Within the framework of the Urban Rural Assembly research project, CCST colleagues Gaoli Xiao and Ava Lynam, together with Dr. Kit Braybrooke from Habitat Unit, have just published a new paper in the Journal of Science Communication, within a Special Issue on ‘Living Labs’. The article explores postdigital ethnographic methods that the authors tested to continue to engage with field informants in China despite Covid-19 travel restrictions. The authors reflect on the potentials and challenges of using the WeChat mobile platform as a way of 'seeing the seeing' of others in difficult-to-access field sites, through an intercultural and trans-local curated exchange of photos and everyday experiences across ‘urban-rural Living Labs’ in China and Germany. The article concludes with a series of design principles for applying similar approaches to future field research when physical co-location is not possible.
The article is available below: