27
janv.
2022
De 14:00 à 16:00
ETHOS Seminar
Nous aurons le plaisir d’écouter : Monika KOSTERA, Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw, Poland et professeure associée à Institut Mines-Télécom Business School
Organizational ethnography, or about studying culture as a process
Ethnography is a methodological and epistemological approach particularly well suited to the purpose of the study of cultures as processes. The word “ethnography” comes from the Greek ethnos, which signifies “a people” and graphy, which means “writing” - ethnography means writing about people (Kostera and Harding, 2021). The methods favoured by ethnographers aim at seeing, experiencing, and understanding human interactions and relationships. The task of the researcher is to interpret and make sense of the collected material, by connecting cues derived from the field to frames and stories that serve as connecting devices (Weick, 1995).
Ethnographers usually look for patterns, structures, and emerging categories. Art theorist and artist John Berger has explained that seeing is more than just taking in something by the sense of sight ; ‘seeing’ establishes our place in the world. We see and we are aware that we can be seen. The ethnographic method called ‘non-participant observation’ is about active looking and focusing on the immediate moment. Interview is about making sense in and with the field, getting an enactive grasp of the cultural dynamics. The observed is now set against its use in the everyday categories.
Monika Kostera is Titular Professor in economics and the humanities.
She works as Professor in Sociology at Warsaw University, as well as Professor in Management at Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, Université Paris-Saclay, France and Guest Professor in Management at Södertörn University, Sweden. She has also been employed as professor and chair in the UK, including at Durham University. She writes and publishes texts on organization theory as well as poetry. She is Associate Editor at Gender, Work and Organization and has been co-editing several journals including British Journal of Management. Her current research interests include organizational imagination, disalienated work and organizational ethnography. She is member of Erbacce Poets’ Cooperative. www.kostera.pl