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E-research must be incorporated into all contemporary social issues

29 Jun 2022

  BY Ruwan Laknath Jayakody Electronic research (E-research) charts an evolving methodological innovation in the social sciences and in sharing social science-based knowledge with the public, and therefore, these new developments should be captured in all its complexity in any contemporary social research, regardless of who is conducting the research, what methodology and perspective are being used, and from where the researcher is operating from. These observations and recommendations were made by Emeritus Prof. of Sociology at the Peradeniya University and Editor-In-Chief of the Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences, K.T. Silva in an editorial on “Mobilising the social sciences for an improved understanding of and better response to the Covid-19 pandemic: E-research as a way forward” which was published in the same journal’s 44th Volume’s Second Issue in December, 2021. E-research had made several inroads into the social sciences long before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. But during the pandemic, e-research not only multiplied as a brand of social research, but often, it became the only feasible approach to social research. This is because physical field work in general and ethnographic research in particular, were not feasible during the pandemic due to the risks it posed to the researchers and the people subjected to social research and a whole range of ethical issues confronting the social researchers at the time of this massive public health emergency and related social crisis. E-research encompasses the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to conduct social research using the internet, to access available information in the internet inclusive of social media and to generate new information about identified social issues using the Google form and similar internet-based data collection instruments. The potential of e-research became increasingly evident during the pandemic where, for instance, social media became a significant platform for the dissemination of information, including considerable misinformation.  Social media itself became a major subject of enquiry for capturing the public mood during the pandemic, inclusive of anxiety, fear, hate, hope, mutual support, charity, philanthropy, humanitarian assistance, the sharing of some useful health related information, and maintaining an element of connectivity in the midst of lockdowns, mobility restrictions, working from home, the shutdown of schools and universities, and zoom classes for students ranging from kindergarten to postgraduate education. K.T. Silva, N. Zawahir, R. Ramasamy, and S. Arumugam’s “The impact of Covid-19 on peace-building activities of local faith actors in Sri Lanka” pointed out that online surveys became important in order to monitor knowledge and attitudes about the disease, views about vaccination programmes, poverty and living standards, domestic violence, psychological wellbeing, religious activity, and governance-related issues as impacted by the pandemic. In an innovative initiative of e-research funded by the Social Science Research Council, selected students from the Brooklyn College in New York City, located in the epicentre of the pandemic during its onset in the East Coast of the US, conducted auto-ethnographies (using the actual life experiences of the researcher in her/his natural community as a tool for understanding the social world, having been educated in anthropology, sociology, or any other social science) documenting their life experiences during the pandemic. According to M.V. Reyes’s “The disproportional impact of Covid-19 on African Americans”, the inequality-enhancing impact of the pandemic as it devastated disadvantaged students from Black, Latino, and Asian communities in inner city areas of the New York City were brought out from this series of studies while also informing the educational authorities and the city administration about the needs of these students in respect of food security, financial support, and online education during the pandemic. This is a clear example of how social science research conducted by educated community members can contribute to public policymaking through raising the awareness of the relevant authorities about the actual experience of disadvantaged communities during this unprecedented humanitarian crisis of a global magnitude. One of the important lessons learnt in this project also relates to the prospect of e-research to raise public awareness among affected communities so that they learn from each other, not only about the problems encountered, but also about ways of responding to challenges and taking advantage of networking within and among the affected communities. The internet provides an efficient and fast-track tool to document research findings and share the research results between researchers and policymakers, and between researchers and the affected communities in ways that help them to identify and advocate for policies and programmes that are effective in dealing with problems. In other words, e-research can be an effective tool for advancing knowledge and empowering communities through the sharing of accurate information in an actionable format.  Auto-ethnographies, in particular, are expected to influence social life in ways that change it for the better from the angle of people living in the relevant communities. As against conventional ethnographies conducted by interested visitors from outside, purely for academic purposes, auto-ethnographies engage educated community members in a self-reflective manner in ways that encourage them to identify effective remedies for the problems encountered through their unique vantage point as community members as well as trained social researchers. Another important dimension of auto-ethnography is its implications for breaking the dichotomy between the researcher and the researched, the perennial and troubling heritage of anthropology and its colonial roots. E-research calls for a social science-based research methodology training that is rather different from the conventional research methodology training provided by universities. Apart from imparting the required IT skills, knowledge about ICT-based research tool kits and analytical procedures that treat and reflect on qualitative and quantitative data generated through the internet, it should also provide a grounding in a variety of relevant analytical frameworks such as the Actor Network Theory (ANT – as an analytical perspective, the ANT explores the interplay between human and non-human actors such as viruses as well as societal and technological interfaces that came to the foreground during the pandemic response).  It is important for researchers to understand the strengths and limitations and ethical dilemmas encountered in the application of e-research in social sciences. The digital divide in the society is a key challenge encountered in applications such as online surveys in a country such as Sri Lanka where internet access has increased following the widespread introduction of mobile phones, with nearly 150% mobile phone ownership in the population, but internet access itself being limited to some 34% of the population due to poor internet access in some parts of the country and due to problems associated with poor purchasing power and problems related to devices available for different population strata.  The experiences in the country in respect of online education confirm the multiple challenges encountered, particularly by the low-income segments of the population at a time when they are simultaneously hit by the risk of infection, income losses, and livelihood disturbances. On the other hand, as mentioned by P.R. Weerathunga, W.H.M.S. Samarathunga, H.N. Rathnayake, S.B. Agampodi, M. Nurunnabi, and M.M.S.C. Madhunimasha in “The Covid-19 pandemic and the acceptance of e-learning among university students: The role of precipitating events”, many possibilities for diversifying educational experiences through e-learning have also emerged during the pandemic. The UK’s National Centre for E-Social Sciences established in 2003 can be seen as a model to follow in terms of establishing the infrastructure needed for facilitating e-research in the social sciences. This includes the formation of suitable research hubs and nodes, the sharing of databases among researchers, and funding e-research on high-priority topics of global and national interest. The research community must be geared to contribute to and critically engage with platforms of this nature, supporting the knowledge production needed for social development. On the other hand, if the social sciences are to be a catalyst of social change globally, similar infrastructural services must be extended to the developing world as well. Against this backdrop, it is important that the social science community in Sri Lanka becomes familiar with prospects of e-research in facing the challenges posed by the pandemic and post-pandemic society (by conducting online surveys, conducting literature surveys using internet-based procedures to screen, identify, and select the relevant research publications on a topic, conducting systematic online literature surveys using Scopus [abstract and citation database] to thematically identify and analyse the key relevant literature, and using the internet as a source of information). Finally, it is important to realise that there is much more we can gain from the internet in both accessing available information and generating the new information needed for understanding social issues in the contemporary world. While advancing the potential of social sciences, e-research may also create new avenues for interdisciplinary research. E-research provides new opportunities for social networking among different members of a research team and different research teams operating from the North and the South as well as networking between researchers and the researched. Also, virtual communities of different types and daily exchanges via the internet, Zoom meetings, e-mail, and tools like WhatsApp have become such an important aspect of our day-to-day social reality, making the distinction between what is online and offline rather artificial, Silva observed.

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