Proposals are invited for a collaborative three-day in-person workshop on ‘Digital Ethnography and Social Media Research: Methods for Investigating Informal Work, Local Cultures, and Digital Practices on Social Media’ organised by the University of Naples and CSDS, Delhi.

Date of the event: February 3-5, 2026.
Time: 9 AM – 6 PM.
Venue: CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi.

Social media platforms mediate our lives, livelihoods and worlds – informing and becoming infrastructures of new understandings of creativity and labour, especially local short-video platforms. Consequently, they function as new media objects that transform social categories and terms as well as objects that remediate old media and existing ecologies. However, they also pose a methodological challenge – what are the methods that can be used to research these platforms and the realities that they engender? They not only transform ‘field’, ‘participant-observation’, and ‘archive’ as methodological concepts but also as material realities. In this regard, digital ethnography provides a robust framework for capturing the social, cultural, and economic practices that unfold within platform ecologies, while remaining attentive to the embedded, situated and often highly localised nature of online interactions (Hine, 2015).

Accordingly, the workshop aims to train participants in the knowledge of digital social research methods, particularly digital ethnography protocols such as online observation, ethical conventions, and fieldnote practices. It further aims to inculcate a critical gendered perspective on social media platforms. Participants will also develop skills in analysing digital content, user practices, and platform metrics. Participants will be involved in collaborative data collection and produce a shared repository of case studies based on research and analysis conducted during the workshop.

Participants selected for the workshop will be required to have access to a smartphone, a laptop and have at least one (1) active social media account which they can use for research during the sessions. Further, the workshop requires participants to familiarise themselves with previously supplied readings, participate in discussions and produce research outputs. Selected participants will be charged a registration fee of Rs. 1000 to cover food and material charges. To apply please click and fill up this google form by January 26, 2026. You need to submit a 250-word statement of interest, your updated CV and a 25-word bio to apply for the workshop. We have limited slots for participation. Selections will be made based on the quality of the applications.

Applicants accepted for the workshop will be informed by January 29, 2026 by email.