Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method

Ethnography in the digital age presents new methods for research. It encourages scientists to think about how we live and study in a digital, material, and sensory world. Digital ethnography considers the impact of digital media on the methods and processes by which we perform ethnography and how the digital, methodological, practical, and theoretical aspects of ethnographic research are becoming increasingly interwoven. This planet does not exist in a static state; as technology grows and shifts, we must learn how to appropriately analyze these changes. Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method examines the pervasiveness of digital media in digital ethnography’s setting and practice. It investigates how digital settings, techniques, and procedures are reshaping ethnographic practice and explores the ethnographic-theoretical interactions through which "old" opinions are influenced by digital ethnography practice, going beyond merely transferring conventional concepts and techniques into digital research settings. Covering topics such as data triangulation, indigenous living systems, and digital technology, this premier reference source is an essential resource for libraries, students, teachers, sociologists, anthropologists, social workers, historians, political scientists, geographers, public health officials, archivists, government officials, researchers, and academicians.

Jahid Siraz Chowdhury , an associate professor, teaches in the Master of Social Work Program at Lincoln University College in Malaysia. He is also associated with the Research and Training Forum (RTF). Chowdhury’s academic pursuits encompass methodological contributions to the Sociology of Knowledge, and innovative applications of social theory, including the development of the Bio-Bank Model for Indigenous Knowledge. He is the author of 10 influential books, including Ubuntu Philosophy for the New Normalcy (Palgrave, 2023), Reciprocity and Its Practice in Social Science (IGI Global, 2022), Volunteering in Social Research (Routledge, 2024, in press), History and Educational Philosophy for Social Justice and Human Rights (IGI Global, 2024), and The Intersection of Faith, Culture, and Indigenous Community in Malaysia and Bangladesh (Springer nATURE). Dr. Jahid is not merely exploring these disciplines but is also reconnecting with them on a deeper, more intellectual level.

Haris Abd Wahab is a Professor at the Department of Social Administration and Justice, University of Malaya. His core area of expertise is Community Development. Over the last 20 years, he has been involved in developing and promoting teaching, learning, and research opportunities in community development and social work. He teaches social problems, social work, community development, social marketing, research methodology, and social theories. His research interests focus on community well-being, social care programs for at-risk children in Malaysia, children’s well-being, and social development for vulnerable social groups.

Rashid Mohd Saad is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Language And Literacy Education, Faculty of Education, University of Malaysia. His total current teaching experience in higher education sectors totaled more than 20 years. His experience includes teaching government-supported schools, private colleges and some consultation works with both public and private sectors both locally and internationally. He has been teaching issues, trends and research in the area of Teaching of English as a Second Language. His current interest is issues, emerging trends and debates in the implementation of language policy and planning in in higher institution contexts in Malaysia.

Parimal Roy worked in the project management sector for ten years (2006-2015). Then, paced in academia from 2015. Nevertheless, he is immensely inquisitive about the affinity between theory, policy, and practice among ethnic groups; to this end, he has dissected several policies and international frameworks that have been published. He is an undergraduate and post-graduated in Anthropology and another Master's in Business Administration and is now pursuing a Ph.D. ( expected in 2024) in Community[Indigenous-Santals] Development at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Furthermore, I satisfied the "FinTech & Regulator Innovation" and "Digital Assets for Regulator" at the University of Cambridge, UK, by getting an ADBI scholarship. He also obtained two PGDs in Project Management and Criminology and pursued theional Refugee Law with a course Internat UNHCR award ( 2024). Also awarded full fellowship by ILO to study in Rural Development Academy, ITCILO, Italy for the Resilience Rural economy ( 2023).

Joseph Wronka is a Professor of Social Work in the School of Social Work and Behavioral Sciences at Springfield College, Springfield, MA, and Representative to the United Nations in New York for the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). Professor Wronka received a Fulbright Senior Specialist award three times, in the discipline of social work with specialties in social justice and poverty and subspecialties in human rights, psychology, and existential-phenomenology. In 2015, he went to Pakistan and Austria as a Fulbright Scholar and in 2020 to Greece. Select academic appointments included: West Georgia College, St. Francis College, New York University, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Framingham State College, Caldwell College, Ramapo College, Chukchi Community College, the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Kotzebue Technical Centre, College of the Holy Cross, Simmons, Boston College, Franklin Pierce College and in Europe, Fachhochschule at Berne and Zurich, Switzerland; Vienna, Sankt-Poelton, and Innsbruck, Austria; and Hanover, Germany. He was also a Research Associate and Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University and Visiting Fellow at the University of Delhi, India. He was also a counselor at alcoholism and methadone maintenance treatment centers; clinician in community mental health centers and private practice; director of a mental health/substance abuse center; human rights commissioner; Vice President of the World Citizen Foundation; and board member to the Coalition for a Strong United Nations. He is presently on the advisory board for The Journal of Cross-Cultural Thinkers (Chinese University of Political Science and Law, Beijing). He has a show “Creating a Human Rights Culture” at Amherst Media, Massachusetts. His website is: www.humanrightsculture.org Published widely in scholarly and popular fora, he has presented his work in roughly twenty countries. His interest is primarily the development of social change strategies to implement human rights principles, in other words, the creation of a human rights culture, which he views as the pillars of social justice. Such principles mirror substantively millennia of teaching in various spiritual and ethical belief systems, which assert ultimately that every person, everywhere ought to be guaranteed their human rights, and live with human dignity and to their potential, without discrimination. At times, he refers to himself as an “adventure junkie.” Additionally, he likes to travel, swim laps, kayak, fish, ride his bike; and play classical music on the piano and concert and ethnic pieces on the accordion. Select major works are: A History of the Idea of Human Rights of Human Rights and Comparison of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights with United States Federal and State Constitutions (University Press of America, 1998), The Dr. Ambedkar Lectures on the Theme Creating a Human Rights Culture (National Institute of Social Work and Social Sciences Press, Orissa, 2001) and Human rights and social justice: Social action and service for the helping and health professions (Sage, 2017).