With the eyes of others: an ethnography of an academic office

ABSTRACT

The author raises questions about ethnographic methodology through exploring the implications of using observations produced by his colleagues about his office as data for his research. This process blurred the boundaries between researcher, method and the object and subject of research. It meets some criteria for ethnography and not others, and does not evidence clear definitional boundaries for any sub-genre such as autoethnography or collaborative authoethnography. Besides raising definitional challenges and the blurring of roles in research, the study also illustrates how the methodology revealed tensions over collegial trust, boundaries and privacy. The author's colleagues exposed aspects of the author's identity that were opaque and even invisible to the author. The author accordingly raises questions about the locus of ethical concern. Thus, issues of roles, definition, trust, boundaries, privacy and method were entwined.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational ethnography
• academic office
• material studies
• collegial trust
• boundaries

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank those colleagues who were so generous and trusting. There is no grant or funding information for this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.