Crossing borders? Doing gendered ethnographies of third-world organisations

Abstract

Sub-Saharan businesses share resemblance with contemporary post-modern organisations in the western world by blurred divisions between job and non-job activities. Ethnographic immersion then means that negotiations of trust and rapport take place across arenas ranging from business meetings till bars. The ethno-informed approach shows flirtation as a finely tuned interaction collaboratively constituted that may prolong field relations and access to a variety of data. This constitutes the background to the discussion of the dilemmas of good rapport.

I claim that flirtation should be regarded a resource the ethnographer can draw upon, but one that demands an awareness of negotiating alternative identities as buffer towards delicate or troublesome dimensions in field relations.

Citation

Ryen, A. (2008), "Crossing borders? Doing gendered ethnographies of third-world organisations", Jegatheesan, B. (Ed.) Access, a Zone of Comprehension, and Intrusion (Advances in Program Evaluation, Vol. 12), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 141-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-7863(08)12008-7