Big data

In this article I propose to consider the relationship between ethnography and digital methods that are grouped under the name of Big Data, data analytics or data mining. First, I want to address what we mean by Big Data and promises and challenges presented for the social sciences, and then address how their relationship with ethnography is established from the classic distinction in social sciences between qualitative and quantitative methods, and the various metaphors that have been used to mark the differences between mining large databases and ethnographic fieldwork (big data against small data or surface data against deep or dense data). Further on, drawing on my own experience in a project where we work with these two approaches the case of selfie in Social Media, I will address the problems that arise on practice, to finally deal with questions about what kind of data we build, what ethical issues we face and how patterns of data relate to cultural patterns in Big data cultural analysis.

Ethnography, Big Data, Cultural Analysis, Selfie, Social Media