Paper short abstract:

I discuss the challenges of doing fieldwork among transnational families of nurses from India who have migrated abroad. Building on multi-sited and digital ethnography, I propose a concept of "variously-sited fieldwork" to explore how ICTs may transform the concept of the field-site.

Paper long abstract:

In my project I explore the use of everyday information and communication technologies (ICTs) in informal elderly care at a distance. I carried our extensive fieldwork among Indian transnational families. My study population included families of nurses who migrated abroad while their elderly parents remained in India. My first geographic site was Kerala, where I met both parents and some of the nurses. Additionally, I went to Oman as one of the many countries to which the nurses migrate. But then there was another 'site': the ICT-supported virtual space. I started carrying out participant observation by phone and webcam with nurses living in countries from the United States of America to the United Kingdom, the Maldives and Australia. In this paper, I use science and technology studies (STS) perspective to examine how fieldwork may become "variously-sited" through the use of different modes of transportation. First, airplanes, busses and other vehicles were used to physically visit two sites (India and Oman). Second, ICTs were used to virtually visit several other sites at various distances. How does this choice of different transportation technologies influence the way a field-site is understood? How are the spatial and non-spatial aspects of a field-site combined in such research? Finally, how do the different transportation technologies influence the way of relating between the researcher and her informants? These are some of the questions I will address in order to show how such "variously-sited" fieldwork builds on and differs from multi-sited and digital ethnography.