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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on more than a decade of experience in research and teaching at the interface of Anthropology and the digital, this paper reflects on the past, present and future potentialities for constructive engagement between Anthropology and digitally-mediated forms of association and interaction.

Paper long abstract:

The ongoing development and proliferation of digital communication and social networking technologies is providing new platforms, forums and other cyber-mediated environments for discussion, interaction and association of all kinds online, yielding new opportunities for researchers in the Anthropology and the social sciences. This trend has been greatly accelerated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which online interaction became, for many, the only viable option. Pandemic restrictions rendered conventional forms of participatory research, including long-term ethnographic research, based on participant-observation, virtually impossible, prompting many Anthropologists and other social scientists to explore alternative options for pursuing their research remotely, via digital technologies.

Drawing on more than a decade’s experience of exploring the potential of digital research methods in Anthropology and of ethnographic research methods in the context of digitally-mediated environments, this paper reflects on future potentialities at the interface of Anthropology and the digital, referencing wider discussions in Anthropology related to “situating research”.