Virtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet

Table of contents

• Title Page iii
• Contents v
• Figures vii
• Notes on Contributors ix
• 1- Virtual Methods and the Sociology of Cyber­ Social-Scientific Knowledge 1
• Part I- Research Relationships and Online Relationships 15
• Research Relationships and Online Relationships- Introduction 17
• 2- Internet Behaviour and the Design of Virtual Methods 21
• 3- Online Interviewing and the Research Relationship 35
• 4- from Online to Offline and Back- Moving from Online to Offline Relationships with Research Informants 51
• 5- Researching the Online Sex Work Community 67
• 6- Ethnographic Presence in a Nebulous Setting 81
• 7- Centring the Links- Understanding Cybernetic Patterns of Co-Production, Circulation and Consumption 93
• Part II- Research Sites and Strategies 107
• Research Sites and Strategies- Introduction 109
• 8- The Role of Maps in Virtual Research Methods 113
• 9- New Connections, Familiar Settings- Issues in the Ethnographic Study of New Media Use at Home 129
• 10- Doing Anthropology in Cyberspace- Fieldwork Boundaries and Social Environments 141
• 11- Web Sphere Analysis- An Approach to Studying Online Action 157
• 12- The Network Approach to Web Hyperlink Research and Its Utility for Science Communication 171
• 13- Sociable Hyperlinks- An Ethnographic Approach to Connectivity 183
• 14- Epilogue- Methodological Concerns and Innovations in Internet Research 199
• References 209
• Index 238