Disruptive ethnography and knowledge co-creation

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of disruptive practices within ethnographic research. Through fieldwork encounters, ethnographers inevitably influence the lives of the people being studied. Researchers have generally advocated reflexive approaches to examining relationships in the field and to the ways in which engagement shapes data. However, some have gone further, arguing for the merits of obtrusiveness as a strategy in fieldwork. Drawing on a multi-sited ethnographic study of hospitality venues, this chapter contributes to this area of debate by examining how obtrusive practices can generate insights regarding cognitive and socio-material processes in the production of consumption spaces. The chapter considers three areas of disruptive activity: firstly, embodied disruption, including co-presence, social interactions and engagement in actions that challenge the perceived social order; secondly, sonic disruption -changing music in a venue to provoke and observe consumer reactions; and finally, research-instigated visits with other consumers. The discussion examines how these practices were used to co-create knowledge regarding the production of space and the experience of consuming hospitality. The chapter considers critically the potential benefits alongside the ethical and methodological challenges of adopting such approaches.The chapter draws on a multi-sited ethnographic study of hospitality (Lugosi, 2008(Lugosi, , 2009b(Lugosi, , 2014 and considers several disruptive fieldwork practices involving physical presence, clothing, music and the shaping of consumption patterns. The discussion examines how these practices were used to cocreate knowledge regarding the production of space and the experiences of consuming hospitality. The chapter considers critically the potential benefits alongside the ethical and methodological challenges of adopting such approaches. Co-creating spaces, experiences…and ethnographic knowledgeWithin this chapter, knowledge co-creation in ethnographic research is underpinned by certain conceptions of space and experiences of space. Space is not assumed to be a static set of relations between physical objects. Nevertheless, it is important to acknowledge the material aspects of spatial relations, which includes the physical properties of the environment, the layout, alongside luminosity, sounds, smells, ambient temperature and other qualities. The present discussion is built upon the view that humans (co)construct relationships, shared values and notions of identity as they interact with (and within) environments through various embodied and interpretative practices (cf.

Material Practices of Ethnographic Presence

“…Ethnographers are very attentive to how their own identity, e. g. in terms of gender, ethnicity, or sexuality, is performed in interactions during fieldwork. Clothing is an important reference in methodological reflections on such identity attributions (e. g., Bucerius 2013; Goffman 2014; Lugosi 2017). However, clothes do not only offer participants clues to be used for ascribing ethnic, gendered, or sexual membership categories.…”

“…Hence, if material aspects of doing fieldwork are considered in reflexive analyses, they are rarely regarded as contributing to the situated performance of ethnographic methods. Lugosi (2017), for example, shows that his participation as a heterosexual bartender in a bar for homosexual guests was made apparent in embodied and musical practices of disruption by which he generated ethnographic insights into how sexual identities were usually performed and experienced by the guests in the bar. Or, for instance, in her much-debated fieldwork on fugitive life in Black communities, Alice Goffman (2014, 221) found that her “mismatching” parlance and clothes led participants to take her as “one of those White girls that liked Black boys.” Such reflections indeed provide important insights into the material making of sexual and ethnic difference in fieldwork.…”

Responding to organizational identity change: ethnographic insights from multinational hotel subsidiaries

“…In recent years, a growing body of research has used ethnographic methods to empirically test theory in organizational change, revealing organizational characteristics and nuances that exist across similar organizations (O’Doherty and Neyland, 2019; Cunha et al , 2019). By not using these methods to analyze hospitality organizations that are vulnerable to changing environments, we lose the opportunity accorded by ethnographic studies’ critical subjectivity to uncover new knowledge for hospitality organizations (Ryan, 2015; Lugosi, 2018). For instance, a multi-site ethnographic approach can illuminate the various meanings of corporate identity change for multinational hotel subsidiaries.…”