Paper short abstract:

Drawing on the research project "Ethnography and/as hypertext fiction: representing surrogate motherhood" the paper examines the methodological repercussions of digital culture in ethnographic work in terms of fieldwork practices, collaborative possibilities and ethical considerations.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper seeks to address three questions as they relate to shifting anthropological practices in the digital era. Firstly, it illuminates the ways in which ethnographic fieldwork practices have been enabled by digital technologies, affording to be more mobile, dialogical and co-authored by researcher(s) and informant(s) alike. Secondly, it discusses the collaborative research possibilities (such as duoethnography) made available by digital tools and applications, which inevitably inform the performance of our research selves and have the potential to greatly enrich and enlarge the scope of ethnographic fieldwork experience, often characterized by loneliness and isolation. Thirdly, the paper touches upon research ethics and the protection of our informants' identities, testimonies and personal data in a historical period when instant 'sharing' practices and digital storage and archiving render research data more vulnerable to circulation and user manipulation.

In order to elaborate on the three aforementioned aspects which have been undergoing major transitions, the paper draws on the research project "Ethnography and/as hypertext fiction: representing surrogate motherhood" (HYFRESMO), currently implemented at the Anthropology Department of Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Athens, Greece), and funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation & the General Secretariat for Research and Technology.

The project HYFRESMO focuses on the emerging social practice of surrogate motherhood in order to critically address digital ethnographic textuality. The overarching stake is to fashion fictional ethnographic 'texts' in a holistic digital environment, thus facilitating the non-linear reading of ethnography and its access by non-expert readers.