Welcome to the ICTs in Rural China interactive website: This website is academic research refashioned for the digital age. We live in a fast paced, visual generation, in which information and communication technologies (also known by their abbreviation ICTs) have both empowered and entrapped citizens in their virtual web. However, academic researchers ensconced in their ivory towers have been slow to respond to these changes. Both the methods employed to answer research questions and the way that the conclusions of academic research are presented have changed little; but, we think it is time for a change.
Annette Markham, an academic who writes about methodologies in the digital age, proposes the concept of remix as a way to bring academic research in line with modern processes of cultural knowledge production[1], in recognition that the products of academic research should not be a static object to be imparted from on high but rather an attempt to continue an ongoing public conversation. Inspired by this provocation, this project uses photography as part of an iterative research methodology; to represent the conclusions of research and the words of study participants in a visual manner, to generate new insights and comments, and to create a venue for conversation about the place of ICTs in society and the changes they engender in social life.
In Internet research, we often conclude that ICTs have empowered users, yet we do not seek in academia to change the balance of power between researchers, study participants and audience members[2]. This project seeks not to offer firm and hard conclusions to a small academic audience but rather to extend greater opportunity for meaning making to audience members, and opportunities for study participants to talk back to the products of research. A certain amount of selectivity and curation of content is unavoidable, but on this website we seek to make the process of research and meaning making more open, by presenting the process of research as transparent, open-ended, interactive and iterative. Through this effort we hope to inspire others to think critically about the role of academic research in the digital age as well as the interactions between ICTs, knowledge and society.
This website can be navigated completely linearly; if you do absolutely nothing and click nowhere the site will play through two introductory sections that introduce research into ICTs and the town in which this research is situated, before progressing to the four research questions examined in this website:
- How do people in rural China approach ICTs?
- How does ICT use fit into social practice?
- How do ICTs fit into physical space?
- And, what is the role of photography in social communication?
Each of these four sections ends not with a definitive conclusion but with a commentary video in which the researchers involved in this project discuss the question based on the collected evidence. However, you are encouraged to leave your own conclusions and comments, based on the evidence presented here and the knowledge that you bring to the table, by clicking on the comments tab. Submitted comments will be moderated before addition to the site.
You can navigate between different site sections, using the site menu; control the ratio between visual content and text; and interact with the numerous additional information elements provided along with the main content. References for works cited in the text are provided in the references tab. There is additional information about the methodology and limitations of the research presented in this website, and indeed presenting academic research as a website more generally, in the additional content section, as well as information on the wider anthropological project that facilitated and supported the creation of this website.
At a time of budget cuts and an increasing commercial orientation in higher education, funding and time for on-the-ground research is decreasing, we hope that this project demonstrates the value and contribution of visual anthropology and that there are some questions that cannot be answered or even asked without just being there. Maybe you will never have the opportunity to visit rural China, but in this website we attempt to bring rural China to you and give you the information that you need to better understand how information and communication technologies are impacting life in this important but under-researched context.