Collective Autoethnographies Generated through Social Networking Services

The Case of Tanzanians in Hong Kong

Abstract

The spread of smartphones means the individuals that anthropologists study also post fragments of information about their life-world on social networking services (SNS) directly. This paper discusses how anthropologists can explore new anthropological ethnographies using ICT through clarifying the characteristics of the "autoethnographies" of Tanzanians in Hong Kong.

Tanzanian brokers in Hong Kong have recently constructed a unique trading system using SNS. The brokers use the stories, messages, pictures, etc. that they post on SNS in an attempt to present themselves as trustworthy business partners. The fragments of information provided by these individuals are interlaced with the other user's information, generating collective "autoethnographies" spontaneously. This paper compares their "autoethnographies" which are influenced by cognitive capitalism, and inevitably centers on the polyphonic voices of the majority with anthropologists' monophonic ethnographies. The results of these comparisons are used to discuss the importance of exploring different ontological forms of ethnographies simultaneously.