Ethnographic fieldwork in digital foodscapes: exploring alternative food networks in Serbia
Keywords:
ethnography, alternative food networks, digital environment, Small-scale Food Producers in SerbiAbstract
Using a local digital alternative food network as a case study, in this paper I will discuss how the traditional ethnographic approach can be modified and adapted when investigating digital food phenomena and practices. The Facebook group “Small-scale Food Producers in Serbia” was founded in late 2019 and today has more than 140,000 members with the aim of connecting small-scale food producers from villages with urban consumers. An important feature of this Facebook community is that it is not only a digital marketplace for local, artisanal food but also an affective cultural space that can bring about the emergence of ethical subjectivity and political potential. In this paper, I will elaborate on the challenges, dilemmas, and advantages of conducting ethnographic fieldwork in digital foodscapes characterized by multimodal communication. Applying an anthropological approach to the study of digital food and practices is not simply a qualitative content analysis of user-generated digital media texts. Ethnographic research means a comprehensive empirical study of a phenomenon in context – on the one hand, a thick description of the digital platform focusing on the personal experiences of group members (producers and consumers), their behavior, and symbolic interaction; and on the other hand, the broader social, economic, and political context of post-socialist Serbia.
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