Doing digital team ethnography: being there together and digital social data

With the digital availability of social data helping reshape ethnographic research and thus broadening the mainstream understanding of ethnography, this research proposes a set of strategies to overcome current limitations in doing ethnography. Based on a two-year online and offline ethnographic project on social media use in later life, insights are provided into how the practices and meanings of ethnography are being reconstructed and negotiated in response to the explosion of digital social data and through team practices. This paper reviews how collaborative and interdisciplinary ethnographic reflection is sustained and extended by digital tools, creating a live source of data that can be analysed within the framework of ethnography. As a contribution to current debates on the “Social Life of Methods“, it also reviews epistemic issues associated with digital data and team ethnography, such as the role of the ethnographer(s), the field(s) and computational data analysis. The article reaches the conclusion that digital team ethnography is a viable option for undertaking thick and descriptive studies about the use of social media, which in turn favours a collaborative, non-hierarchical and dialogue-driven knowledge production process

What do we know about the relationship between Internet mediated interaction and social isolation and loneliness in later life?

Social isolation and loneliness are recognised social, health and wellbeing problems that particularly affect later life. They have been the subject of many recent studies. Studies examining the role of the Internet in addressing these problems have increased. However, it is still unknown whether Internet-mediated social interaction has a role in mitigating social isolation and/or loneliness or not. To address this gap, this study reviews previous research that investigates the relationship between Internet use for communication and social isolation and loneliness. It reviews the empirical literature published since 2000 and expands on previous literature reviews by including a variety of research designs and disciplines. Despite the recent growth of studies there is still little evidence to demonstrate Internet effects on social isolation and loneliness. It is concluded that future research programmes aimed at reducing them by the use of the Internet should include more robust methodological and theoretical frameworks, employ longitudinal research designs and provide a more nuanced description of both the social phenomena (social isolation and loneliness) and Internet-mediated social interaction

Impact of wind and temperature on snowfall measurements by Thies LPM and OTT Parsivel2 optical disdrometers compared with DFAR (Double Fence Automated Reference) measurements at WMO.SPICE Formigal-Sarrios site

Póster presentado en: WMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation celebrada del 8 al 11 de octubre de 2018 en Amsterdam

Caracterización del espectro disdrométrico de la precipitación y aplicaciones

Ponencia presentada en: X Congreso de la Asociación Española de Climatología celebrado en Alicante entre el 5 y el 8 de octubre de 2016.[ES]Los nuevos sistemas de medida basados en el carácter intrínsecamente discreto de la precipitación (corriente de partículas individuales: gotas de lluvia, copos de nieve, etc.) han incrementado la precisión en el registro de eventos de precipitación. Estos instrumentos de medida, denominados disdrómetros ópticos o espectropluviómetros, son capaces de caracterizar el espectro disdrométrico de la precipitación o distribución de frecuencias del tamaño y velocidad de las gotas. Esta información permite calcular variables integradas como la densidad de gotas o la masa de agua por unidad de volumen de aire, la intensidad y volumen de la precipitación, la energía cinética, la visibilidad o la reflectividad de radar, además de clasificar los meteoros (lluvia, lluvia fina, granizo, nieve, etc). Más allá del interés aplicado de estas variables, el análisis de la información disdrométrica durante episodios de precipitación concretos permite indagar sobre los mecanismos genéticos y de evolución de los meteoros. La información disdrométrica junto con el radar meteorológico permite validar la precipitación obtenida a través de los satélites u otros medios de teledetección de la precipitación. En esta comunicación se presenta una revisión de la información disdrométrica y su evolución, con ejemplos de aplicación.[EN]New precipitation measurement devices, based on the precipitation discrete character (individual particles flow: as raindrops, snowflakes, etc.) have improved the accuracy in recording precipitation events and its characteristics. These devices, known as optical disdrometers or spectropluviometers allow characterizing the precipitation particle spectrum or the size and velocity frequency distribution of the precipitation particles. This information allows estimating integrate values as raindrops density, the water content per volume of air, precipitation intensity and precipitation amount, kinetic energy, visibility and radar reflectivity, besides hydrometeors classification (rain, drizzle, hail, snow, etc). Apart from the applied interest, the analysis of precipitation particle spectrum, during precipitation events, informs on precipitation genetic mechanisms and their evolution. In addition, disdrometers, in combination with meteorological radars, are useful tools for validating precipitation satellite data, and other remote sensing precipitation products. This article reviews the measurement evolution of disdrometric information providing some application examples.Este trabajo ha contado con financiación del proyecto DISDROPEC: CGL2011-24185

Social discourse concerning pollution and contamination in Spain: Analysis of online comments by digital press readers

Aquest article analitza els comentaris en línia que escriuen els lectors dels principals diaris espanyols sobre la contaminació a Espanya. L'estudi realitza una anàlisi comparativa de les percepcions, idees i discurs dels comentaristes en el cas de peix contaminat amb mercuri i en el de contaminació atmosfèrica a la ciutat de Barcelona. A partir d'una anàlisi basada en principis metodològics de la Teoria Fonamentada, es descriuen les diferències entre la percepció de la contaminació alimentària —sentida com un problema de salut pública greu, imminent i global— i la contaminació atmosfèrica —percebuda com un problema social i polític. Els comentaris dels lectors revelen una tendència significativa cap a la culpabilització del camp polític i industrial, entre d'altres, així com una profunda desconfiança cap a les institucions encarregades de vetllar per la salut pública.This article examines the online comments written by readers of the major Spanish newspapers on the subject of pollution and contamination in Spain. The study offers a comparative analysis of the perceptions, ideas and discourse of those who post comments in the cases of fish contaminated with mercury and atmospheric pollution in the city of Barcelona. The research includes analysis based on some methodological principles of Grounded Theory, and reports differences between perceptions of food contamination —felt as a severe, imminent and global health problem— and of air pollution —perceived as a social and political problem. Readers’ comments reveal a significant tendency towards blaming the political and industrial sectors, among others, as well as a profound distrust of the institutions responsible for safeguarding public health. [Contrib Sci 10:35-47 (2014)

Body Representations of Internal Pollution: The Risk Perception of the Circulation of Environmental Contaminants in Pregnant and Breastfeeding Women in Spain

In this article, we analyze how pregnant and breastfeeding women perceive the inside of their bodies as well as their thoughts regarding the accumulation and elimination of chemical compounds present in food, and how these are then transmitted to the fetus. We explore different social perceptions of risk regarding the circulation of chemical compounds inside the body using qualitative research based on the technique of body mapping, comprised of women's figures of their bodies in combination with comments on the figures, food diaries and narratives from in-depth interviews. We examine how these 41 women (21 pregnant and 20 breastfeeding) perceive the body's internal mechanisms during the stages of pregnancy and breastfeeding, as well as the circulation of chemical contaminants within it. The body mapping technique allowed us to analyze participants' knowledge of internal pollution, a little-understood process in society. Thanks to these pregnant and breastfeeding women, who made an effort to represent and reflect on these new risks, this study shows that scientists and obstetricians need to collaborate with women in order to better understand and publicize the risks of internal pollution

«I do everything, but I don’t know how to make anything work»: Affective and relational learning of social media in later life

This exploratory paper argues that treating older adults learning as «representational knowledge» acquisition is not adequate if we want to understand how they learn to use digital technologies in general, and social media technologies in particular. Using examples taken from an ethnographic study exploring social media use in later life, the case is made for a range of digital practices and affective relations through which learning happens. The idea of communities of practice is a useful approach, however it also needs to be expanded to account for the practices that happened outside of the social and cultural centers and outside of the groups of interest formed around the interests in digital technologies. It is also useful to answer the question of how and why particular forms of «pedagogical authority» are enacted through particular digital practices, which are highly relational and affective, and how these forms of expertise become identity traits. We further discuss the implications of this for our understandings of identity and ageing within the digital society. Finally, we suggest that the term learning ecologies captures much better the practices of learning of older adults.Este artículo exploratorio argumenta que tratar el aprendizaje de los adultos mayores únicamente como adquisición de «conocimiento representacional» no es adecuado si queremos entender cómo aprenden a usar las tecnologías digitales en general y las tecnologías de medios de comunicación social en particular. Usando ejemplos tomados de un estudio etnográfico que explora el uso de las redes sociales de los adultos mayores, se presentan una variedad de prácticas digitales y relaciones afectivas a través de las cuales ocurre el aprendizaje. La idea de comunidades de práctica es un enfoque útil, sin embargo, también debe ampliarse para tener en cuenta las prácticas que ocurrieron fuera de los centros sociales y culturales y fuera de los grupos de interés formados en torno al aprendizaje de tecnologías digitales. También es útil responder a la pregunta de cómo y por qué las formas particulares de «autoridad pedagógica» se promulgan a través de prácticas digitales particulares, que son altamente relacionales y afectivas, y cómo estas formas de experiencia se convierten en rasgos de identidad. Luego discutimos las implicaciones de esto para nuestra comprensión de la identidad y el envejecimiento dentro de la sociedad digital. Finalmente, sugerimos que el término ecologías de aprendizaje capta mucho mejor las prácticas de aprendizaje de los adultos mayores

The social connectedness of digital practices in later life: It’s not just about learning, it’s all about relationships

In the last ten years there has been an increase in access to information and communication technologies among older people, stimulated by widespread adoption of mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). At the same time, digital inclusion policies and training programmes continue to develop to increase the access to the digital society for this social group. In this con-text, it is pertinent to revisit a long-standing research question about how older adults use and learn to use these technologies in their everyday lives while paying attention to how their sub-jectivities and their knowledge are situated in the collective shared knowledge of digital practic-es. Using examples taken from a digital team ethnographic study exploring social media use in later life, the paper delves into how learning digital practices and affective relations assembled and what they do to older people’s subjectivities. Their engagements show how these practices are illustrative of the relevance of social connectivity, place, things and affects for learning how to use ICTs. We, then, move to discuss the policy implications of this for the understandings of ageing within a digital society