Methodological Foundations of Ethnography and Participatory Observation: Virtual, Digital and Post-Human Ethnography

In the last two decades, the debate on the dimensions and issues of ethnic studies in Iranian society has been growing. As can be seen, we have various intellectual debates and the publication of specialized papers in scientific journals. But what has received less attention in this field is the explanation of the methodological foundations of ethnic studies and the understanding of recent theoretical-methodological developments in this era. It is necessary to study this issue because if we don’t learn the basics and methodological principles of ethnic studies, we will not be able to properly represent ethnic identities and understand and analyze their issues. The main question of the present article is what is the nature of the methodology of ethnic studies and how can we systematically understand the intellectual and cultural backgrounds of different ethnic groups? The main hypothesis is that a deep description and qualitative understanding of ethnic life will be possible through the documentation of human interactions and relationships in everyday life in the ethnographic method. The author’s main goal is to prioritize the study of the methodological foundations of ethnic studies and to propose new methods such as critical ethnography, visual and virtual ethnography, digital ethnography, postmodern ethnography and ethnicity, and Post-humanism ethnography. I hope we can better understand the theoretical-methodological perspectives of this field in light of the profound and rapid developments that have taken place