ABSTRACT
This book chapter provides an overview of ethnographic research, a method originally developed by anthropologists to study foreign cultures. To illustrate how this research method has been adopted in IS research, ethnographic IS studies are briefly reviewed. This partial review highlights that three types of ethnographies are particularly evident in IS: organizational ethnographies, digital ethnographies and design ethnographies. A key challenge for IS research is that the phenomena of interest are changing as a result of technological innovation: they are at once becoming more individual/personal (e.g., wearables) and more digital, distributed and global (e.g., grid computing, digital traces). Additionally, the phenomena are becoming more fleeting. This implies that ethnographic methods need to be adapted to better capture contemporary phenomena. Drawing on research in human geography, visual arts and anthropology, this book chapter highlights three types of ethnographic research – mobile, sensory and visual ethnography – as holding much promise for future IS research.
