Doing ethnography from within a constructivist paradigm to explore virtual communities in Saudi Arabia

Yeslam Al-Saggaf; Kirsty Williamson

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.2.2.02

Authors

Yeslam Al-Saggaf Charles Sturt University and Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australia
Kirsty Williamson Monash University and Charles Sturt University, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.2.2.02

Keywords:

Ethnography, constructivist paradigm, constructivist ethnography, unobtrusive observation, NVIVO, virtual communities, Saudi Arabia, Saudi women

Abstract

Most of the studies in the recent literature focus on the method used but not the philosophy behind it. This article focuses on doing ethnography, from within a constructivist paradigm, to explore individuals’ participation in virtual communities in Saudi Arabia. An aim of this article is to highlight how particular ethnographic techniques, viz unobtrusive observation and participation, were used in that study. The article argues that doing ethnography in this way allowed for placing the results within the social and cultural context of Saudi society. The article, which includes a sample of the findings from the two techniques involved for illustration, concludes that the one-year unobtrusive observation and the eight months’ participation in two different but similar virtual communities, during the period 2001-2002, have produced findings that are deep, meaningful and rich in description.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Yeslam Al-Saggaf, Charles Sturt University and Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Australia

Yeslam Al-Saggaf (PhD) is a lecturer in the School of Information Studies, an Associate Course Coordinator for GradDipInfoTech/MInfoTech/MInfoSys at Charles Sturt University, Australia and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering (computer and information engineering) from Malaysia, and a master of information technology and a PhD from Charles Sturt University, Australia. His research interests lie in the areas of online communities (both social and political) and the online political public sphere in the Arab world. He has published in those areas in a number of international refereed journals as well as presenting at a number of international conferences.
Kirsty Williamson, Monash University and Charles Sturt University, Australia

Kirsty Williamson (PhD) is the Director of the research group, Information and Telecommunications Needs Research (ITNR), a joint initiative of Monash and Charles Sturt Universities. Since the early 1990s, she has undertaken many research projects, funded by a range of different organisations including the Telstra Fund for Social and Policy Research, Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), and the Australian Research Council. Her interests are in a wide range of topics, many of which are related to the use of the Internet as is the present article. Kirsty also teaches research methods at Charles Sturt University and supervises PhD students there.

References

Al-Farim, Khalid F. (2001) “The Internet and its audience in Riyadh.” M (Mass Communication) thesis. King Saud University: Saudi Arabia.

AlMunajjed, Mona (1997) Women in Saudi Arabia Today. UK: Macmillan. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373105

Al-Saggaf, Yeslam (2004) “The Effect of Online Community on Offline Community in Saudi Arabia.” Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries EJISDC 16 (2). Retrieved June 15, 2006 http://www.ejisdc.org DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2004.tb00103.x

Angrosino, Michael and Kimberly Mays de Perez (2000) “Rethinking Observation: From Method to Context.” Pp. 673 – 702 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2 edition, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Al-Watan (2004) “To improve services for subscribes and promote research.”, from Al-Watan Newspaper Online. Retrieved April 15, 2004 http://www.alwatan.com.sa

Al-Zahrani, Saleh (2002) “45% of the Internet users in Saudi Arabia are women.” from Al-Watan Newspaper Online. Retrieved January 7, 2002 http://www.alwatan.com.sa

Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann (1967) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Press.

Bow, Amanda (2002) “Ethnographic techniques.” Pp. 265 - 279 in Research methods for students and professionals: Information management and systems, 2 edition, edited by K. Williamson. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, CSU. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-876938-42-0.50025-3

Charmaz, Kathy (2000) “Grounded Theory: Objectivist and Constructivist Methods.” Pp. 509 – 535 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2 edition, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Costigan, James T. (1999) “Introduction: Forests, trees, and Internet research.” Pp. xvii-xxiv in Doing Internet research: Critical issues and methods for examining the Net, edited by S. G. Jones. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Denzin, Norman K. and Yvonna S. Lincoln (2000) “Introduction: the Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research.” Pp. 1 – 29 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2 edition, edited by N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Dodge, Martin and Rob Kitchin (2001) Mapping Cyberspace. London: Routledge.

Ess, Charles (1998) “First Looks: CATaC’98.” Pp. 1-17 in Proceedings of Cultural Attitudes Towards Communication and Technology, edited by C. Ess and F. Sudweeks. Sidney: University of Sydney Press.

Ess, Charles and AoIR Ethics Working Committee (2002) “Ethical decision-making and Internet research: Recommendations from the aoir ethics committee.” Association of Internet Researchers document. Retrieved April 3, 2003 http://www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf DOI: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-152-0.ch002

Eysenbach, Gunther and James E. Till (2001) “Ethical issues in qualitative research on Internet communities.” British Medical Journal 323 (7321):1103-1105. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.323.7321.1103

Fernback, Jan (1999) “There Is a Their There: notes Toward a Definition of Cybercommunity.” Pp. 203 - 220 in Doing Internet research: Critical issues and methods for examining the Net, edited by S. G. Jones. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452231471.n10

Fetterman, David M. (1989) Ethnography: Step by Step. Applied Social Research Methods Series. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Fetterman, David (1998) “Ethnography.” Pp. 473-504 in Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods, edited by L. Bickman and D. J. Rog. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Frankel, Mark S. (1999) “Ethical and legal aspects of human subjects research on the Internet.” A Report of a Workshop. Washington, June 10, 1999. Retrieved June 15, 2006 http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/sfrl/projects/intres/report.pdf

Glesne, Corrine (1999) Becoming qualitative researcher: An introduction. 2 edition. New York: Longman.

Hammersley, Martyn (1995) The politics of social research. London: Sage.

Holmes, David (1997) “Glossary.” In Virtual politics: Identity and community in cyberspace, edited by D. Holmes. London: Sage.

JeddahNews.net (2004) “Where Do You Spend Most of Your Time Over the Internet?” JeddahNews.net website. Retrieved September 7, 2004 http://www.jeddahnews.net/modules.php?name=Surveys&op=results&pollID=6&mode=&order=&thold=

Jones, Steven G. (1997) “The Internet and its Social Landscape.” Pp. 7–35 in Virtual Culture: Identity & Communication in Cybersociety, edited by S. G. Jones. London: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446250303.n2

Jones, Steven G. (1998) “Information, Internet, and community: Notes toward an understanding of community in the information age.” Pp. 1-34 in CyberSociety 2.0:Revisiting Computer-Mediated Communication and Community, edited by S. G. Jones. US: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243689.n1

Jones, Steven G. and Stephanie Kucker (2001) “Computers, the Internet, and Virtual Cultures.” Pp. 212-225 in Culture in the Communication Age, edited by J. Lull. London: Routledge.

Kelly, George A. (1963) A theory of personality: The psychology of personal constructs. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Kelly, George A. (1991) The psychology of personal constructs. London: Routledge.

King, Storm A. (1996) “Researching Internet communities: Proposed ethical guidelines for the reporting of results.” The Information Society 12(2):119-128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/713856145

Kollock, Peter and Marc Smith (1999) “Communities in Cyberspace.” Pp. 3–25 In Communities in Cyberspace, edited by M. Smith and P. Kollock. Routledge, London.

Lincoln, Yvonna S. and Egon G. Guba (1985) Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury, California: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0147-1767(85)90062-8

Lincoln, Yvonna S. and Egon G. Guba (1987) Effective Evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Locke, Lawrence F., Waneen Spirduso and Stephen J. Silverman (2000) Proposals That Work, 4 edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Manaszewicz, Rosetta, Kirsty Williamson and Sue Mckemmish (2002) “Breast cancer knowledge online: Towards meeting the diverse information needs of the breast cancer community.” Proceedings of Electronic Networking 2002 Building Community Conference, 3-7 July, Melbourne, Australia.

Markham, Annette N. (1998) Life online: Researching real experience in virtual space. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira.

Markham, Annette N. (2005) “Disciplining the Future: A critical organizational analysis of Internet Studies.” The Information Society 21(4):257-267. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01972240591007571

Marshall, Catherine and Gretchen B. Rossman (1999) Designing qualitative research, 3rd edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Minichiello, Victor, Rosalie Aroni, Eric Timwell and Loris Alexander (1990) In-depth interviewing: Researching people. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire.

Maxwell Joseph A. (1996) Qualitative research design: An interactive approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

North, Tim (1994) “The Internet and usenet global computer networks: An investigation of their culture and its effects on new users.” MA thesis. Retrieved June 28, 2004 http://www.scribe.com.au/timn/thesis/

Paccagnella, Luciano L. (1997) “Getting the seats of your pants dirty: Strategies for ethnographic research on virtual communities.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 3 (1). Retrieved June 15, 2006 http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol3/issue1/paccagnella.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00065.x

Preece, Jenny and Diane Maloney-Krichmar (2005) “Online communities: Design, theory, and practice.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 (4). Retrieved November 29, 2005 http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/preece.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2005.tb00264.x

Preece, Jenny (2000) Online Communities: Designing Useability, Supporting Sociability. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/imds.2000.100.9.459.3

Rheingold, Howard (2000) The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. Cambridge: MIT Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7105.001.0001

Saule, Solveiga (2002) “Ethnography.” Pp. 159 - 176 in Research methods for students and professionals: Information management and systems, 2nd edition, edited by K. Williamson. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, CSU.

Schwandt, Thomas A. (2000) “Three epistemological stances for qualitative inquiry: Interpretivism, hermeneutics, and social constructionist.” Pp. 189–215 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd edition, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Schwandt, Thomas A. (1994) “Constuctivist, interpretivist approaches in qualitative research.” Pp. 118–137 in The Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Sudweeks, Fay and Simeon J. Simoff (1999) “Complementary explorative data analysis: The reconciliation of quantitative and qualitative principles.” Pp. 29-56 in Doing Internet research: Critical issues and methods for examining the Net, edited by S. G. Jones. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452231471.n2

Suler, John (1999) “One of us: Participant observation research at the palace.” Psychology of Cyberspace 1 (5). Retrieved June 28, 2004 http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/partobs.html

Tedlock, Barbara (2000) “Ethnography and ethnographic representation.” Pp. 455-487 in Handbook of qualitative research, 2nd edition, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Turkle, Sherry (1995) Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Wellman, Barry and Milena Gulia (1999) “Net-Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities.” Pp. 331–366 in Networks in the Global Village: Life in Contemporary Communities, edited by B. Wellman. Colorado: Westview. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429498718-11

Wheeler, Debora (1998) “Global culture or culture clash: New Information Technologies in the Islamic world- A view from Kuwait.” Communication Research 25(4):359-377. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/009365098025004002

Wheeler, Debora (2000) “New media, globalization and Kuwaiti national identity.” Middle East Journal 54(3):432-448.

Wheeler, Debora (2003) The Internet and youth subculture in Kuwait. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 8 (2). Retrieved June 15, 2006 http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol8/issue2/wheeler.html DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2003.tb00207.x

Williamson, Kirsty (2002) Research methods for students and professionals: Information management and systems, 2nd edition. Wagga Wagga: Centre for Information Studies, CSU.