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A practical guide to the ethnographic study of online cultures, and beyond

Ethnography and Virtual Worlds is the only book of its kind--a concise, comprehensive, and practical guide for students, teachers, designers, and scholars interested in using ethnographic methods to study online virtual worlds, including both game and nongame environments. Written by leading ethnographers of virtual worlds, and focusing on the key method of participant observation, the book provides invaluable advice, tips, guidelines, and principles to aid researchers through every stage of a project, from choosing an online fieldsite to writing and publishing the results.

Provides practical and detailed techniques for ethnographic research customized to reflect the specific issues of online virtual worlds, both game and nongame Draws on research in a range of virtual worlds, including Everquest, Second Life, There.com, and World of Warcraft Provides suggestions for dealing with institutional review boards, human subjects protocols, and ethical issues Guides the reader through the full trajectory of ethnographic research, from research design to data collection, data analysis, and writing up and publishing research results Addresses myths and misunderstandings about ethnographic research, and argues for the scientific value of ethnography

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. xi)
• Foreword, by George Marcus(p. xiii)
• Chapter 1 Why This Handbook?(p. 1)
• 1.1 Beginnings(p. 1)
• 1.2 Why ethnographic methods and why virtual worlds?(p. 6)
• 1.3 Why a handbook?(p. 8)
• 1.4 An orientation to the virtual worlds we studied(p. 9)
• Chapter 2 Three Brief Histories(p. 13)
• 2.1 A brief history of ethnographic methods(p. 13)
• 2.2 A brief history of virtual worlds(p. 22)
• 2.3 A brief history of research on virtual world cultures(p. 25)
• 2.4 The uses of history(p. 27)
• Chapter 3 Ten Myths about Ethnography(p. 29)
• 3.1 Ethnography is unscientific(p. 30)
• 3.2 Ethnography is less valid than quantitative research(p. 36)
• 3.3 Ethnography is simply anecdotal(p. 40)
• 3.4 Ethnography is undermined by subjectivity(p. 41)
• 3.5 Ethnography is merely intuitive(p. 42)
• 3.6 Ethnography is writing about your personal experience(p. 43)
• 3.7 Ethnographers contaminate fieldsites by their very presence(p. 44)
• 3.8 Ethnography is the same as grounded theory(p. 45)
• 3.9 Ethnography is the same as ethnomethodology(p. 46)
• 3.10 Ethnography will become obsolete(p. 48)
• Chapter 4 Research Design and Preparation(p. 52)
• 4.1 Research questions: emergence, relevance, and personal interest(p. 52)
• 4.2 Selecting a group or activity to study(p. 57)
• 4.3 Scope of the fieldsite(p. 59)
• 4.4 Attending to offline contexts(p. 61)
• Chapter 5 Participant Observation in Virtual Worlds(p. 65)
• 5.1 Participant observation in context(p. 65)
• 5.2 Participant observation in practice(p. 69)
• 5.3 Preparing the researching self(p. 72)
• 5.4 Taking care in initiating relationships with informants(p. 76)
• 5.5 Making mistakes(p. 79)
• 5.6 Taking extensive fieldnotes(p. 82)
• 5.7 Keeping data organized(p. 85)
• 5.8 Participant observation and ethnographic knowledge(p. 87)
• 5.9 The timing and duration of participant observation(p. 88)
• 5.10 The experimenting attitude(p. 90)
• Chapter 6 Interviews and Virtual Worlds Research(p. 92)
• 6.1 The value of interviews in ethnographic research(p. 92)
• 6.2 Effective interviewing(p. 94)
• 6.3 The value of group interviews in ethnographic research(p. 104)
• 6.4 Size, structure, and location for group interviews(p. 106)
• 6.5 Transcription(p. 110)
• Chapter 7 Other Data Collection Methods for Virtual Worlds Research(p. 113)
• 7.1 Capturing chatlogs(p. 113)
• 7.2 Capturing screenshots(p. 114)
• 7.3 Capturing video(p. 116)
• 7.4 Capturing audio(p. 117)
• 7.5 Data collection in other online contexts(p. 118)
• 7.6 Historical and archival research(p. 120)
• 7.7 Virtual artifacts(p. 121)
• 7.8 Offline interviews and participant observation(p. 124)
• 7.9 Using quantitative data(p. 126)
• Chapter 8 Ethics(p. 129)
• 8.1 The principle of care(p. 129)
• 8.2 Informed consent(p. 131)
• 8.3 Mitigating institutional and legal risk(p. 135)
• 8.4 Anonymity(p. 136)
• 8.5 Deception(p. 142)
• 8.6 Sex and intimacy(p. 144)
• 8.7 Doing good and compensation(p. 146)
• 8.8 Taking leave(p. 148)
• 8.9 Accurate portrayal(p. 149)
• Chapter 9 Human Subjects Clearance and Institutional Review Boards(p. 151)
• 9.1 Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)(p. 151)
• 9.2 Preparing a protocol for IRB review(p. 153)
• 9.3 Working with IRBs(p. 155)
• 9.4 Informed consent and anonymity(p. 156)
• Chapter 10 Data Analysis(p. 159)
• 10.1 Ethnographic data analysis: flexibility and emergence(p. 159)
• 10.2 Preliminary reflections while in the field(p. 160)
• 10.3 The role of theory in data analysis(p. 162)
• 10.4 Beginning data analysis: systematize and thematize(p. 164)
• 10.5 Working with participant observation data(p. 168)
• 10.6 Working with individual and group interview data(p. 170)
• 10.7 Working with images, video, and textual data(p. 172)
• 10.8 The end of the data analysis phase: from themes to narratives and arguments(p. 174)
• 10.9 Generalization and comparison(p. 176)
• Chapter 11 Writing Up, Presenting, and Publishing Ethnographic Research(p. 182)
• 11.1 The early stages of writing up: conferences, drafts, blogs(p. 182)
• 11.2 Written genres(p. 185)
• 11.3 Dissemination(p. 186)
• 11.4 The writing process(p. 190)
• 11.5 A quick trip back to the field?(p. 192)
• 11.6 Tone, style, and audience(p. 193)
• Chapter 12 Conclusion: Arrivals and New Departures(p. 196)
• References(p. 201)
• Index(p. 223)

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CHOICE Review

In this useful volume, the coauthors, each of whom is an accomplished virtual world ethnographer, pretty much put to rest threshold questions that might be raised about whether virtual worlds and online cultures can be proper objects of anthropological research. In their discussion of ethnographic techniques, the authors provide as much insight and instructive commentary about traditional ethnography as they do about the ethnography of virtual worlds. For example, the dialectic of participation and reflection that is central to anthropological research takes on a different rhythm in virtual ethnography, one that parallels the experience of online gamers in entering and exiting virtual realities. Being in the field one moment and in the office the next has interesting implications for the production and polishing of field notes, and it also raises provocative questions about being "in" and "out" of the field in traditional ethnography, and about the virtual nature of culture in general. Virtual worlds and online culture pose challenges to ethnography, but clearly they do not lie outside its scope. The introductory discussion of the distinction between journalism and ethnography illustrates well that the boundary of ethnography is not topical but methodological. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. A. Arno University of Hawai'i at Manoa

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Tom Boellstorff is professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Their books include Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human . Bonnie Nardi is professor (emer.) of informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Her books include My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft . Celia Pearce is professor of game design at Northeastern University. Her books include Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds . T. L. Taylor is professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her books include Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture .