Contrapuntal connectedness: Analysing relations between social media data and ethnography in digital migration studies

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This chapter presents a rethinking of the relationship between ethnography and so-called big social data as being comparable to those between a sum and its parts (Strathern 1991/2004). Taking cue from Tim Ingold’s one world anthropology (2018) the chapter argues that relations between ethnography and social media data can be established as contrapuntal. That is, the types of material are understood as different, yet fundamentally interconnected. The chapter explores and qualifies this affinity with the aim of identifying potentials and further questions for digital migration research. The chapter is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out with Syrian refugees and solidarians in the Danish–Swedish borderlands in 2018–2019 as well as data collected for 2011–2018 from 200 public Facebook pages run by solidarity organisations, NGOs, and informal refugee welcome and solidarity groups.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationResearch methodologies and ethical challenges in digital migration studies: Caring for (big) data
EditorsMarie Sandberg, Luca Rossi, Vasilis Galis, Martin Bak Jørgensen
Number of pages33
Place of PublicationSwitzerland
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Publication date2021
Pages53-86
Chapter3
ISBN (Print)9783030812256
ISBN (Electronic)9783030812263
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

ID: 285896665