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1 – 10 of over 3000The purpose of this paper is to consider “at home ethnography” and “abroad ethnography” not as labels standing for different kinds of fieldwork “out there” but rather as the poles…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider “at home ethnography” and “abroad ethnography” not as labels standing for different kinds of fieldwork “out there” but rather as the poles of a continuum identifying the ethnographer’s situated, relative and ever changing epistemic status.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on data from a recent fieldwork in an intensive care unit, the author identifies the different epistemic circumstances that originate from the entanglement of the multiple territories of knowledge at stake in any ethnography of complex organizations.
Findings
The analysis shows how the participants’ relative access to knowledge and rights to claim it vary according to the circumstances and the unfolding of the interaction. The discussion advances that the ethnographer oscillates between “being abroad” and “being at home” as if he was constantly moving between the two classical positions of ethnographic work: making the familiar strange as it is typical of ethnographies focusing on the “very ‘ordinariness’ of normality” (Ybema et al., 2009, p. 2), and making the strange familiar as it is typical of anthropologists studying exotic communities.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the still ongoing debate on “at home” organizational ethnography, by addressing the limits of the “insider doctrine” (Merton, 1972) that still pervades contemporary ethnography and proposes cognitive oscillation as the challenging mindset of any ethnographer-in-the-field.
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The goal of this article is two-fold. The first is to contribute new insights to inform education policies for addressing the underlying educational inequalities and injustices…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this article is two-fold. The first is to contribute new insights to inform education policies for addressing the underlying educational inequalities and injustices that are caused by lack of epistemic access in the context of Fiji higher education. The second is to explore how the Grounded Theory Methodology can be applied to longitudinal language testing research that seeks to reverse epistemic injustices and educational inequalities in Fiji and other comparable multilingual countries.
Design/methodology/approach
To explore how the Grounded Theory Methodology can be applied to longitudinal language testing research that seeks to reverse epistemic injustices and educational inequalities in Fiji and other comparable multilingual countries. The study was conducted at a university in Fiji where 120 students were sampled at the beginning of the first year and at the end of their first year of university programme. The same cohort was tracked throughout the project, out of which 30 students were interviewed at the end of the first year.
Findings
The four indicators include: (1) lack of teaching and learning resources, (2) language barriers, (3) problems with the medium of instruction and (4) shortage of experienced teachers.
Originality/value
Although widely acknowledged in previous studies from elsewhere, the indicators of educational inequalities identified in this study are worth reporting on due to the unique socio-cultural and linguistic context of Fiji.
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Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis and Otilia Chiramba
This qualitative study interrogates the barriers that historically disadvantaged higher education students in South Africa face when it comes to access and success. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This qualitative study interrogates the barriers that historically disadvantaged higher education students in South Africa face when it comes to access and success. It specifically explores the challenges black students encounter in gaining epistemic access within the South African higher education system.
Design/methodology/approach
This research draws upon empirical data collected from a mixed-methods research project conducted at six higher education institutions. It focuses on issues of epistemic access and success within humanities and sciences faculties. The dataset comprises interview transcripts involving 34 student and ten staff cases. Thematic analysis, aided by MaxQDA software, was meticulously conducted to extract and synthesise meaningful themes, crafting comprehensive narratives.
Findings
The study uncovers multifaceted challenges, including difficulties in understanding the admission process, financial barriers and language proficiency issues, faced by disadvantaged students when accessing universities and transitioning from basic to higher education. The research emphasises universities taking proactive measures, such as providing comprehensive early support, identifying at-risk students and collaborating with schools to prepare prospective students better. It advocates for the potential of resilience theory in addressing social justice issues related to access and success for these students. Furthermore, the study recommends developing inclusive curricula and underscores the need for universities to actively support disadvantaged students academically and socially.
Originality/value
This research departs from the conventional focus on physical access to universities, introducing a more comprehensive perspective that emphasises epistemic access as a pivotal aspect of higher education. Drawing on empirical data, it sheds light on the obstacles faced by disadvantaged students during the transition from high school to higher education while also exploring their resilience strategies.
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The platform economy reflects the business model of some of the largest and fastest-growing firms in the economy. Platform business models emerge and thrive because of the…
Abstract
The platform economy reflects the business model of some of the largest and fastest-growing firms in the economy. Platform business models emerge and thrive because of the potential profit in taking advantage of transactions cost reductions to connect people for mutual benefit, and this value creation is best understood by thinking about the epistemology of decentralized market processes. Three essential aspects of knowledge are relevant to platform business models: (1) knowledge can be private and diffuse; (2) knowledge can be contextual; and (3) knowledge may not exist outside of the economic process. After defining and analyzing the technology, economic, and institutional aspects of platforms the author defines and applies market epistemology to explore how platforms harness technological and organizational features to create value-enhancing market platforms by exploiting the epistemic benefits of technology-enabled decentralized market processes. The author concludes by using this epistemic framework to propose an electricity distribution platform business model – the retail electricity industry is undergoing a process of technological dynamism, and as a regulated infrastructure industry, evolving into a decentralized market industry is presenting challenges to which this epistemic framework can bring increased understanding.
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Current legislative, policy and cultural efforts to censor and illegalize classroom discussions and curricular representations of LGBTQ+ people reflect longstanding challenges in…
Abstract
Purpose
Current legislative, policy and cultural efforts to censor and illegalize classroom discussions and curricular representations of LGBTQ+ people reflect longstanding challenges in English education. In an effort to explore what curricular inclusion can (not) accomplish – especially what and how current struggles over inclusion, censorship, illegalization and ultimately representation in English education might (not) contribute to queer and trans liberation – the purpose of this article is to feature the experiences of queer and trans youth as knowers in classroom lessons with LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from a yearlong literacy ethnography at a Midwestern high school in which the author explored youth and adults reading, writing and talking about sexual and gender diversity, in this article the author focuses on one literacy learning context at the high school, a co-taught sophomore humanities that combined English language arts and social studies.
Findings
Engaging theories of epistemic (in) justice, the findings of this article highlight the experiences of queer and trans youth – especially two queer youth of Color, Camden and Imani – as knowers in the context of an LGBTQ+-inclusive classroom curriculum. The author describes epistemic harms with respect to distortions of credibility and homonormative assimilationist requirements and reflects on alternative possibilities that youth gestured toward through their small resistances.
Originality/value
By centering the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth, this article contributes to research about LGBTQ+-inclusive curriculum in English teaching. Previous research, when empirical rather than conceptual, has tended to focus on the perspectives of teachers.
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Geoff Hayward, Eugenia Katartzi, Hubert Ertl and Michael Hoelscher
Marie-Noelle Albert and Nancy Michaud
Studies on vulnerability in the workplace, although relevant, are rare because it is difficult to access. This article aims to focus on the benefits of using autopraxeography to…
Abstract
Purpose
Studies on vulnerability in the workplace, although relevant, are rare because it is difficult to access. This article aims to focus on the benefits of using autopraxeography to study and step back from vulnerability at work.
Design/methodology/approach
Autopraxeography uses researchers' experience to build knowledge.
Findings
Autopraxeography provides a better understanding of vulnerability and the opportunity to step back from the difficulties experienced. Instead of ignoring experiences related to vulnerability, this method makes it possible to transform them into new avenues of knowledge. Moreover, it enables researchers to step back from experiences of vulnerability, thus making them feel more secure.
Originality/value
The main differences from other self-studies stem from the epistemological paradigm in which this method is anchored: pragmatic constructivism. The most important difference is the production of generic knowledge in three recursive steps: writing in a naïve way, developing the epistemic work and building generic knowledge.
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Significant funding has been made available in the UK for social, behavioural and design research that aims to improve health and wellbeing for older adults. The growing…
Abstract
Purpose
Significant funding has been made available in the UK for social, behavioural and design research that aims to improve health and wellbeing for older adults. The growing importance and use of participatory and co-creative approaches in this field not only reflects a general turn in social research but also seeks to redress power imbalances between researchers and researched. This paper aims to use Miranda Fricker’s concept of “epistemic injustice” as a lens to describe the author’s experience with one such project, and highlight the cautions and considerations that must be made when navigating, handling and amalgamating “other people’s knowledge”.
Design/methodology/approach
Personal and theoretical reflection. Primary data for this paper consists of first-hand insider observations on how different forms of knowledge were treated in an interdisciplinary, intersectoral participatory research context.
Findings
Some participatory studies are hampered by insufficient consideration for a range of ways of thinking, including between researchers and participants, younger and older adults, different academic disciplines or academia and industry. This can harm project integrity and outcomes, potentially eroding trust in academic research.
Originality/value
By reflecting on a recent participatory study in healthy ageing, this paper outlines a theoretical basis to increase the benefits of working with different stakeholders across health and care, design, business and academia. It concludes by suggesting ways that researchers might address epistemic injustice, and so recognise and properly value the range of knowledge types encountered in participatory research.
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Christophe Schinckus, Marta Gasparin and William Green
This paper aims to contribute to recent debates about financial knowledge by opening the black box of its algorithmization to understand how information systems can address the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to recent debates about financial knowledge by opening the black box of its algorithmization to understand how information systems can address the major challenges related to interactions between algorithmic trading and financial markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyses financial algorithms in three steps. First, the authors introduce the phenomenon of flash crash; second, the authors conduct an epistemological analysis of algorithmization and identify three epistemological regimes – epistemic, operational and authority – which differ in terms of how they deal with financial information. Third, the authors demonstrate that a flash crash emerges when there is a disconnection between these three regimes.
Findings
The authors open the black box of financial algorithms to understand why flash crashes occur and how information technology research can address the problem. A flash crash is a very rapid and deep fall in security prices in a very short time due to an algorithmic misunderstanding of the market. Thus, the authors investigate the problem and propose an interdisciplinary approach to clarify the scope of algorithmization of financial markets.
Originality/value
To manage the misalignment of information and potential disconnection between the three regimes, the authors suggest that information technology can embrace the complexity of the algorithmization of financial knowledge by diversifying its implementation through the development of a multi-sensorial platform. The authors propose sonification as a new mechanism for capturing and understanding financial information. This approach is then presented as a new research area that can contribute to the way financial innovations interact with information technology.
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Catherine Hayes and Yitka Graham
The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion that social constructionist approaches to learning, which a building with the hands provides, is a “technique that leverages the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion that social constructionist approaches to learning, which a building with the hands provides, is a “technique that leverages the potential of the hand-mind dynamic” as historically reported in the extant published literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The use of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) method in the context of transformative learning in Higher Education was used to drive a Situational analysis with sixteen postgraduate nursing students, from African learning contexts. This methodological approach was used to specifically explore their identity as learners and then to facilitate processes of critical introspection on social constructivist learning opportunities.
Findings
Students’ perceived LSP permitted a deeper level of critical introspection on their transformative learning journeys than alternative approaches, such as written discourse or extended narratives, could have provided. They also perceived that a major benefit of using the LSP method was that it enabled them to understand and articulate their stories more easily than if they verbally reported them first.
Research limitations/implications
The sampling the authors used was purposive and reflective of the Nigerian background of our research participants, who study at the University of Sunderland.
Practical implications
LSP was perceived as an effective vehicle for the facilitation of reflection and self-awareness, which consequently contribute to students’ capacities to function at a metacognitive level. This has the potential to contribute to authentic transformative learning. Academic learning at postgraduate level hinged on the capacity of students to develop a pragmatic and working knowledge of what acknowledging their epistemic cognition entailed.
Originality/value
The methodological approach implemented in this paper provides a unique means of harnessing a now common gamification technique in pedagogic practice.
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