Data, disasters and disquietude in ethnography: learning by trial and error how to behave like a civil servant in Malawi

IF 0.9 Q4 MANAGEMENT
Tanja D. Hendriks
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose

In this article, I answer the call to normalize and discuss how ethnographers navigate failure in the field by sharing my own experiences from long-term fieldwork in Malawi. I highlight, particularly, my own struggles with feelings of failure and the role of my interlocutors in helping me navigate and understand these situations.

Design/methodology/approach

My argument is based on more than 18 months of ongoing in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Malawi, where I study the everyday practices of civil servants active in disaster governance, focusing on those working for the Malawi Government Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA).

Findings

I use ethnographic vignettes to show how my interlocutors tried to teach me what being a Malawian civil servant is all about, which often came most forcefully to the fore in moments where either I or they deemed that I had failed to behave like one.

Originality/value

This adds new empirical data to the discussions on the various manifestations and roles of failure in ethnographic research, underlining how frictions and feelings of failure are a difficult yet productive and central part of fieldwork and ethnographic data creation.

人种学中的数据、灾难和不安:在马拉维反复试验中学习如何表现得像一名公务员
目的在这篇文章中,我通过分享自己在马拉维长期田野工作的经验,回应了将民族志学者如何在田野工作中应对失败常态化的呼吁,并讨论了民族志学者如何应对失败。我的论点基于我在马拉维超过 18 个月的深入民族志田野调查,在那里我研究了活跃在灾害治理中的公务员的日常实践,重点是那些在马拉维政府灾害管理事务部(DODMA)工作的公务员。研究结果我使用民族志小故事来展示我的对话者是如何试图教导我什么是马拉维公务员的,这往往在我或他们认为我没有表现得像一个马拉维公务员的时候最有力地凸显出来。原创性/价值这为关于民族志研究中失败的各种表现和作用的讨论增添了新的经验数据,强调了摩擦和失败感是如何成为田野工作和民族志数据创建的一个困难但富有成效的核心部分。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.90
自引率
37.50%
发文量
17
期刊介绍: The Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) has been launched to provide an opportunity for scholars, from all social and management science disciplines, to publish over two issues: -high-quality articles from original ethnographic research that contribute to the current and future development of qualitative intellectual knowledge and understanding of the nature of public and private sector work, organization and management -review articles examining the history and development of the contribution of ethnography to qualitative research in social, organization and management studies -articles examining the intellectual, pedagogical and practical use-value of ethnography in organization and management research, management education and management practice, or which extend, critique or challenge past and current theoretical and empirical knowledge claims within one or more of these areas of interest -articles on ethnographically informed research relating to the concepts of organization and organizing in any other wider social and cultural contexts.
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