Transforming Islamic Family Law Research Methodology in the Digital Era: A Netnographic Framework within Socio-Legal and Living Law Studies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32332/hk5fkp76Keywords:
Digital Research Methodology, Islamic Family Law, Living Law, Netnography, Socio-Legal StudiesAbstract
The digital transformation has shifted the practice of Islamic family law from physical social interactions to digital ecosystems mediated by social media, messaging applications, and virtual communities. Phenomena such as online family consultations, divorce (talaq) via electronic media, digital family preaching (da'wah), Islamic parenting communities, and cyber intimacy demonstrate that the norms of Islamic family law are not only found in formal legal texts and institutions, but are also produced, negotiated, and interpreted through the interactions of Muslim societies in digital spaces. These changes introduce methodological challenges, as normative approaches and conventional field research are not yet fully capable of capturing the fluid, multimodal, network-based, and digitally documented nature of digital legal practices. This article aims to develop a netnographic framework as a methodological approach in Islamic family law research based on socio-legal studies and living law perspectives. This study is literature research employing a conceptual-analytical approach. Data were obtained through a review of literature on netnography, digital ethnography, socio-legal studies, living law, and the development of Islamic family law studies in the digital era. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis and conceptual synthesis to formulate a netnographic methodological framework for Islamic family law research. The findings indicate that netnography should not be understood merely as an online data collection technique, but as a methodological approach that enables researchers to examine norm formation, the negotiation of legal meaning, and living law practices within virtual communities. This article offers an operational framework for netnography that encompasses the identification of digital family law phenomena, virtual community selection, digital participant observation, multimodal data collection, socio-legal interpretation, living law analysis, ethical reflection, and reporting. The contribution of this article lies in the development of an Islamic family law research methodology that is more responsive to the social and cultural transformations of Muslim societies within the digital ecosystem
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