Biographical research through the looking glass of social distancing: Reflections on biographical interviewing and online technologies in pandemic times

Irish Journal of Sociology ◽

10.1177/07916035211022182 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 079160352110221

Author(s):

Lisa Moran ◽

Ana Caetano

Keyword(s):

Social Distancing ◽

Critical Questions ◽

Online Technologies ◽

Biographical Research ◽

Critical Commentary ◽

Online Spaces ◽

Current Context ◽

Looking Glass

This paper asks critical questions about biographical interviewing during the coronavirus disease 2019 era and the age of social distancing. How do we ‘do’ biographical research when we are more physically distant from interview participants than ever before? What kinds of challenges and issues emerge when doing biographical research in online spaces? How do we form rapport and strong trusting bonds with interviewees in the current context? This paper provides a critical commentary on these questions, focusing on the limitations and possibilities of online interviewing during pandemic times.

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Social work in the social distancing era in Korea: A reflective essay

International Social Work ◽

10.1177/0020872820950436 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (6) ◽

pp. 830-832

Author(s):

Tae In Park ◽

Dong Hun Yang

Keyword(s):

Social Work ◽

Social Welfare ◽

Social Workers ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Critical Commentary ◽

The Social ◽

Reflective Essay

As COVID-19 has created an unprecedented world, social workers in Korea are also dealing with the enormous changes. This reflective essay presents an update on current social work in the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The essay also addresses challenges and concerns in the social welfare scenes in Korea, provides critical commentary and calls for action in international contexts.

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Below the Radar: Private Groups, Locked Platforms, and Ephemeral Content—Introduction to the Special Issue

Social Media + Society ◽

10.1177/2056305121988930 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 205630512198893

Author(s):

Giovanni Boccia Artieri ◽

Stefano Brilli ◽

Elisabetta Zurovac

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Social Action ◽

Internet Research ◽

Special Issue ◽

Methodological Issues ◽

Internet Studies ◽

Online Spaces ◽

Current Context ◽

Media Society ◽

Networked Publics

This special issue of Social Media + Society originates from the first AoIR Flashpoint Symposium, entitled “Below the Radar: Private Groups, Locked Platforms and Ephemeral Content.” The aim of this conference was to investigate platform-driven changes and emerging practices of everyday-life content production occurring “below the radar” of internet research, or outside of previous standards of data visibility and accessibility on which most internet studies have been based over the last decade. In the current context, online spaces seem to be heading toward more circumscribed and unsteady forms of publicness, which contrast with the platform affordances upon which the theorization of networked publics has been built. Private groups, locked platforms, and ephemeral contents are some of the challenges that require the development of new perspectives and research tools capable of adapting to this shifting environment. In this introduction, we will illustrate how the theme of “below the radar” has evolved since the initial call thanks to the confrontation with the researchers who participated in the conference, and this special issue, and we will introduce the nine articles that make up the collection. These articles, which combine different research disciplines and techniques, provide a map of some of the most urgent theoretical, ethical, and methodological issues concerning the current transformations of the visibility regimes of online social action.

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Religious Object” Exhibition in the Context of Cultural Change and Covid-19 Social Distancing (Case studies of Khmer’s Nagar boat in the South of Vietnam) | Trưng bày hiện vật tôn giáo trong bối cảnh biến đổi văn hóa và giãn cách xã hội do Covid-19 (Trường hợp ghe ngo của người Khmer ở Nam Bộ, Việt Nam)

10.26721/spafa.pqcnu8815a-30 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Thị Thủy Chung Phạm ◽

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Case Studies ◽

Cultural Change ◽

Viet Nam ◽

The South ◽

Social Distancing ◽

Current Context ◽

Religious Objects ◽

Museum Exhibition

The museums, nowadays, facing to many challenges in religious objects exhibition. Especially, in the current context of Covid-19 pandemic and cultural change, regular methods of the museum exhibition expose many limitations. Through a case study of ghe ngo (the Khmer’s Nagar boat) exhibition at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME), this paper discusses some principles dealing with the religious objects in the museum, and outline some modern display methods that can contribute to improving the display efficiency of ghe ngo exhibition towards the museum sustainable development. Trưng bày hiện vật tôn giáo vốn đặt ra nhiều thách thức đối với các bảo tàng. Đặc biệt, trong bối cảnh Covid-19 và biến đổi văn hóa hiện nay, các phương thức trưng bày truyền thống thể hiện nhiều mặt hạn chế. Qua trường hợp ghe ngo của người Khmer đang được trưng bày tại Bảo tàng Dân tộc học Việt Nam, bài viết này thảo luận về việc ứng xử với hiện vật tôn giáo, tín ngưỡng trong bảo tàng, và một số phương pháp trưng bày hiện đại nhằm góp phần nâng cao hiệu quả trưng bày ghe ngo của người Khmer hướng tới mục tiêu phát triển bền vững bảo tàng.

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Studying theNordic Resistance Movement: three urgent questions for researchers of contemporary neo-Nazis and their media practices

Media Culture & Society ◽

10.1177/0163443719831181 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (6) ◽

pp. 878-888 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tina Askanius

Keyword(s):

Research Methodology ◽

Social Life ◽

Ethical Considerations ◽

Emotional Labour ◽

Critical Questions ◽

Valid Knowledge ◽

Online Spaces ◽

Closed Groups ◽

Resistance Movement ◽

Media Practices

This commentary provides critical reflections on a number of challenges related to research methodology and ethics when studying organized racism in online environments. Based on ongoing fieldwork of the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) in Sweden, I ask three critical questions about researching the neo-Nazi organization and organized racism more generally: (1) How do we produce valid knowledge of these ‘closed’ groups in their ‘open’ online spaces? What are the limitations of our research on hidden social life when we only have access to what they want us to know? (2) Why and for whom are we producing research on these groups? Or, put another way, what ethical considerations and problems related to intent and research agendas arise in studies of neo-Nazism and other forms of organized racism? (3) What is the emotional labour involved in studying these groups for the researcher and how might it be used in a productive manner?

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