More than a method? Organisational ethnography as a way of imagining the social

ABSTRACT

The authors – two anthropologists and an organisational theorist, all organisational ethnographers – discuss their understanding and practices of organisational ethnography (OE) as a way of imagining and reflect on how similar this understanding may be for young organisational researchers and students in particular. The discussion leads to the conclusion that OE may be regarded as a methodology but that it has a much greater potential when it is reclaiming its roots: to become a mode of doing social science on the meso-level. The discussion is based on an analysis of both historical material and the contemporary learning experiences of teaching OE as more than a method to our students.

KEYWORDS:

• organisational ethnography
• anthropology
• teaching and learning organisational ethnography
• sociological imagination
• ethnographic imagination
• research methods

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous Reviewers and the Editor for their thoughtful comments which helped us to considerably improve this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Monika Kostera’s part of the text is based on a research project supported by the European Union Marie Curie Fellowship Programme: FP7, 627429 ECOPREN FP7 PEOPLE 2013 IEF. Paweł Krzyworzeka’s part of the text is based on a research project supported by the National Science Centre (Poland) [grant no. 4114/B/H03/2011/40].