This edited collection of chapters showcases original and interdisciplinary ethnographic fieldwork in a range of international settings; including studies of underground pub life in North East England; Finnish hotels; and bio-scientific institutions in the Amazonian rainforest. Informed by John Law’s concept of ethnographic “mess,” this book makes a unique, empirically-informed, contribution to an understanding of the social construction of knowledge and the role that ethnography can and does play (Law, 2004). It provides a range of colourful snapshots from the field, showing how different researchers from multiple research environments and disciplines are negotiating the practicalities, and epistemological and ethical implications, of “messy” ethnographic practice as a means of researching “messy” social realities. Law notes that “social…science investigations interfere with the world…things change as a result. The issue, then, is not to seek disengagement but rather with how to engage” (ibid p14). Drawing on their own situated experiences, the book’s contributors address the “messy” implications of this and also explore the (equally messy) issue of why engage. They reflect on the process of undertaking research, and their role in the research process as they negotiate their own position in the field. What is ethnography “for”? What impact should, or do, we have in the field and after we leave the research site? What about unintended consequences? When (if ever) are we “off duty?” What does “informed consent” mean in a constantly shifting, dynamic ethnographic context? Is ethnography by its very nature a form of “action research?” By providing a wide range of situated explorations of “messy ethnographies,” the book presents a unique, hands-on guide to the challenges of negotiating ethnography in practice, which will be of use to all researchers and practitioners who use ethnography as a method.

This edited collection of chapters showcases original and interdisciplinary ethnographic fieldwork in a range of international settings; including studies of underground pub life in North East England; Finnish hotels; and bio-scientific institutions in the Amazonian rainforest. Informed by John Law’s concept of ethnographic “mess,” this book makes a unique, empirically-informed, contribution to an understanding of the social construction of knowledge and the role that ethnography can and does play (Law, 2004). It provides a range of colourful snapshots from the field, showing how different researchers from multiple research environments and disciplines are negotiating the practicalities, and epistemological and ethical implications, of “messy” ethnographic practice as a means of researching “messy” social realities. Law notes that “social…science investigations interfere with the world…things change as a result. The issue, then, is not to seek disengagement but rather with how to engage” (ibid p14). Drawing on their own situated experiences, the book’s contributors address the “messy” implications of this and also explore the (equally messy) issue of why engage. They reflect on the process of undertaking research, and their role in the research process as they negotiate their own position in the field. What is ethnography “for”? What impact should, or do, we have in the field and after we leave the research site? What about unintended consequences? When (if ever) are we “off duty?” What does “informed consent” mean in a constantly shifting, dynamic ethnographic context? Is ethnography by its very nature a form of “action research?” By providing a wide range of situated explorations of “messy ethnographies,” the book presents a unique, hands-on guide to the challenges of negotiating ethnography in practice, which will be of use to all researchers and practitioners who use ethnography as a method.

Rapid ethnographies are used in a wide range of fields to speed up research quickly and effectively. This book is the first practical guide to rapid ethnographies, helping readers to improve skills in the design, implementation, dissemination and use of findings generated through rapid ethnographic research. It gives advice and guidelines for carrying out rapid and rigorous research and provides details of tools used in the field. Vignettes reflecting on the author's research are included throughout, including observations on research carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic, to highlight how challenges of conducting rapid ethnographies can be overcome. Case studies across a range of subjects are also included, to demonstrate how rapid ethnographies can be applied in practice. With its useful tools and easy-to-read format, it will be used by teachers and students, as well as researchers wanting to successfully implement rapid ethnographies in their own work.

This textbook explores practices, first-hand experiences and emerging ideas within organizational ethnography, providing a toolkit that prepares ethnographers for the uncertainties and realities of fieldworking. Students faced with the complexities of qualitative observational techniques and considerations, such as the scope of the research, the personal and professional intertwined life of the qualitative research or the decision of when to leave the field, will find the book an extremely useful, practical guide. A range of experiences from a variety of academics at different stages of their career, to highlight the differences in practices, approaches and encounters, are presented. The themes of the individual chapters cover three main areas: aspects to consider and reflect on before undertaking an ethnography, the process and experiences of conducting ethnographic work and considerations for after the fieldwork. Particular attention is given to appreciating the complexity and practicalities of ethnographic work, providing a more experience-driven text, and understanding perspectives from a range of different approaches to organizational ethnography. This book should be a recommended text for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying research methods within Business and Management. It is particularly important for all students and academics undertaking qualitative research, especially ethnography.

This book examines how the peripheral can be incorporated into ethnographic research, and reflects on what it means to be on the periphery—ontologically and epistemologically. Starting from the premise that clarity and fixity as ideals of modernity prevent us from approaching that which cannot be easily captured and framed into scientific boundaries, the book argues for remaining on the boundary between the known and the unknown in order to surpass this ethnographic limit. It shows that peripherality is not only to be seen as a marginal condition, but rather as a form of theory-making and practice that incorporates reflexivity and experimentation.

Assessing Autoethnography provides readers with multiple ways to analyze autoethnographies and other forms of personal narrative writing. Given the proliferation of such forms across academic contexts, the book offers a guide of what autoethnography is, why it matters, and how to do it. Taking each of the three parts of auto-, ethno-, and -graphy in detail, Herrmann, and Adams, provide criteria and points of discussion to ensure robust assessment of an autoethnographic work as a whole. Every chapter is accompanied with exemplars and considers issues such as ethics, storytelling, and good writing. The book discerns the kinds of personal experiences that often work best for autoethnographic projects and provide ways to evaluate fieldwork, interviews, and representations. Written by two experts in the field, Assessing Autoethnography offers guidance to scholars and dissertation advisors, across diverse disciplines, in producing autoethnographic work and utilizing autoethnographic methods. The book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of Communication Studies, Education, Sociology, Women’s and Gender Studies, Critical Race Studies, Mass Communication, English, and other related disciplines.

This edited collection brings together a range of experiences from the field, largely in the context of CSCW and HCI. It focuses specifically on the experiences of people who have worked in difficult, tense, delicate and sometimes conflictual and dangerous settings. The tensions faced by researchers and, more importantly, how they manage to deal with them are often under-remarked. Unlike the bulk of published ethnographic work, the chapters in this book deal more explicitly with the various practical problems that researchers with varying degrees of experience face. Our aim in this book is to give a voice to researchers who have sometimes contended with unexpected issues and who sometimes have had to face them on their own. We explore incidents which may entail emotional conflict, embarrassment and shame, feelings of isolation, arguments with other members of a team, political pressures, and ideological confusions, to name but a few. Senior figures in research laboratories and elsewhere may provide intellectual direction and support but may not always recognise the personal and problematic nature of qualitative enquiry undertaken by relatively inexperienced researchers. The chapters examine feelings of isolation, the difficulty of ‘taking sides’, the negotiation of personal, ethical, and political pressures in the field, and dealing with conflicting visions of what the research should be about. The book is a resource for those embarking on the challenges of working in unfamiliar or difficult settings and moreover should act as a reminder to academics who might have forgotten the practical issues that researchers can face and how they deal with them.