Virtual Field Work in Qualitative Research

Abstract

Restrictions imposed by health contingency and the risk of contagion have influenced mobility and modalities of interactions. The aim of this work is to explore the plurality of options for the co-generation and collection of material in the fieldwork phase within qualitative research projects. The text goes through the methodological design components: participating subjects, available technological resources, pre-meeting agreements and plan analysis, and considers the transformations involved in the virtual modality. Subsequently this paper discusses how the virtual environment open up new possibilities for investigating and processing data. Technological mediation builds new communication channels that call for a wide variety of profiles with diverse intersectional characteristics. Formats are also pluralized to process and present research findings such as documentary videos, infographics, photo montages, comics, animations, texts with different literary genres, among others. The shift in field strategies affects also at the epistemological level, the construction of knowledge at different levels, through situational and experiential narratives, is composed with relational understanding, emotions and descriptions expressed in virtual spaces. However, the maintenance of ethical considerations of fieldwork in virtual mode are unquestionable. Faced with the new normality, there are at least three responses to the challenges related with the information collection or the co-construction of data: to keep the original project as far as possible and pursuit the possibility to foster physical encounters while maintaining healthy distance and other hygienic measures. The second answer is to move face-to-face encounters into virtual spaces, and the third is to think of new research modalities and create narratives in innovative formats using versatile technologies.