scholarly journals The Image of Ethnography—Making Sense of the Social Through Images: A Structured Method

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691984301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo A. Ayala ◽  
Tomas F. Koch
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Research Participant ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Systematic Observation ◽  
Know How ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

Although systematic observation and interviews are the most common techniques in ethnography, a deep understanding requires research tools adapted to exploring beyond the observational scope. Nonconventional methods can support ethnography and complement observations and thus refine the construction of meaning. Qualitative research literature deals disproportionately more with some forms of data, typically text, lacking a structured method for visuals. This article arises from a case study using nonconventional methods, such as sociograms and participant-made drawings, and presents a structured method to attain enriched ethnographic analysis. Using this structured method, the research then draws on representation, visualization, and interaction as ports of entry into group dynamics. The aim being to open a way to discovery when visual and interactional representations do not easily translate into words. Spoken language presupposes an ability to capture and convey thought with precision and clarity and to know how the interlocutor may interpret words. A structured method to analyze images can fruitfully assist in the process. Since every research participant has a view on or a way of making sense of the research subject, the method is universal in application.

scholarly journals Experiencing Virtual Social Enterprise Media Architectures

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Lene Pettersen
Keyword(s):  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Multinational Organization ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Spatial Sense ◽  
The Social

<p>This article addresses knowledge professionals’ experiences of being in and using social enterprise media, which is characterized by a social, people-centric, dynamic and non-hierarchical information architecture. Rather than studying the social enterprise media from a typical STS-perspective in terms of ‘scripts’, ‘antiprogram’, or as ‘configuring design processes based on the user’, the paper direct its analytical lens to the users’ experiences, practices and routines when they are making sense of the virtual space in social enterprise media. As theoretical framework, unexplored corners of structuration theory where Giddens (1979, 1984) discusses spatiality (place) and temporality (time), where Giddens is inspired by the philosopher Wittgenstein (1972), the micro-sociologist Goffman (1959), and the time-geographer Hägerstrand (1975, 1978) are employed. With this approach, dynamic social processes are included in our studies of technology. Qualitative insights from a comprehensive and longitudinal case study of a multinational organization with entities in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East were used in order to get an in-depth understanding of how people experienced using virtual and social architectural spaces. The findings show that the social architecture and people-centric model in the virtual space in social enterprise media does not provide an intuitive spatial sense, nor does it provide logics that correspond with known and familiar logics or established communication and interaction practices among employees. Key features in social enterprise media (e.g., transparency) collide with how space is constructed in the physical world and with the logics at play in offline conversations and social interactions (e.g. turn-taking in conversations or the opportunity to withdraw from conversations).  </p>

Implementing CRM Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 76-92
Author(s):  
Bendik Bygstad
Keyword(s):  
Research Literature ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Marketing Process ◽  
The Social ◽  
Management Techniques ◽  
A Company

Many companies have large expectations of the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, expecting to harvest benefits from dialogue marketing and internal knowledge synergies. How should these systems be implemented? And how easy do the benefits come? The research approach is a longitudinal, six-year case study of a company implementing CRM both as a marketing principle and as an information system. The implementation was, from the outset, regarded as an organizational experiment, and the case is laid out in some detail to provide a somewhat “thick description” of the social setting and actors’ behavior. The high failure rate of CRM projects illustrates the gap between our intentions and outcomes. Interpreting a longitudinal case study and the research literature, we find two options to improve our practice. From a managerial view, we should treat CRM projects as complex challenges, needing tight project control and the application of change management techniques, focusing on the marketing process and data quality. In contrast, we could accept that the mechanisms at work at the micro level are only partly controllable by management techniques, and we should let the infrastructure grow organically.

The Social Production of Ethics in Debian and Free Software Communities

2005 ◽  
pp. 273-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.G. Coleman ◽  
Benjamin Hill
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Free Software ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Software Projects ◽  
Collaborative Development ◽  
Software Licenses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Volunteer Labor ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

This chapter examines the way that participation in Free software projects increases commitments to information freedom among participants. With the Debian project as its core case study, it argues that in Free and Open Source software communities, ethics are reinforced through the sustained collaborative development of code and discussions and decisions around Free software licenses and project policy. In the final section, the chapter draws on the ethnographic analysis of ethical cultivation in Debian to describe a model of ethical volunteerism based on institutional independence, volunteer labor, and networks of trust that is applicable to a range of vocations.

Making “Sense” of Identity

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey Ricke
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Identity Studies ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Sensory Experiences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Meanings ◽  
Complicated Situation

This article expands the recent sensorial turn in identity studies. It illustrates how individuals embody and link together multiple identities through the multivocality of a particular sensory experience as well as the various meanings encapsulated within the sensory experiences of a particular event. Through a case study of King and Queen celebrations in Santa Catarina, Brazil, this article investigates the social meanings associated with the aesthetics of one of the oldest German traditions in the country. While on the surface the King and Queen celebration appears to be solely a celebration of German roots, a focus on the multivocality of the sensory experiences reveals a more complicated situation where the hosts are claiming not just a German ethnic identity but a Brazilian national identity by drawing upon the multiple social meanings associated with certain sensory experiences and foregrounding particular aesthetics.

Rhythmanalysis: Rethinking the politics of everyday negotiations in ordinary public spaces

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110200
Author(s):  
Marie Gibert-Flutre
Keyword(s):  
Public Spaces ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Time Sharing ◽  
Temporal Dimension ◽  
The Public ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Depth Interviews

The nature of everyday life in metropolitan public spaces is an unprecedented entanglement of activities, emerging from the presence of multiple actors competing for a limited space. Making sense of this complexity is a longstanding challenge in the social sciences: how can such a mesmerizing ‘urban ballet’ be explained in the absence of overall orchestration? I hypothesize thatthis urban rhythm – the temporal alternation of activities in the public spaces of a city – is not neutral, but reveals entrenched power relations which are renegotiated and reaffirmed on a daily basis. Building on the notion of rhythmanalysis, I develop a methodology combining a visual timeline called ‘urban tempo’ with in-depth interviews. I present a case study of a market in pericentral Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), where local actors negotiate access to more or less valuable time slots and spaces throughout the day. I show that such negotiations pertaining to time result in a very practical sense in the production of ordinary public spaces. The findings reveal four types of actors, classified according to their negotiating power. Broadly, the rhythmanalysis presented here reiterates our understanding of power as relational, highlighting the unequal conditions of negotiations in public spaces at a micro-level. By adding a temporal dimension to the politics of the everyday, it also opens up a promising research agenda, inviting comparisons of ‘time-sharing regimes’ across metropolitan contexts.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Robert Garner ◽  
Yewande Okuleye
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
Oxford Group

The introduction sets the scene for the book by sketching out the theoretical framework to be used to analyze the Oxford Group. The study of the Oxford Group serves as a case study of creative endeavor. How do we explain the emergence of important work and the development of new ideas, and how important is the creative community within which these ideas emerge? Explaining the theory building that accompanied the ethnographic research, centering on a set of oral history interviews with the participants, is important not only as a way of making sense of the Oxford Group but also as a device to facilitate dialogue across fields and methods by providing a trans-situational language. The theoretical framework derives both from ethnographic observation—and in that sense is engaged with grounded theory—and from the extension and refinement of preexisting theoretical formulations. This includes an engagement with the literature on group dynamics, including most notably collaborative circles as well as social network theory and psychogeography.

scholarly journals Optimizing State Forest Institutions for Forest People: A Case Study on Social Sustainability from Tunisia

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ameni Hasnaoui ◽  
Max Krott
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Forest Sector ◽  
Layer Model ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Social ◽  
Special Responsibility ◽  
Forest Institutions

In Tunisia the livelihoods of nearly 750,000 “forest people” strongly depend on state forests. State forest institutions that manage more than 90% of forests have a special responsibility for the social sustainability of these people’s situation. Thus, it is important to evaluate the performance of these institutions, as such evaluations represent an option to help formulate sustainable development strategies for forest people. This study evaluates the performance of state forest institutions in regard to forest people based on a comprehensive three-layer model. The data were collected in 2016 and 2017 from documents, observations and interviews. The results partly supported the first hypothesis that “state forest institutions employ different market, non-market and political instruments to influence the use and the protection of forests”, with an exception for market instruments. The second hypothesis stating that “the outcomes of these instruments for forest people differ from those for the general forest sector” was supported by empirical evidence. The evaluation revealed practices in Tunisia that provide a basis for organizational reforms supporting forest people. Adapted technologies that fit the traditional know-how of forest people and a better representation are required. Furthermore, the strengthening of state forest institutions against the influence of foreign donors would contribute to elaborating a development strategy for forest people.

Making Sense of Suffrage Expansion and Electoral Institutions in Latin America: A Comment on Colomer's “Tiger”

2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-67
Author(s):  
J. Samuel Valenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Know How ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Elections ◽  
Comparative Theory

In his article “Taming the Tiger: Voting Rights and Political Instability in Latin America,” Josep Colomer proposes to go beyond the “singlecountry stories… typical… of the existing historiography” on Latin American elections and politics and to develop instead “an explicitly comparative, theory-driven analysis, which is more characteristic of the social sciences literature.” I am all for such comparative analysis, although I would guard myself from belittling the achievements of historians who have examined national experiences in painstaking detail or the merit of a highly analytical comparative history such as that presented in Eduardo Posada-Carbó’s recent work (2000). But theory-driven comparative analysis is difficult to do well. One has to know the historical experiences one is comparing very thoroughly, and one has to know how to develop the concepts that will build the theoretical argument in a dialogue with the evidence. The result should be to provide a better understanding of the evidence in ways that even those who know the histories well will find both useful and illuminating.

Outside the Imagined Community: Basque Terrorism, Political Activism, and the Tour de France

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Minority Group ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tour De France ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
French National Identity

Since its publication more than a decade ago, Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities has offered an enticing, if romantic, way of conceptualising nationalism. Fine-grained ethnographic analysis, however, of the ways in which local populations actually imagine their community raises some questions for the continuing viability of such a notion. In many places around the world, people consciously and conspicuously place themselves outside of the imagined community, and it is the social, cultural, and political consequences of such actions that this article seeks to explore. Drawing on a period of ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in France in the mid-1990s, this article examines very public contestation and sabotage of the Tour de France by pro-Basque supporters. This specific case study of political activism through sport provides a compelling example of the ways in which a dominant symbol of French national identity is usurped and upstaged by a minority group so as to reinvent or re-imagine a new kind of community.

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