Institutional Ethnography and Actor-Network Theory: In Dialogue

Corman, Michael; Barron, Gary R. S.

doi:10.1108/s1042-319220170000015006

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…It is important to note that the analysis undertaken below is more ethnomethodological in focus as it is concerned with how the work setting is ordered and accomplished (Rawls, 2008) and the different "common sense" methods paramedics use to order their everyday lives (Watson, 2012). Nevertheless, as I discuss elsewhere, this ethnomethodological focus aligns with, and is key to, IEs "ontological shift" (Corman & Barron, 2017;Corman, 2017b); not only does it shed light on the work processes of front line workers and what counts for them, but such descriptive accounts are also essential in providing a "clearer picture of 'how it works'"; how work and work settings are organized are a central concern in IE (DeVault, 2008, p. 9). Nevertheless, and because of this ethnomethodological focus, I leave for a more explicit discussion elsewhere of how the work of paramedics is shaped by "institutional relations" (see Corman, 2017a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Institutional ethnography (IE) is a sociology that focuses on what people do and how people's everyday lives are organized by, what Smith (2005) calls, extra-local relations of ruling. As a theory/method, IE draws on the likes of Garfinkel, Marx, Mead, Foucault, Bahktin, and Volosinov to proffer a social ontology that views the world as "being produced and brought into being through the social practices of people" (G. Smith, 2006, p. 34; see Corman & Barron, 2017) and a reflexive epistemology that moves away from traditionally objectivist accounts of knowledge toward viewing knowledge as "being mutually produced through interaction between researchers and the people they learn from" (p. 31). As a project of discovery, institutional ethnographers aim to explore people's work processes, generously conceived, 3 and how their work is organized and coordinated by textmediated and text-regulated social organization.…”

Section: Institutional Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Titrating the Rig: How Paramedics Work in and on Their Ambulance

Corman

2017

Qual Health Res

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In this article, I take readers inside of an ambulance and explore how paramedics work in and on their "apparatus unit" to make it a workable fit. This taken-for-granted work is important because much is at stake in the back of the ambulance, particularly in relation to quality of care and safety. I draw on data from an institutional ethnography into the socially organized work and work settings of paramedics, which included more than 200 hr of observations and more than 100 interviews with paramedics. The findings shed light on the situated work processes of paramedics as they orient and respond to their "apparatus unit" and enact quality and safety in practice. This article adds to the sociological literature on work and occupations as well as safety and quality in health care of an increasingly important group of health care and emergency services professional.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Institutional Ethnographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Titrating the Rig: How Paramedics Work in and on Their Ambulance

Corman

2017

Qual Health Res

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“…As a theory/method of discovery, it explores people's work processes, generously conceived, and how their work is organized and coordinated by text‐mediated social organization. With roots in the feminist movement, Marx, Garfinkel, Mead, Foucault, Bahktin and Volosinov (see Corman and Barron ; Smith ), IE proffers a social ontology that views the world as “being produced and brought into being through the social practices of people” (Frampton et al :34) and a reflexive epistemology that moves away from traditionally objectivist accounts of knowledge towards viewing knowledge as “being mutually produced through interaction between researchers and the people they learn from” (p. 31). By exploring what people do and how what they do is organized by text‐mediated modes of social organization, the analytical goal of IE is to explicate “how things work” or are “put together” in a setting.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather, in focusing on the “taken‐for‐granted” work and how order in this work setting is produced or accomplished (Rawls ), the analysis that follows could be thought of as more ethnomethodological because it focuses more on the “‘common sense’ methods that members use to solve problems, make decisions, make sense of their situations and undertake fact finding in their everyday lives'” (Watson :55). Nevertheless, this more analytically descriptive focus is part of institutional ethnography's project of discovery; ethnomethodology is a key part of institutional ethnography's “ontological shift” (see Corman and Barron ) and, as DeVault (:9) notes, “Simply accounting for all of the work of the setting often provides a much clearer picture of ‘how it works’.”…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Driving to Work: The Front Seat Work of Paramedics to and from the Scene

Corman

2017

Symbolic Interaction

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The work paramedics do in the front of the ambulance on their way to and from the scene is central to the safety and well-being of both paramedics and patients. However, most research on paramedics and emergency medical services assumes rather than empirically explores the actual happenings of what paramedics do in the front of their ambulance. In this article, I move beyond this taken-for-granted understanding of front-seat work by taking readers in the front of the ambulance and exploring the hidden work paramedics do on their way to and from the scene. I draw on data from an institutional ethnography into the socially organized work and work settings of paramedics, which included over 200 hours of observations and over 100 interviews with paramedics. This article adds to research on the sociology of work and health and illness by focusing explicitly on how paramedics give meaning to their work setting, the social conditions and relations central to their work practices, and how their work knowledge is actually put into practice. In doing so, I shed light on an ever-important occupational group in health care that has garnered little sociological attention to date.

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“…Instead, the focus remains on describing the stabilities and uncertainties of the interactions that make up a "flat" assemblage. This methodological shortcoming is particularly pronounced in analyses that take place in settings where power (both the power to take action as a subject and the power to prevent the actions of other subjects) can be glaringly unequal, such as occurs in a tertiary care hospital or a university (Corman and Barron 2017).…”

Section: Table 1 Components Of An Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reimagining Death: A Posthuman Analysis of Life Support and the Concept of Death in the Intensive Care Unit

Beinum¹

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Often assumed to be simply the opposite or absence of life, death is in truth a distinctively uncertain category which troubles assumptions about what it means to be alive, and what it means to be human. In this project, I explore what happens to understandings of bodily endings when the "normal human" is de-centered from the concept of death. I take a post-Enlightenment, post-humanist approach in the mode espoused by Rosi Braidotti (2006, 2019) which seeks to move beyond the elite and exclusive category of "human," as well as to get outside of anthropocentric patterns of thought. This project focuses on shifting definitions and meanings of death in the midst of advanced life-sustaining technologies and against a backdrop of cultural fascination with immortality as represented by the modern intensive care unit. Employing ethnographic methods and concepts from feminist new materialism, and founded on an in-depth understanding of posthuman theory, this work contributes novel analyses of how death happens in technological spaces, and how our understandings of it could be approached differently. I contrast cases of patients sustained on life-support technologies seemingly beyond their desired limits with those of individuals declared to be dead against their beliefs to explore ontological, epistemological, and practical elements presently maintaining the appearance of universal definitions of death. A final analysis of media cases of people who continue to produce life through pregnancy despite being categorized as dead helps to reconfigure assumptions about life, death, and life sustaining technologies into a new understanding of how bodily endings, alongside perceptions of liveliness, are always a particular product of ongoing and unfolding social and technical iii | relations. Ultimately, I suggest that life sustaining technologies and their capacity to promote impressions of vitality allow us to better appreciate how death is already always a part of life, a perhaps unwanted "other" that we might learn to tolerate and accept, a personal ethical threshold of existence with the potential to transport us into different futures. This work expands the application of posthuman theory into the domain of clinical death and demonstrates the added value of posthuman analyses in medical spaces. iv | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was made possible through the intellectual contributions, commitment of time and energy, and emotional care of many, many people. I am also grateful to organizations such as the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Carleton University, and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology for making this work and this degree possible through grants and scholarship funding.A huge thank you is owed to my supportive and engaged committee, who have truly helped to guide the direction and improve the focus of this project. To my supervisor, Carlos Novas, thank you for inspiring me to pursue inquiry in the field of STS and posthumanism, and for our ma...

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Institutional Ethnography and Actor-Network Theory: In Dialogue

Cited by 5 publications

References 19 publications

Titrating the Rig: How Paramedics Work in and on Their Ambulance

Titrating the Rig: How Paramedics Work in and on Their Ambulance

Driving to Work: The Front Seat Work of Paramedics to and from the Scene

Reimagining Death: A Posthuman Analysis of Life Support and the Concept of Death in the Intensive Care Unit

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