Facebook Ethnography: The Poststructural Ontology of Transnational (Im) migration Research

Authors

  • David Joseph Piacenti Department of Sociology and Anthropology Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States
  • Luis Balmore Rivas Department of English Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States
  • Josef Garrett Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States

Abstract

This theoretical article discusses the creative utility of Facebook as a new ethnographic tool in which to study transnational (im) migration. Facebook ethnography allows the (im) migration researcher to transcend the four structural dualities that constrain transnational ethnographic research: (a) geographic constraints, (b) travel funding constraints, (c) travel time constraints, and (d) the logistical constraints of entrée into new ethnographic contexts. Facebook ethnography also allows the qualitative researcher to temporarily transcend the ontological structuralist dualities of traditional research methods, producing a new poststructural epistemological and ontological methodology.

Author Biographies

David Joseph Piacenti, Department of Sociology and Anthropology Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States

I am originally from Kankakee, Illinois and received my BS in Psychology and my MA in Sociology from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. I received my PhD from the Department of Sociology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I am currently an assistant professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. I research and teach on classical and contemporary sociological and anthropological theory, prejudice and discrimination in US society, qualitative and ethnographic methods, and globalization and immigration. My research interests are globalization, immigration, and cultural change as it relates to Latin America and more specifically, Yucatec-Maya immigration and migration to the United States.

Luis Balmore Rivas, Department of English Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States

Department of English, Assistant professor of English and Co-director of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP).

Josef Garrett, Metropolitan State University of Denver Denver, Colorado, United States

Graduate of the Anthropology program at Metropolitan State University of Denver Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Interests include technology and ethnographic methods.

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Published

2014-06-27

Issue

Vol. 13 (2014)

Section

Articles

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