Virtual ethnography in alcoholics anonymous in times of pandemic

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand how the members of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) carry out the treatment of alcoholism in the midst of the pandemic, through a virtual ethnography in A.A. groups in Brazil. In the pandemic, AA members moved their recovery meetings to the virtual space, forcing them to face the challenges of taking alcoholism treatment through online meetings. Academic research also had to reinvent itself so that ethnography, the classic method of anthropological research, also migrated to virtual space, which has caused certain tensions in relation to the classical notion of fieldwork in anthropology. The aim is, therefore, to contribute to the understanding of the way A.A. members carry out the treatment of alcoholism in online recovery meetings and, in this way, the theoretical and methodological challenges of virtual ethnography in times of pandemic.

Keywords: Alcoholism; Alcoholics Anonymous; Virtual Ethnography; Pandemic.