Performative Ethnographic Studies of Management Practices in Organizations

DPU, Aarhus University
Faculty: Professor Chris Steyaert, University of St. Gallen, Associate Professor Dorthe Staunæs, University of Aarhus, Associate Professor Pia Bramming, University of Aarhus
When: May 22nd – May 26th 2011
Where: Kavos Bay Hotel, Aegina, Greece
ECTS-points: 4
Deadline for registration (and payment): 25h March 2011
Deadline for submitting course requirements: 1th May 2011

Symposium Fees

Purpose
The purpose of the course is to provide a critical, yet hands-on approach to Ethnographic studies of management practices in organizations in order to enhance, reflect upon and perform differently, the quality of design, data, analysis and results.

The course will move one step further than theoretical reflections on the subject area of ethnography and will demand a firm practical grounding of critical reflections and analysis in the performance of actual ethnographic work of the PhD Students.

Introduction to the course content
In management and organisation studies, the object of research has turned today to the social (Latour, 2005: Lazzarato, 1996; Jones & Munro, 2005): how it is assembled, immaterlialized, affectively organized. During at least the last tri-cade, management and organisation studies have experimented with different methodological and conceptual positions with differing results; however, in the wake of the qualitative turn, concepts such as power, difference, practice, organisation, productivity, and learning are increasingly attributed to the specific characteristics of being human; of being social (Lazzarato, 1996, 2004 ; Hardt & Negri, 2000: Virno,2004). Within this range of methodological possibilities, (organizational) ethnography takes increasingly a prominent place (Cunliffe, 2010; Neyland, 2007; Ybema, Yanow, Wels, Kamsteeg, 2009; Van Maanen, 2010) and is a well known way of studying the social, as it emphasizes that a researcher gets a skin-tight feel for the social on the one hand, while on the other hand being able to produce enough distance to analyse and pour back energy into the studied. Converting (or corrupting perhaps) ethnography into organisational studies is a task many PhD students find challenging and rewarding. PRES will offer a play- and work ground to enhance the quality of your research if you are working with ethnographic methods in organisation and management studies.

Program
PRES is a 5 day course introducing highly motivated and innovative faculty members and a pedagogical set-up which intensifies the learning processes of the participating PhD students. The course is held in May 2011 on the Greek island of Aegina at a modest, family driven hotel with the most stimulating atmosphere, offering perfect surroundings to facilitate learning. Mind and body lean together, producing a different experiences as one is taking part in all the movements, intensities and elements that criss-cross an island.

The following sessions (symposiums) will be offered
1) Ethnographic research of organisational practices:
a. Introduction to ethnographic research of organizational and management studies
b. Ontological and epistemological foundations of ethnographic research
c. Aims and practices of ethnography as a methodological tool in the study of organizations.
2) How is ethnography informed by theory
a. How does theory and ethnography combine?
b. Which forms of theorizing can ethnography be related to in the organisation/management landscape?
c. How to organize the collection of data for analysis, making sense of data, conducting analysis using theoretical frameworks?
d. How to analyze and interpret results to establish and communicate theoretical and empirical contributions or a mixture of both?
3) Writing Etnography
a. How to interpret fieldwork data in the writing up of fieldwork as ethnography?
b. Which genres, formats and styles of writing are important to consider in "writing up" fieldwork?
c. How to write (for yourself and others) convincing and impactful texts? 

Preparations/Requirements
In order to participate in the course, each PhD student is asked to send in a one-page description of the PhD project. Furthermore, a position paper has to be send in where each researcher positions him/herself within/vis-à-vis/against the literature around which the sessions are built up.  The position paper situates the ethnographical project "methodologically" with regard to the three symposia, drawing upon the relevant texts and articulates first questions and reflections in relation to the emerging version of organizational ethnography the student's project is taking. The position paper is between 2,5 and 3 pages. Thirdly, we ask you send in a short ethnographical text where the PhD student has experimented with writing up (a part of) his/her empirical material ethnographically (in accordance with his/her positioning).This illustrative writing is max 2,5 pages. Finally, we ask each student to bring along empirical "materials" (transcripts, pictures, sketches, papers,...) to work with during the exercises.

On the basis of the different materials we receive, reflective peer-teams will be created. The reflective peer-teams will be supported and coached by course faculty throughout the course.

Form
The course pedagogic is visualized in this document.

The Conceptual Sessions:
The faculty will provide short and provocative "keynotes" with the aim to respond to the questions the different literatures have raised and to deepen out the conceptual understandings and their possibilities for applying and performing them.

The Reflective Sessions:
Before the conceptual sessions, students will meet in reflective peer-teams and prepare for the learning experience by constructing questions for the conceptual sessions. Student will be regularly invited to note down or bring in their reflections. At the end of the day, we also will organize plenary session where we try to bring "home" the learnings of the days.

Prior to the course, PhD Students will have prepared themselves by studying thoroughly the selected readings for each symposium, thereby creating a common point of departure for the ongoing reflections taking place at the reflective sessions and for the discussions during the conceptual sessions.

The Instrumental/Practical Sessions:
The Instrumental sessions will be organized between the symposia and consists mostly of individual or group exercises and well as individual or group project presentations. In this part, students can try some of the conceptual discussions in concrete exercises and/or reflect upon the implications for their own ethnography project: what do I take with me for the work with my dissertation? An important element in the course is to create a learning process that is relevant and applicable for students' work on their own project.

The Course literature:
1. Ethnographical research of organizational practices
Classics
? Marcus, G. E. (1998): Imagining the Whole – Ethnography's contemporary efforts to situate itself, in: Ethnography through thick and thin, Princeton University Press: Princeton pp. 33-56
? Marcus, G. E. (1998): On ideologies of Reflexivity in Contemporary Efforts to Remake the Human Sciences, in: Ethnography through thick and thin, Princeton University Press: Princeton pp. 181-202
New developments
? Barad, K. (2003): Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matters Comes to Matter, i Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28, 3, 801-831.
? Svensson, P. (2009): From Re-presentation to re-creation – Contributing to a radicalisation of linguistically turned interviewing in management studies, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal.  Vol 4 no 2. pp 168-185
? Licoppe, C. (2010) The 'Performative Turn' in Science and Technology Studies, Journal of Cultural Economy. Vol 3. No. 2, 181-18
? Steyaert, C. (2011) Entrepreneurship as in(ter)vention: Reconsidering the conceptual politics of method in entrepreneurship studies, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 23, issue 1.
? Van Maanen, J. (2006): Ethnography then and now, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, Vol 1. No. 1. Pp 13-21
Illustrations
? Ybema, S., Yanow, D., Wels H & F. Kamsteeg (eds.) Organizational Ethnography. Studying the Complexities of Everyday Life. London: Sage. (Selected Chapters)

2. How is ethnography informed by theory
? Despret, V. (2005): Sheep Do Have Opinions, i Latour, B. & P. Weibel (red.): Making Things Public - Atmosphere of Democracy, MIT Press, Cambridge.
? Bramming P., Hansen B. G., Bojesen, A. & Olesen, K. G (2010) (Im)perfect Pictures - The performative non-representationalism of snaplogs. Paper submitted to Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal
? Du Gay, P. (2010) Performativitites: Butler, Callon and the Moment of Theory, Journal of Cultural Economy. Vol 3. No. 2, 171-179
? Thrift, N. (2007) Spatialies of feelings. In Thrift, N. : Non-representational Theory: Space, politics, affects. London & New York: Routledge.
? Warren, S. (2002) Show me how it feels to work here: Using photograpy to research Organisational Aestics. Ephemera – Theory in politics and Organization. Vol. 2. No. 3: 224-245.
Further literature

? Alvesson, M., Hardy, C. and Harley, B. (2008). 'Reflecting on reflexivity: Reflexive textual practices in organization and management theory'. Journal of Management Studies, 45, 3, 480-501.
3. Writing Ethnography (show don't tell)
Classics
? Geertz, C. "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight". The Interpretation of Cultures
? Bourgois, P. (1998) Just Another Night in a Shooting Gallery. Theory, Culture and Society, Vol 15, No. 37
? Agar, M. (2006), KY College, The Naked Emperor on Drugs, in: Dope Double Agent: Lulubooks:  pp: 26-38
? 
Illustrations
? Bramming, P., Johnsen, R. (2011) Love Will Tear Us Apart – love and transformational leadership in a call centre,  European Journal of International Management
? Steyaert, C., Hjorth, D. (2002) "Though art a scholar, speak to it": On spaces of speech. Human Relations, 55, 7, 767-797.
Reflections
? Lather, P. Postbook. Working the ruins of feminist ethnography. In Lather, P. : Getting lost. Feminist Efforts toward a Double(d) Science. New York: SUNY, p. 135-150
? Staunæs, D. & DM. Søndergaard (2009) Who is ready for the results? Reflections on the multivoicedness of useful research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Vol. 21: No. 1: 3 ? 18
? Czarniawska, B. (2008) Organizing: how to study it and how to write about it. Qualitative Research in Organisations and Management: An International Journal. Vol. 3. No. 1: 4-20.
Further reading
? Van Maanen, J. (1988) Tales of the field: on writing ethnography. Chicago: Chicago University Press. Chapter 1 +2

References:
Cunliffe, A. (2010). Retelling tales of the field: In search of organizational ethnography 20 years on. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 2, 224-239.
Hard, M. & Negri, A., (2000) Empire, Cambridge/Minnesota, London, England: Harvard University Pres
Jones, C. and Munro, R. (2005) Contemporary Organization Theory. Blackwell Publishing.
Lazzarato, M. (1996). Immaterial Labour. In P.a.M.H.Virno (Ed.), Radical Thought in Italy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Lazzarato, M. (2004). From Capital-Labour to Capital-Life. Ephemera - theory & politics in organization, 4, 187-208.
Neyland, D. (2007). Organizational Ethnography. London: Sage.
Van Maanen, J. (2010). A song for my supper: More tales of the field. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 2, 240-255.
Virno, P. (2004) A Grammar of the Multitude. For an analysis of the Contemporary Forms of life, New York: Semiotext(e)
Virtanen, A. (2004) General economy: The Entrance of multitude into production, Ephemera - theory & politics in organization, vol 4 no 3 pp. 209-233
Ybema, S., Yanow, D., Wels H & F. Kamsteeg (eds.) Organizational Ethnography. Studying the Complexities of Everyday Life. London: Sage. (Selected Chapters)

Application:
Completed Application forms should be sent to: Laila Parbst, PhD Board of Studies, Danish School of Education, 164 Tuborgvej, 2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark. E-mail: phd@dpu.dk. Use Application form from www.dpu.dk/phdcourses.