Mosaic ethnography Blended lives between online and offline China

Qualitative research presupposes researchers are able to get intensive as well as extensive access to their fieldwork sites and participants, yet the reality tends to be very different. Most academic ethnographers engage in exactly one major bout of fieldwork, namely the lengthy period of fieldwork that is part of their PhD studies. Ethnography takes time and presence, yet not many young(er) academics can spare countless months engaging with a local community in a proverbial village. The continuing demands of academic employment, family life and other social commitments preclude in most cases the repetition of in-depth ethnographic fieldwork. Through the lens of the author’s own research into digital practices in China, this chapter will argue that ethnographers are often forced to piece together a mosaic or bricolage of data points from their original fieldwork, short holiday visits, online contacts, media reports, targeted interviews or even data gathered by their students to approach (theoretical) topics of interest.