Desafios da corporalidade na pesquisa acadêmica

Abstract

Resumo Nosso objetivo neste artigo é explorar, discutir e mapear os desafios da corporalidade (embodiment) no âmbito da metodologia de pesquisa. Consequentemente, estruturamos o artigo dentro da tradição qualitativa que se orienta pela ênfase nas atividades de interpretação, exploração e descrição. Privilegiamos duas fontes de informação: documentos existentes (pesquisas sobre corporalidade publicadas em forma de tese, dissertação, artigo, livro e capítulo de livro) e entrevistas com pesquisadoras, especialistas no tema da corporalidade. Concretizamos o resultado desta pesquisa na formulação, descrição e discussão de nove desafios decorrentes da corporalidade no âmbito da metodologia de pesquisa. Organizamos esses desafios a partir de três momentos-chave do processo metodológico: a) planejamento da pesquisa; b) interação com o campo de pesquisa; e c) análise do material empírico. Além disso, constatamos que a etnografia é a abordagem metodológica privilegiada pelos pesquisadores da corporalidade.

Body and Senses in Organizational Research: Empathic Understandingfrom an Embodied Experience

“…According to Biehl-Missal ( 2014), both aesthetic experience and aesthetic knowledge can question, challenge, and complement the rational dimension of organizations by favoring corporeities (or corporealities) and sensitivities in the research process. Thus, we understand that empathic understanding contributes to the operationalization of the four challenges that, according to Flores-Pereira et al (2017), are involved in the process of any academic production that seeks to consider corporealities. Such four challenges are: 1. the proximity of the researcher to the empirical field; 2. the realization of a sensory observation; 3. the production of experiential questions during research; and 4. the production of descriptions capable of grasping the corporification of events.…”

“…Such a procedure consists of "a continuous process that includes reviewing, rereading, re-comprehension and re-argumentation" (Strati, 2007a, p. 112). The reflections produced on such movements in the field are, in the view of Flores-Pereira et al (2017), fundamental in order to reflect on the effort that should be made to understand corporealities.…”

“…The third challenge addressed by Flores-Pereira et al (2017) refers to the process in which the researcher learns to construct questions for the respondents who are able to grasp their experiences and sensations. In this regard, our study followed the data collection path that is based on reliving the experience on the imaginary dimension and putting ourselves in the other's place.…”

“…In the end, the challenge of learning to carry out an immediate description of the research field and providing details of the everyday events and the forms of corporification of such events (Flores-Pereira et al, 2017) was met through the production of a dense description which was constructed and reconstructed from the aesthetic experience and collected with the support of the method of empathic understanding. Thus, such a challenge contributed to detailed records in the field diaries, which functioned as a kind of device that activated the memory for the (re)living of episodes that were not described but rather stored in the imaginary dimension.…”

“…As researchers, our attention is, thus, drawn to the so-called "nonrational" elements of organizational life, the comprehension of which has traditionally been regarded as complex and, to some extent, not treated in management and organizational studies (Warren, 2008). Yet, these elements can be made evident in the material and corporeal dimension of the organizational practice so that the focus on this dimension could represent an alternative to the hegemonic focus on the rational and cognitive aspects of a given phenomenon (Flores-Pereira, Davel, & Almeida, 2017).…”