The ethics of ethnographic research in cyberworlds
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.201402.006Keywords:
cyberworlds, ethnography, ethics, privacy, publicity, anonymityAbstract
The following paper presents a reflection on the ethics of ethnographic research in so-called virtual worlds or cyberworlds. based on my own experience in Second Life, there, Onverse and Twinity, issues related to transparency, presence, privacy and anonymity are discussed. Although research in cyberworlds shares some ethical problems with traditional and virtual ethnography, they present newdifficulties and ethical dilemmas during fieldwork that should be identified and analyzed from a critical point of view.
Downloads
References
Adánez, J. (2010). Novato en valle de Chalco: reflexiones sobre la ética del antropólogo desde el recuerdo de una etnografía en una barriada mexicana. En M. del Olmo, Dilemas éticos en antropología. Las entretelas del trabajo de campo etnográfico (pp. 47-57). Madrid: Trotta.
Adler, P. A. y P. Adler (1991). backboards and blackboards. Nueva York: Columbia University Press.
Bartle, R. A. (2004). Designing virtual worlds. Indianapolis: New Riders.
Boellstorff, T. (2008). coming of age in second Life. An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Castronova, E. (2005). synthetic worlds: the business and culture of online games. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Del Olmo, M. (2010). Dilemas éticos en antropología. Las entretelas del trabajo de campo etnográfico. Madrid: Trotta.
Díaz de Rada, A. (2010). bagatelas de la moralidad ordinaria. Los anclajes morales de la investigación etnográfica. En M. del Olmo, Dilemas éticos en antropología. Las entretelas del trabajo de campo etnográfico (pp. 57-77). Madrid: Trotta.
Estalella, A. y E. Ardèvol (2007). ética de campo: hacia una ética situada para la investigación etnográfica de Internet. Forum Qualitative social Research,8(3).
Gajjala, R. (2008). Avatar research ethics. Recuperado el 25/10/2013 de http://listserv.aoir.org/pipermail/air-l-aoir.org/2008-March/016057.html
Hammersley, M. y P. Atkinson (2009). etnografía. métodos de investigación. barce-lona: Paidós.
Haraway, D. (1988). Situated knowledges. The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist studies, 14(3), 575-599.
Hine, C. (2004). etnografía virtual. barcelona: Editorial UOC.
Klastrup, L. (2003). towards a poetics of virtual worlds-multi-user textuality and the emergence of story, digital aesthetics and communication. Phd diss., IT University, Copenhagen.
Malaby, T. M. (2009). making virtual worlds. Linden Lab and second Life. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95-117.
McKee, H. A. y J. E. Porter (2009). Playing a good game: Ethical issues in researching MMOGs and virtual worlds. International Journal of Internet Research ethics, 2(1), 5-37.
Nardi, b. A. (2010). my life as a night elf priest. An anthropological account of world of warcraft. Ann Harbor: The University of Michigan.
Pearce, C. (2006). Seeing and being seen: Presence and play in online virtual worlds. Online, Offline & the concept of Presence When Games and VR collide, University of Southern California, Center for Creative Technologies, October 25-27.
Pearce, C. (2009). communities of play. emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Sproull, L. y S. Kiesler (1986). Reducing Social Context Cues. Electronic Mail in Organizational Communications. management science, 32(11), 1492-1512.
Taylor, T.L. (2006). Play between worlds: exploring online game culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Taylor, S.J. y R. bogdan (2002). Introducción a los métodos cualitativos de investi-gación social. barcelona: Paidós.
Walther, J. b. (2002). Research ethics in Internet-enabled research: Human subjects issues and methodological myopia. ethics and Information technology, 4(3), 205-216.
Woolgar, S. (2005). Cinco reglas de la virtualidad. En S. Woolgar (ed.), ¿sociedad virtual? tecnología, ‘cibérbole’, realidad (pp. 19-39). barcelona: UOC.
