The ethnography of language from the online/offline entanglement: Challenges and possibilities

Zavala V. · Estudios de Linguistica del Espanol (2025) · DOI: 10.36950/elies.2025.50.3

Resumen

Ethnography (and language ethnography in particular) is a creative approach that adapts to the new conditions it encounters, as is the case of digital mediation. Although in digital environments the methodological premises of the ethnographic study of language are being redefined based on certain challenges, new possibilities also appear, always within the framework of a theoretical and analytical commitment that involves a dense study of social action from the online/offline entanglement. I will illustrate this with two cases from my own research. The first refers to a glotopolitical scene produced in the interaction between traditional Peruvian media and social networks during the pandemic, in which I was directly involved as a participant observer. The second one addresses how data in digital spaces are fundamental to enrich offline ethnographic research, when it comes to understanding ongoing social processes that transcend localized studies. The focus in both cases will be on language practices as actions unfolding in trajectories of events, rather than as texts, with the aim of understanding the semiotic production of difference and the consequence this has on inequality.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú