Making the Familiar Strange: A Case for Disengaged Organizational Ethnography

Ybema, Sierk; Kamsteeg, Frans

doi:10.4135/9781446278925.n6

Cited by 60 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…We outline various instances of distancing and yielding surprise, framing her experiences with 'distancing' in six strategies that we have described elsewhere (Ybema and Kamsteeg 2009). First, we describe three strategies of theoretically informed interpretation (subsections one, two, and three below) that show some of the ways in which theory and distanced analysis may play a role in disengaging the immersed researcher.…”

Section: Strategies For Keeping Distance -And Yielding Surprisementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another strategy to create distance is to search for the irrational or 'strange' in the behaviour of the researched (Ybema and Kamsteeg 2009; see for an example, Ybema, Vroemisse and Van Marrewijk 2012). As we shall see in the case description below, different ethical principles and forms of behaviour between the ethnographer and the 'ethnographied' not only create moral dilemmas (Fine and Shulman 2009); they also serve to produce fruitful estrangement.…”

Section: Strategy 2: Looking For the 'Irrational'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, while 'immersion' is generally acknowledged as a central feature of good ethnographic field research, its logical counterpart, 'distancing', is a neglected topic in methodological textbooks which usually only offer the obligatory warning 'not to go native'. As we have argued elsewhere (Ybema and Kamsteeg 2009), 'distance' is equally as important as 'closeness' for an adequate understanding of the 'natives' and, indeed, becomes crucial precisely at the point a researcher gets immersed in the field. As Prasad (2005: 81) points out: 'when ethnographers share many elements of a culture with the natives under observation, they may find it hard to notice the more taken-for-granted aspects of the culture itself'.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Ethnographic strategies for making the familiar strange: Struggling with ‘distance’ and ‘immersion’ among Moroccan-Dutch students

Jong¹,

Kamsteeg²,

Ybema³

2013

jba

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Ethnographic fieldwork is a balancing act between distancing and immersing. Fieldworkers need to come close to meaningfully grasp the sense-making efforts of the researched. In methodological textbooks on ethnography, immersion tends to be emphasized at the expense of its counterpart. In fact, 'distancing' is often ignored as a central tenet of good ethnographic conduct. In this article we redirect attention away from familiarization and towards 'defamiliarization' by suggesting six estrangement strategies (three theoretical and three methodological) that allow the researcher to develop a more detached viewpoint from which to interpret data. We demonstrate the workings of these strategies by giving illustrations from Machteld de Jong's field-and text-work, conducted among Moroccan-Dutch students in an institution of higher vocational education.

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Section: Strategies For Keeping Distance -And Yielding Surprisementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strategy 2: Looking For the 'Irrational'mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ethnographic strategies for making the familiar strange: Struggling with ‘distance’ and ‘immersion’ among Moroccan-Dutch students

Jong¹,

Kamsteeg²,

Ybema³

2013

jba

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“…This was supported by informal conversations with ANC councillors and conducting semi-structured one-to-one interviews and focus group interviews and analysis of documentation of council and committee meetings and decisions (Yin 1989;Babbie and Mouton 2001;Ritchies and Lewis 2003;Van Hulst 2008;Brewer 2004;Burawoy 2003;Ybema and Kamsteeg 2009;Thedvall 2006Thedvall , 2013.…”

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confidence: 99%

Provincial–regional ANC politics in the Northern Cape: corruption or everyday informal practices?

Nzo

2017

CJLG

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Research over the last decade on local government in South Africa has highlighted that some municipal councils under the political leadership of the Africa National Congress (ANC) have shown weak political leadership, coupled with strong patronage systems, rent-seeking and corruption which have had an impact on the institutional functionality of municipalities in South Africa. Although patronage politics have been predominantly used to analyse the dynamics of post-apartheid local government ANC politics and councillor representation, this prevents us from understanding the representational focus of ANC councillors in decision-making processes. This paper offers an ethnographic insight into experiences of ANC councillors and the political complexities involved in council decision-making. Using ethnographic research, this paper will analyse how a political decision by the ANC provincial party, which was supported by the ANC regional party at local level – to erect a statue of Nelson Mandela in one of the municipalities in the Northern Cape – generated tensions amongst ANC councillors who strongly viewed their primary role as promoters of better ‘service delivery’ rather than approving the allocation of scarce municipal resources for erecting a statue. The paper reveals how the dominant presence of ANC sub-regional structures at local level contribute to the complex interaction of both ANC party political and municipal organisational rules and norms that influence and shape councillors’ choices in decision-making.

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“…However, this was only a symptom of the true problems, which were predominantly located in power relations that had developed over more than a decade into an oppressive social environment (Staadt, 2014). This "thinking-from-within" is a main strength of organizational ethnography (Ybema & Kamsteeg, 2009), which requires the researcher to act reflexively as well as critically in the meaning-making processes . Insiderethnography is, according to Sykes and Treleaven (2009), particularly useful for investigating critical issues such as power and knowledge.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Cultural Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology and the Configuration Model of Organizational Culture

Staadt

2015

SAGE Open

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Organizations that find themselves within a problematic situation connected with cultural issues such as politics and power require adaptable research and corresponding modeling approaches so as to grasp the arrangements of that situation and their impact on the organizational development. This article originates from an insider-ethnographic intervention into the problematic situation of the leading public housing provider in Luxembourg. Its aim is to describe how the more action-oriented cultural analysis of soft systems methodology and the theory-driven configuration model of organizational culture are mutually beneficial rather than contradictory. The data collected between 2007 and 2013 were analyzed manually as well as by means of ATLAS.ti. Results demonstrate that the cultural analysis enables an in-depth understanding of the power-laden environment within the organization bringing about the so-called “socio-political system” and that the configuration model makes it possible to depict the influence of that system on the whole organization. The overall research approach thus contributes toward a better understanding of the influence and the impact of oppressive social environments and evolving power relations on the development of an organization.

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Making the Familiar Strange: A Case for Disengaged Organizational Ethnography

Cited by 60 publications

References 33 publications

Ethnographic strategies for making the familiar strange: Struggling with ‘distance’ and ‘immersion’ among Moroccan-Dutch students

Ethnographic strategies for making the familiar strange: Struggling with ‘distance’ and ‘immersion’ among Moroccan-Dutch students

Provincial–regional ANC politics in the Northern Cape: corruption or everyday informal practices?

The Cultural Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology and the Configuration Model of Organizational Culture

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