Using Buddhist skillful means

Conducting digital ethnography in diasporic digital Chinese Buddhist communities in Canada

Abstract

This study addresses the growing call from scholars, such as Heidi Campbell, for a deeper reflection of methodological approaches to digital ethnography within various religious traditions and communities. In this article, I examine how I utilize a collection of “skillful means” informed by Buddhism, namely a mixed set of digital research methods encompassing reflexive choices and decisions, positioning, and creativities. This set of tools is situationally tailored for and derived from interacting with Chinese Buddhist diasporas in French Canada in the context of digital social media throughout my digital fieldwork. I use ethnographic vignettes to illustrate how these practices, afforded by the Buddhist ideas, digital possibilities, and ethnographic reflexivity, are crucial to constantly navigate, negotiate, and devise new strategies for exploring diverse networked digital field sites through interconnectivity, fluidity, immediacy and disruption and conducting multi-modal participant observation. By presenting the complexity and intricacy of the insider-outsider conundrum, I highlight key digital features of social media platforms such as WeChat, which can be strategically leveraged by a Buddhist researcher and practitioner to actively shape and present their digital image and voice within the communities they studies. I further reflect on how these dynamics can uniquely influence both the individuals and the communities being researched. Finally, I address the caveats and potential pitfalls this approach could potentially bring about.