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1 – 10 of over 110000To demonstrate why leaving the ethnographic field provides an excellent opportunity for the researcher to engage in reflexivity on all aspects of the research and especially on…
Abstract
Purpose
To demonstrate why leaving the ethnographic field provides an excellent opportunity for the researcher to engage in reflexivity on all aspects of the research and especially on issues of power, age and gender.
Methodology/approach
An autobiographical reflection on a 40 year career as an ethnographer.
Findings
The autobiographical literature and the methods literature on ethnography has neglected leaving the field, and the opportunities that process provides for reflectivity. The author reflects on issues of power, age and gender as they have been implicated in the various fieldsites studied in her career. The particular field site featured centrally is two martial arts, savate and capoeira.
Originality/value
To improve the quality of reflexive writing on leaving the field.
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Gaining access to the research field has received much academic attention; however, the literature focusing on the changing and/or multiple roles that researchers adopt during…
Abstract
Purpose
Gaining access to the research field has received much academic attention; however, the literature focusing on the changing and/or multiple roles that researchers adopt during fieldwork has at times been oversimplified. The purpose of this paper is to outline the multiple stages of the fieldwork journey, a more reflexive approach to fieldwork and the research process can be attained.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were generated from a four-year ethnographic study of the match-day experiences of the fans of Everton Football Club. In total, over 100 hours were spent doing fieldwork observations with an additional 25 semi-structured interviews forming the data set.
Findings
This paper argues that researchers should be more critical of their position in the field of their research, and should seek to identify this more clearly in their scholarship. This in turn would enable for more discussions of how each stage of the fieldwork journey affected the scope and overall findings of the research.
Originality/value
This paper provides an alternative framework for ethnographic researchers to better recognise and acknowledge reflexivity throughout the research process. This is done by outlining the various stages of fieldwork engagement more clearly to better understand how researchers change and adapt to the research environment.
The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of…
Abstract
Purpose
The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.
Design/methodology/approach
One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.
Findings
The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.
Originality/value
The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.
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Rebecca Gill, Joshua Barbour and Marleah Dean
The purpose of this paper is to provide practical recommendations for shadowing as a method of organizational study with a focus on the situated processes and practices of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide practical recommendations for shadowing as a method of organizational study with a focus on the situated processes and practices of shadowing fieldwork.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reflects on the shadowing experiences of three researchers – in a hospital emergency department, nuclear power plants, and entrepreneur workspaces – to generate recommendations by identifying and synthesizing solutions that emerged during the encounters with the challenges and opportunities in shadowing.
Findings
Considering shadowing as an ongoing and emergent research process can be helpful to prepare for particular aspects of shadowing fieldwork. Shadowing presents research challenges that may emerge in the practice of fieldwork, including how to negotiate awkward conversations with participants, what to bring and wear, and how to take notes.
Practical implications
Though the recommendations for shadowing are based on particular experiences and may not generalize to all shadowing engagements, they offer concrete, practical recommendations useful across experience levels. The recommendations should sensitize researchers to the intimate and situational character of shadowing, and offer strategies for coping with the distinctive requirements of shadowing.
Originality/value
By looking across diverse experiences of shadowing, the paper generated guidelines that help to make sense of shadowing processes, manage uncertainty in the field, and build on the emerging work on shadowing. The ten recommendations provide insight into shadowing that are of particular value to graduate students, junior researchers, and those new to shadowing. Moreover, the experienced shadower may find value in the camaraderie of shared experience, the concrete ideas about another's experience of shadowing, and insight in recommendations that capture aspects of fieldwork that they are also exploring.
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Caecilia Drujon d’Astros, Camille Gaudy and Marianne Strauch
This paper aims to explore the role of the researcher’s emotions in ethnographic practice in accounting research. This paper focuses on shame as an emotion that lingers on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the role of the researcher’s emotions in ethnographic practice in accounting research. This paper focuses on shame as an emotion that lingers on, despite the efforts to work through those emotions.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a collective autoethnography to make sense of the fieldwork and after-fieldwork emotions and their consequences. This autoethnography began with the three authors discovering their shared feeling of shame.
Findings
Building on Hochschild’s theory (1979, 1983) on emotional labor, the authors demonstrate how shame emerged as a central and lingering emotion of the ethnographies beyond an emotional labor process. The authors show how a double shame appeared toward the field participants and the academic accounting community, affecting the writing and the work.
Originality/value
The authors demonstrate that the perception of the research community’s rules of feelings gives rise to emotions that ultimately change the work. The authors show how collective autoethnography can help accounting research to acknowledge and give room to emotions.
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1.1. Logical Necessity of the Three Dimensions as a Unit of Thought The mathematician does not look kindly on the simple question of why natural space should consist of precisely…
Abstract
1.1. Logical Necessity of the Three Dimensions as a Unit of Thought The mathematician does not look kindly on the simple question of why natural space should consist of precisely three dimensions. Instead of giving an answer he assumes a silent smile and shows us a version of space with an infinity of dimensions, as if space were some kind of toy for him to fiddle with to his heart's content.
Applies the analytic‐synthetic dichotomy of hemispheric functioning suggested by Levy‐Agresti and Sperry to explain the chunking theory of Miller. Constructs a theory of…
Abstract
Applies the analytic‐synthetic dichotomy of hemispheric functioning suggested by Levy‐Agresti and Sperry to explain the chunking theory of Miller. Constructs a theory of cognition, based on cerebral functions which were discovered through hemispheric differences. Shows that all the arguments of Efron against the hemispheric paradigm are merely “puzzles” that can be solved within this paradigm. New findings of Efron and Yund were, in fact, predicted by a component of this theory.
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Betsy D. Gelb, Joanna Pishko and Carl Herman
This study aims to explore a previously unidentified antecedent of remaining in selling rather than leaving the field. That antecedent is “love of selling”: prioritizing intrinsic…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore a previously unidentified antecedent of remaining in selling rather than leaving the field. That antecedent is “love of selling”: prioritizing intrinsic rewards over those that are extrinsic.
Design/methodology/approach
The differences between those with each of those priorities are explored here in a survey of 348 salespeople, both inside and outside, and also qualitative interviews with a 20-person subset.
Findings
Comparing salespeople who select on a questionnaire the option that they “love selling” vs respondents who primarily enjoy its payoffs, the authors find the former group significantly less likely to say they would leave the selling field if they could get another job that pays as well. They are significantly more likely to rate their own selling skills highly, but sales results between the two groups do not differ. Telephone interviews asking what their company does to reinforce love of selling, and what it could do, elicit comments on support – but also on administrative dissatisfiers.
Practical implications
Organizations benefit from encouraging a love of selling and can do so by training, by management efforts to build confidence, by emphasizing challenge and by reducing administrative barriers to enjoying the selling experience.
Originality/value
This is the first study to identify “love of selling” as a characteristic of salespeople that managers will want to understand and foster.
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At the end of a project (if we know it is the end or if we are forced to end it), the ethnographer is faced with the choice to leave (or leave off researching) – a decision that…
Abstract
At the end of a project (if we know it is the end or if we are forced to end it), the ethnographer is faced with the choice to leave (or leave off researching) – a decision that may entail grief and relief – or to continue. In this chapter, the author argues that all ethnographies are lost ethnographies because there are inevitably missed moments, things we turn away from and endings of various kinds. The author suggests that ‘getting lost’ (Lather) and being lost (and at a loss) may be a necessity of ethnographic fieldwork. Drawing examples from the author’s own and others’ work, the author reflects on the edges and the end of ethnographic projects and considers what it might mean to let go, to end research projects, as well as what might be possible by returning.
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Cathy Atkinson and Rebekah Hyde
Considerable attention has been given to the vulnerability of young people leaving care in the UK in their transition to adulthood. To date, however, there has been limited focus…
Abstract
Purpose
Considerable attention has been given to the vulnerability of young people leaving care in the UK in their transition to adulthood. To date, however, there has been limited focus on the perceptions of care leavers about what factors enable and inhibit effective practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This systematic literature review sought to elicit the views of UK care leavers in identifying barriers and facilitators to the process of transition to adulthood. Qualitative studies in the care-leaving field were identified, of which seven met inclusion criteria and were included in the final synthesis.
Findings
The findings yielded a range of facilitators, including authentic and consistent relationships with those acting in the role of corporate parent; and flexible systems, which accommodated personal readiness for leaving care. Barriers included insufficient recognition of, and a lack of support for, the psychological dimensions of transition, exacerbated by insufficient support networks.
Research limitations/implications
This literature search yielded seven qualitative papers, some with small sample sizes, meaning that the findings may not be representative of a wider population or directly relevant to international contexts.
Practical implications
Suggestions for enhancing the transition process are posited. In particular, the potential usefulness of an “interdependence” transition approach for UK care leavers is proposed.
Originality/value
This study analyses qualitative data, thus constituting a response to policy calls for care leaver views to be central to transition processes.
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