“Please go to your breakout room”: researching negotiations through hybrid and digital spaces
Introduction
Ethnographic research has been rooted in physical settings and geographically bound spaces (Delgado and Cruz, 2014). Yet digital technology has created new “ethnographic places” which question the importance of conducting research in-situ (Eggeling, 2022). Since Covid-19, an increase in the use of digital tools has changed the event landscape, enabling participation not just in-person but in myriad hybrid and digital formats (Davis and Norwood, 2024; Howlett, 2022). In the context of this expanded hybrid landscape, some scholars have argued that digital ethnography poses challenges to “the authenticity of what a physical site can reveal” (Ru-Fan Liu, 2022).
This poster reflects on experiences of conducting digital and hybrid ethnographic research of negotiations and technical meetings within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), particularly the development of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) through the Glasgow-Sharm el-Sheikh (GlaSS) work programme. This research is part of the wider UKRI-funded project Accountable Adaptation, which seeks to open-up questions of accountability and raise ambition in adaptation finance. Through an exploration of measurement, it aims to influence how climate finance is framed, implemented and evaluated to support more effective adaptation.
Global Goal on Adaptation and the GlaSS
The 2015 Paris Agreement established the Global Goal on Adaptation “to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability to climate change” (Article 7.1).
The GlaSS was established at COP26 in Glasgow to advance slow progress on the GGA.
The GlaSS spanned two years and eight workshops with different objectives (2021-2023).
The GlaSS led to the creation of the UAE-Framework for Global Climate Resilience at COP28 to guide achievement of the GGA.
The UAE-Belém indicator work programme is now underway to develop indicators for measuring progress against the targets established in the framework.
Methods
Participant observation of GlaSS workshops and COP28 livestream
In person participation at SB60 in Bonn
Document analysis of UNFCCC workshop submissions
SB60, UNFCCC Plenary Meeting, Bonn [Photo credits: author’s own]
Research Findings
Shouting the loudest: scholars have pointed towards the importance of the “informal exchange” in influencing diplomatic practice (Vanhala et al, 2022; Schulte-Romer & Gesing, 2022). Yet when conducting research online, it can be very difficult to seek out these interactions or look further than those with the confidence to speak in plenary or to volunteer as group rapporteurs. This problem also translates to online-only discussions, as the break-out group can be dominated by just a few voices who steer the conversation according to their agenda. We should question what this dearth of quiet voices means for the development of global agreements and how online research methods can ensure they capture more than those shouting the loudest.
Online vs in-person power: in theory, events taking place in hybrid format create more space for equal participation. Many negotiating Parties during the GlaSS advocated as such (EU, Canada UNFCCC submissions, 2022). However, experiences of watching the GlaSS demonstrate that the hybrid event lends itself much more to the in-person participants. Connectivity issues can undermine online perspectives, online participants rely on moderators bringing them into the conversation and virtual raised hands are easily ignored. This was exemplified during the third workshop of the GlaSS in which one online participant stated “thank you very much for coming to my rescue after a very long time of trying to get into this discussion” (online participant, GlaSS WS3). In the context of technical constraints faced by more vulnerable participants (LDC UNFCCC submission, 2022), we must ask how online avenues, beneficial from both a cost and energy perspective, can ensure inclusivity for all (Schulte-Romer & Gesing, 2022).
In-person exclusion: scholars have remarked on the added value of conducting ethnographic research of global environmental governance in person. It presents the opportunity of “hanging out” and “hanging around” to observe people and spaces and provides insight into sensory aspects that would be missed online (Hughes & Vadrot, 2023; Vanhala et al, 2022). Yet despite these in person perks, which highlight the drawbacks of an online only perspective, research conducted at SB60 in Bonn demonstrated parallel challenges. Denied access into a crammed informal consultation, observers were sent to an overflow room to watch the negotiations play out together on a big screen. Yet the room had been incorrectly advertised and participants were left watching the informal consultation play out individually on their laptops with headphones. The seeming benefit of being present in-situ faded away as the online livestream became much more reliable than the in-person infrastructure for following negotiations. Despite some drawbacks, this demonstrates emerging opportunities for online research, as physical ethnographic methods are challenged at the intersection of online and offline worlds.
Workshop eight of the GlaSS in hybrid format [Screenshot author’s own]
Conclusions
•New digital and hybrid spaces are challenging the need to conduct ethnographic research in person, creating opportunities for researchers from an energy, time, and cost perspective.
•These new spaces provide a unique insight into the different experiences that play out in hybrid format and their resulting consequences for global environment agreement making.
•Conducting research in digital and hybrid format highlights issues of inclusion, power and access that need to be navigated as hybrid international events become common practice.
By Aishath Green
You can download the poster here