Hello all, I am just out of a call with @sander (post introducing him coming soon). We have decided to convene a small meeting dedicated to pushing the edge of our digital ethnographic methods in the context of POPREBEL.
Why we are doing this
SSNA is a (very) mixed method. I have a hunch that it could benefit a lot from some methodological steroids. I’m bringing in Sander as someone with plenty of experience in deploying clever methodological combos that draw on different disciplines. Skunkworks 1 is meant as a sort of steroids for the POPREBEL methodology. We also envision a Skunkworks 2, which will deal more with actual early research results and will probably happen in 2020.
What will happen
We are thinking three sessions. Each is started by a presentation, followed by a long, deep, free flow discussion. Think 3 to 4 hours per session.
- Session 1. SSNA: the state of the art (presentation by @amelia and myself). We discuss SSNA, the main weapon EDGE is deploying onto POPREBEL, and try to get to a fully shared understanding of the implications of working this way.
- Session 2. Understanding populism with digital ethnography (presentation by @jan). We look at what POPREBEL thinks populism is, and look at the implications of studying it with the tools we use.
- Session 3. Populism in a complex systems perspective (presentation by @sander). To what extent can we bring to bear the experience of complex systems scientists onto POPREBEL? What can we learn from that experience? Can SSNA be improved to function as a complex systems method?
Where, when and who
Note: updated dates. The first digital ethnography skunkworks takes place in Brussels, on Tuesday, 16th and Wednesday, 17th of July 2019. The following people please save the date:
If you really really cannot make the dates, flag it now, we still have some flexibility but need to set the date in stone soon.
We can and should expand the group a bit, but not by much. Let’s preserve interactivity without having to break down the plenary. I take responsibility for making the final call.