The Value of Ethnography

Apologies for Cross Posting



Call for Papers



The Value of Ethnography in Social and Management Science

Teaching and Research



The 3rd Annual Joint University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management Symposium on Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences.



Tuesday 2ndth - Thursday 4th September 2008



Hosted by

The University of Liverpool Management School

Chatham Street

Liverpool, UK

L69 7ZH



In Association with Ethnography





Conference Chairs:

Dr Frank Worthington, University of Liverpool Management School

Dr Matthew Brannan, Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management





Organising Committee:

Dr Matthew Brannan, Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management

Dr Jason Ferdinand, University of Liverpool Management School.

Dr Mike Rowe, University of Liverpool Management School

Dr Geoff Pearson, University of Liverpool Management School

Dr Frank Worthington, University of Liverpool Management School





Key Note Speakers:

Professor Gary Armstrong, Brunel University, UK

Professor Rick Delbridge, University of Cardiff, UK

Joanna Scammell and Ashley Roberts, University of Cardiff, UK

Dr Clare Holdsworth and Sarah Hall, University of Liverpool, UK

Professor Dvora Yanow, University of Amsterdam, NL





Call for Papers

In recent years ethnography has become an increasingly popular and vibrant mode of research within the social and management sciences. Within the context of work and organizations, current areas of interest include the study of new organizational forms, new management control methods, quality, auditing and information systems, work restructuring, employee involvement, empowerment, changing patterns and conditions of employment, and the impact these developments have on the lived-experience of work in terms of job-satisfaction and job-security, employee motivation and morale, commitment, leadership and change. In critical management and labour process studies these areas of research have been examined within the context of employee subjectivity and identity, gender, workplace politics, ethics, knowledge, power, control, oppression, exploitation, alienation and subjugation. Other broader social science areas of interest within the field include research into recent organisational and institutional changes within public sector services and local authorities in terms of the impact of these developments on the professions and other public sector occupations, local communities and civic society. There is also a growing interest within the field of ethnography in virtual and new media mediated ethnographies, ethnography and art and architecture, consumption, community, ethnicity, emotions and ethnography as emotional labour.



Other areas of interest include questions about the kinds of practical as well as political ethical and theoretical challenges ethnographers face within the field, the purpose of ethnography and whose interests it serves, whether ethnography can or should be ‘value-free’ and what actually counts and does not count as ‘good’ ethnography given the range of traditional (i.e.: naturalist, interpretivist, constructivist, modernist) and more contemporary (i.e.: postmodern, poststructuralist and critical) theoretical standpoints which inform how ethnographers choose to approach, conduct and write-up their research.

This symposium aims to bring together established and emerging social and management science scholars with an interest in ethnographic research to explore current trends in qualitative research in and around these and other developments within the field from a broad range of perspectives. The symposium will appeal not only to organization and management academics but also those working within sociology, anthropology, human geography, architecture, law, criminology, politics, cultural studies, environmental studies, gender studies and social and public policy. The symposium organizers welcome papers from any of these disciplines. Papers that examine the role and value of ethnography in social and management teaching and research, and those that address the theoretical, philosophical, empirical and practical questions in ethnography will be particularly welcome. In addition the organizers would also like to welcome papers that examine the political and ethical challenges involved in conducting critical ethnographic research.

Theoretically informed and empirically based papers, as well as work-in-progress papers from new and young emerging scholars, in any of the following areas will be considered:



- Public and private sector work organization and work restructuring.

- New organizational forms and changing forms of employment.

- Organizational, professional, group, community and social class cultures and sub-cultures.

- Management-labour relations and trade union practices.

- Accounting, auditing and governance.

- Services-marketing and consumer behaviour.

- Healthcare, education, local government and social and public policy.

- Ethnographies of conflict, deviance, resistance and misbehaviour (including researcher misbehaviour).

- Business ethics/ unethical business and management and employee practices.

- The role of ethnography in new times.



- The prospects for shop-floor ethnography in an era characterised by the break-up of tradition forms of shop-floor and trade union organisation.



- The contribution of virtual or new media mediated ethnographies.



- The relationship between ethnography and art.



- Ethnographies of consumption and community.



- Problematising methods of teaching and conducting ethnography.



- Ethnography as emotional labour: dealing with fear, anxiety and stress in the field.





Abstracts (up to 750-words, excluding contact details and references) should be submitted to the symposium organizers at the following email address by Friday 11th of January 2008: f.worthington@liv.ac.uk



Decisions on acceptance of papers will be given, subject to external refereeing, by Friday 15th of February 2008. Full papers will need to be submitted by 31st of July 2008. Only papers submitted to the organizers by this date will be published on the symposium website. Delegates whose papers are accepted but who are unable to meet this deadline are asked to submit a copy of their paper as soon as possible thereafter to allow the organizers to make photocopies for circulation on the opening day of the symposium.



*All papers presented at the conference will be automatically considered for publication in the Journal Ethnography.



Symposium attendance fees, accommodation and registration*

Attendance fee for delegates in full-time employment: £255.

Emerging scholars (PhD research students) and delegates in part-time employment £105



*Attendance fees include symposium proceedings, refreshments, lunches and the symposium evening dinner on Wednesday 3rdth September.



Accommodation:

All delegates will need to arrange their own accommodation. A list of recommended local hotels and guesthouses will be available shortly on the following website: http://www.liv.ac.uk/management/events/ethnography_conference_accomodation.htm



How to Register:

Symposium registration form will be available shortly to download from the following website: http://www.liv.ac.uk/management/events/ethnography_conference.htm





Informal enquiries to:

Dr Frank Worthington, email: f.worthington@liv.ac.uk



We look forward to seeing you at the event in September 2008