingly popular. Young children's use of popular Internet sites, including social networking sites (Facebook) and young children's online games (Club Penguin) have been researched using a diverse range of research methods. Some of these methods have been limited to offline observation of game play, surveys, and interviews. Whilst many of these methods have brought new insight into children's use of the Internet, they have not examined children's game play in real-time in order to identify how children use their digital skills (or lack thereof) to negotiate online risks, as well as how they maximise the benefits afforded by various online games, as they are playing. Thus, these methods limit the depth of understanding researchers can gain about young children's online play. This paper reviews the literature on the known risks and benefits to young children playing within online worlds. It also identifies the digital skills that are known to help protect children against online risk. The article suggests that more research is needed to understand the risks and benefits to young Australian children and the digital skills they require when using virtual worlds. It also recommends that current research methods need to include more observation and participation techniques, which capture in real time, children's use of virtual worlds.

- by Ashley Donkin and +1
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- Children's Media, Ethnography of Virtual Worlds, Online ethnography

As novas formas de sociabilidade advindas do uso cotidiano das tecnologias exigem formas de análise das interações sociais adequadas. Isso deve, essencialmente, aos espaços sociais surgidos na internet, onde o sujeito experimenta modos inéditos de identidades e representações. Nesse contexto diversos autores apontam a adaptação do método etnográfico como uma alternativa eficiente nos estudos da cibercultura. Este artigo é resultado das observações realizadas sobre a etnografia virtual como parte da pesquisa cumprida para execução de trabalho final de graduação e busca adaptar a metodologia oriunda da antropologia aos ambientes gráficos multiusuários online.

- by Rafael Krambeck
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- Ethnography, Virtual Ethnography, Ethnography of Virtual Worlds, Cybercultures

The virtual world Second Life invites residents to plan, build, and maintain their own social geographies. In this article, I draw on data gathered during a multi-year ethnographic study to explore the intersection between memory, nostalgia, place and belonging in Second Life. The article focuses on two packages of land, or ‘sims,’ owned and designed by a single Second Life resident who is one of most dedicated heritage creators. The 1920s Berlin Project and Time Portal are both popular sims in which physical historical locations are recreated and opened to the public to visit, rent commercial or domestic property and engage in 1920s role play. These sims demand different types of historical engagement. Together, they offer a complex and nuanced portrait of the way Second Life recreates cities of the past.

- by Clarissa Carden
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- Second Life, Virtual Worlds, Ethnography of Virtual Worlds, Historical Reenacment

Children’s Internet use is rapidly changing. Tweens' (9–12) usage patterns now resemble those of teenagers five to six years ago, and younger children’s (5–8) usage is approaching that of tweens. Primary school aged children are increasingly engaging in virtual worlds with social network functions (game sites such as Club Penguin, Minecraft or Webkinz). These digital public spaces carry with them opportunities as well as risk. With policy resources often targeting high school children, there is a need to map the benefits, risks and competencies associated with these trends, and develop recommendations for parents and policy makers. This paper analyses the ethical challenges posed in a new research project funded by the Australian Research Council titled Digital Play: Social network sites and the well-being of young children.

This paper is about the preliminary ethnographic fieldwork of a work-in progress conducted on the female blogging practices and the female blogosphere in Turkey, focusing specifically on how blogging reshapes women’s cultural and social environment. The study attempts to understand the role of blogging as a medium in women’s self-formation processes and explore how female bloggers construct their identities via online media representations and negotiate disclosure, fame and labor in an age of extreme self-display. Based on an anthropological approach, the study explores the spaces within which women seek “self-realization”, “publicity” and “employment opportunities” in the digital world, particularly, through the practice of blogging. Taking female blogosphere as a field, the study examines how blog production is manifested in Turkey, through the female bloggers’ struggle for hope. Preliminary research demonstrates that blogging acts as a medium of hope for many female bloggers. Given the heterogeneous nature of female blogosphere, experiencing this hope shows differences. At times, upper mobility opportunities are expected, but sometimes hope is realized to provide feelings like happiness, appreciation, self-realization and usefulness. Networking and socialization opportunities are also other motivations of bloggers. The aim of the study is to see how these women use blogging as a media practice to explain themselves in social media platforms. Thus, through the framework of hope (Hage 2004), relatability (Kanai 2019), fame and visibility notions, material formation of identities in this process, the nature of labor production in blogs as well as the construction of female subjectivities within celebrity culture will also be discussed.

- by Owwei Chow
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- New Media, Internet Studies, Digital Media, Music Video

This chapter presents a project developed in a study about the narrative dimension of the immersion process in the virtual world of Second Life. This digital universe is not usual because users can build the digital environment themselves, that means that they design and shape the Second Life’s space. In order to understand the impact of the space on the avatars behaviour, I developed a tracking tool, called the ‘Magic Ring,’ which collects millions of ‘quali-quantitative’ data. This name means that they are very accurate data in big quantity (millions of data), which allow the researcher to choose between a qualitative approach or a quantitative one. This chapter focuses on project genesis to explain how the idea to develop a tracker came to us. Firstly, I present Second Life by emphasising the possibility for the user to build the three dimensional world. Secondly, I deliver contextualised overview of our immersion study, especially about the narrative dimension of this process. I explain I used the concept of ‘spatiality,’ and I define it, to understand the link between the shape of the space and the avatars behaviour in the virtual world. I also present the limitations encountered in this study and the need to develop an appropriate method to solve our problematic. Before explaining how the Magic Ring works, I describe two others projects that have inspired it. Finally, I briefly evoke some results, explaining that avatars often return to the same places,
identified as ‘hotspots,’ and I discuss the theoretical possibilities a device like the Magic Ring and quali-quantitative data open.

The research around children’s use of the Internet has focused on some of the benefits and risks of online play, as well as the digital skills children require to use the Internet safely, particularly virtual worlds. These benefits, risks and digital skills have been examined in European studies, but minimal research attention has been given to young Australian children’s use of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds are simulated environments embedded with social network functions, which allow young children to explore and experiment with identity formation, interactive play and social networking. These Web sites for young children have become increasingly popular. Young children’s use of popular Internet sites, including social networking sites (Facebook) and young children’s online games (Club Penguin) have been researched using a diverse range of research methods. Some of these methods have been limited to offline observation of game play, surveys, and interviews. Whilst many of these m...

- by Donell Holloway
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- Sociology, Education, Ethnography, Play
- by John Carter McKnight
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- Video Games and Learning, Video Games, Community, Virtual Worlds