WG 2 - Urban ethnography

Urban ethnography deals with cultural and sociological fieldwork using varying theoretical and methodological approaches.
It will bring together knowledge about the use of new media technologies in public spaces from an ethnographic point of view and set up the understanding of the public spaces and human behaviour in the context of new media. In order to understand how best to connect technology and public spaces, we will observe both uses of technology within space, but also user-behaviour in that space not linked to technology.

The purpose is to generate novel ideas about future ICT development to enhance and make more pleasurable the use of and user-behaviour in public spaces. It aims at widening branches outward in new directions towards enhancing the knowledge on the relations between users and their behaviour, new media and the spatial practice.

The leading questions are:

• What is known about the relationship between new media use and spatial practices?
• What do people want from public space?
• Does this differ by socioeconomic status, gender, age?
• What technological developments are most likely to enhance current user behaviour or develop new user behaviours?