Lee’s Second Life - “Finding the key”

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed (you can even subscribe via email!). Thanks for visiting!

Introductory chapter to Qualitative Communication Research Methods, 2nd Ed, Lindlof & Taylor, 2002.

My research considers the ‘how’ of an issue — ‘how’ SMEs (Small-Medium sized Enterprises) can gain value out of 3D virtual worlds (and in the current climate, Second Life).

Part of the research I will be undertaking is therefore auto-ethnographic, as I stumble around and make mistakes and talk with loads of different people, both in-world and out, about the implications for business of virtual worlds.

I will be looking at both the performances and the practices of businesses within SL, recognising that SL has only two types of business at the moment: soho entrepreneurs and corporates, neither of whom match the SME profile.

As Lindlof and Taylor describe, performances are interactive, variable and situationally specific in most instances. Practices, on the other hand, are the more formal communicative practices that are, perhaps, monitored and enforced by various means. These are the practices of business regulation, of formal communication channels, of set out procedures and guidelines, as distinct from the former’s ad-hoc, water cooler, tea room, cafe chat style.

I accept that my research, however I eventually conduct it (and I still have very little idea of how my research will be formally conducted), will be extremely interpretive:

• I accept that the social science research I will conduct is different from any natural science research, in that my findings may not be replicable but will indeed be hinged upon time, place and circumstance (implying that I could come up with ‘any old toss’ and try and pass it off as ‘research’. My psychology lecturers would be aghast);
• My research is, however, linked to psychology because of the theory of Social Construction — each individual’s ‘reality’ is socially constructed, interactive, layered, symbolic, symbiotic, collaborative and emergent;
• I accept that I am now more Sociologist that Psychologist in my research (which I personally find troubling from an egoistic standpoint; I believe that psychologists have greater societal standing that sociologists);
• I acknowledge that, because of the auto-ethnographic paradigm, that I am the research instrument, along with any tools I may choose to use;
• Theoretically I am all at sea on this project — I can see how I can draw upon the theories of others (LeFebvre, Castells, inter alia) but I am looking at SME/SL from many different perspectives: social interaction, group dynamics, architectural practice, historical, computer mediated communication, virtuality… tying them all together will be complex (or else I may have to create my own theory that takes snippets of them all like a true bricoleur);
• If I belong to any particular subfield of Communication research it is ‘Applied Research’ — I am looking to have an output and solve a real-world problem at the end of it all;
• In my research I must consider whether quantitative methods are, in fact, going to be of any use at all, seeing as how the dataset will probably be small: existing businesses and business people with SL;
• My output will probably be a montage of visual, text and audio data: interviews, sound bites, machinima, still photographs — the artifacts as part of the dataset.

Now playing as I write this: Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports - 1/2