Ethnographic data in the age of big data: How to compare and combine

Bjerre-Nielsen, Andreas; Glavind, Kristoffer Lind

doi:10.1177/20539517211069893

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Third, some commentators [49,126] have argued that qualitative evidence syntheses decontextualize the nuanced findings of qualitative studies (conducted in different settings, with different methods) and consolidate knowledge that is not generalizable. We undertook this approach to understand how social and structural factors shape risks for injecting-related infections in ways that may be impossible to assess with quantitative research [38,127].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use‐associated bacterial and fungal infections: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Brothers

Bonn²,

Lewer

et al. 2023

Addiction

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Background and aimsInjection drug use‐associated bacterial and fungal infections are increasingly common, and social contexts shape individuals’ injecting practices and treatment experiences. We sought to synthesize qualitative studies of social–structural factors influencing incidence and treatment of injecting‐related infections.MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL and PsycINFO from 1 January 2000 to 18 February 2021. Informed by Rhodes’ ‘risk environment’ framework, we performed thematic synthesis in three stages: (1) line‐by‐line coding; (2) organizing codes into descriptive themes, reflecting interpretations of study authors; and (3) consolidating descriptive themes into conceptual categories to identify higher‐order analytical themes.ResultsWe screened 4841 abstracts and included 26 qualitative studies on experiences of injecting‐related bacterial and fungal infections. We identified six descriptive themes organized into two analytical themes. The first analytical theme, social production of risk, considered macro‐environmental influences. Four descriptive themes highlighted pathways through which this occurs: (1) unregulated drug supply, leading to poor drug quality and solubility; (2) unsafe spaces, influenced by policing practices and insecure housing; (3) health‐care policies and practices, leading to negative experiences that discourage access to care; and (4) restrictions on harm reduction programmes, including structural barriers to effective service provision. The second analytical theme, practices of care among people who use drugs, addressed protective strategies that people employ within infection risk environments. Associated descriptive themes were: (5) mutual care, including assisted‐injecting and sharing sterile equipment; and (6) self‐care, including vein health and self‐treatment. Within constraining risk environments, some protective strategies for bacterial infections precipitated other health risks (e.g. HIV transmission).ConclusionsInjecting‐related bacterial and fungal infections are shaped by modifiable social–structural factors, including poor quality unregulated drugs, criminalization and policing enforcement, insufficient housing, limited harm reduction services and harmful health‐care practices. People who inject drugs navigate these barriers while attempting to protect themselves and their community.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use‐associated bacterial and fungal infections: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Brothers

Bonn²,

Lewer

et al. 2023

Addiction

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We undertook this approach to understand how social and structural factors shape risks for injecting-related infections in ways that may be impossible to assess with quantitative research. 38,105…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections: a qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Brothers

Bonn²,

Lewer

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: Injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections are increasingly common, and social contexts shape individuals' injecting practices and treatment experiences. We sought to synthesize qualitative studies of social-structural factors influencing incidence and treatment of injecting-related infections. Methods: We searched PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, CINAHL, and PsycINFO from January 1, 2000, to February 18, 2021. Informed by Rhodes' "risk environment" framework, we performed thematic synthesis in three stages: (1) line-by-line coding; (2) organizing codes into descriptive themes, reflecting interpretations of study authors; (3) consolidating descriptive themes into conceptual categories to identify higher-order analytic themes. Results: We screened 4,841 abstracts and included 26 qualitative studies on experiences of injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections. We identified six descriptive themes organized into two analytic themes. The first analytic theme, social production of risk, considered macro-environmental influences. Four descriptive themes highlighted pathways through which this occurs: (1) unregulated drug supply, leading to poor drug quality and solubility; (2) unsafe spaces, influenced by policing practices and insecure housing; (3) health care policies and practices, leading to negative experiences that discourage access to care; and (4) harm reduction programs, including structural barriers to effective service provision. The second analytic theme, practices of care among people who inject drugs, addresses protective strategies that people who inject drugs employ within infection risk environments. Associated descriptive themes were: (5) mutual care, including assisted-injecting and sharing sterile equipment; and (6) self-care, including vein health and self-treatment. Within constraining risk environments, some protective strategies for bacterial infections precipitated other health risks (e.g., HIV transmission). Conclusions: Injecting-related bacterial and fungal infections are shaped by modifiable social-structural factors, including unregulated drug quality, criminalization, insufficient housing, limited harm reduction services, and harmful health care practices. Enabling environment interventions that address these factors could further empower people who inject drugs to protect themselves and their community.

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“…While we designed our study before Myanmar's military coup, analysis of data collected both before and after the coup enabled us to observe how seemingly apolitical online spaces changed in response to evolving stages of political crisis. Our study combined the scale of computational tools with the contextual depth of long-term ethnography (Bjerre-Nielsen and Glavind, 2022) to produce and analyze an original dataset of 2005 posts from Myanmar-language Facebook pages and groups related to farming. Grounding our inquiry within team members’ long-term research on Myanmar agriculture, politics, and internet infrastructures enabled us to formulate questions, interpret our data and assess its limitations, and adapt our study in a rapidly changing, high-risk context.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic online politics: Farmers, Facebook, and Myanmar's military coup

et al. 2023

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Despite perennial hope in the democratic possibilities of the internet, the rise of digital authoritarianism threatens online and offline freedom across much of the world. Yet while critical data studies has expanded its geographic focus, limited work to date has examined digital mobilization in the agrarian communities that comprise much of the Global South. This article advances the concept of “organic online politics,” to demonstrate how digital mobilization grows from specific rural conditions, material concerns, and repertoires of resistance, within the constraints of authoritarian violence and internet control. To do so, we examine social media interaction in the wake of the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, an agrarian nation with recent, rapid digital connection that corresponded with a decade-long democratic turn. Analyzing an original archive of over 2000 Facebook posts collected from popular farming pages and groups, we find a massive drop-off in online activity after the military coup and analyze the shifting temporalities of digital mobilization. Crucially, we highlight the embeddedness of online interaction within the material concerns of farming communities, examining how social media become a key forum for negotiating political crisis in Myanmar's countryside. These findings call attention to rural digital subcultures as fertile sites of investigation and point toward the need for future scholarship on data practices that attends to rooted agrarian struggles.

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Ethnographic data in the age of big data: How to compare and combine

Cited by 14 publications

References 29 publications

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use‐associated bacterial and fungal infections: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use‐associated bacterial and fungal infections: A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Social and structural determinants of injection drug use-associated bacterial and fungal infections: a qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Organic online politics: Farmers, Facebook, and Myanmar's military coup

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