Ethnography Atelier Podcast
Ethnography Atelier
Overview
Episodes
Recent Episodes
SEP 3, 2024
Anna Kim: Fieldwork with Respect
In this episode with Anna Kim, we discuss some principles around doing fieldwork with respect, especially in settings and populations with low economic resources. Our conversation focuses on how we approach such places and people in ways that declutter our cultural assumptions and appreciate them in their own terms, or closer to that, thus potentially generating more appropriate and impactful insights.
Anna Kim is an Associate Professor in Management for Sustainability and Peter Brojde Faculty Scholar in Entrepreneurship at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. She holds a Ph.D. in management studies from the University of Cambridge. Before her academic career, Anna worked for Oxfam International and other international development agencies. Her research interests include organizing for sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and linguistic inclusiveness in organizations. She has explored such topics through ethnographic and qualitative studies in various places, many characterized by resource constraints. These include tea and coffee producer organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nepal, as well as start-ups in post-industrial Detroit.
Further information
- Koo, E. J. & Kim, A. (2024) "Linguistic Inclusiveness in Organizations: A Russophone Bank in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan.” Academy of Management Journal, doi: 10.5465/amj.2020.1226.
- Kim, S. & Kim, A. (2022) "Going viral or growing like an oak tree? Towards sustainable local development through entrepreneurship." Academy of Management Journal, 65 (5): 1709–1746.
- Kim, A., Bansal, P., & Haugh, H. (2019) “No time like the present: How a present time perspective can foster sustainable development.” Academy of Management Journal, 62 (2): 607–634.
50 MIN
JUL 12, 2024
Episode 17 - Michel Anteby: Access as Data
In this episode, we talk with Michel Anteby about access. In particular, the resistance that field workers may face and how such a process may, in reality, offer invaluable insights into the social world being studied. In our conversation, Michel elaborates on the challenges and promises of research settings that may be hard to access, reflects on the ethical limits of fieldwork, and shares tips about selecting and immersing oneself in the culture of occupational groups and organizations.
Michel Anteby is a Professor of Management & Organizations at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and (by courtesy) Sociology at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He also co-leads Boston University’s Precarity Lab. Michel’s research looks at how individuals relate to their work, their occupations, and the organizations they belong to. He examines the practices people engage in at work that help them sustain their chosen cultures or identities. In doing so, his research contributes to a better understanding of how these cultures and identities come to be and manifest themselves. Studied populations have included airport security officers, anesthesiologists, clinical anatomists, factory craftsmen, ghostwriters, puppeteers, and subway drivers.
Further information:
Michel Anteby is a Professor of Management & Organizations at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and (by courtesy) Sociology at Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He also co-leads Boston University’s Precarity Lab. Michel’s research looks at how individuals relate to their work, their occupations, and the organizations they belong to. He examines the practices people engage in at work that help them sustain their chosen cultures or identities. In doing so, his research contributes to a better understanding of how these cultures and identities come to be and manifest themselves. Studied populations have included airport security officers, anesthesiologists, clinical anatomists, factory craftsmen, ghostwriters, puppeteers, and subway drivers.
Further information:
- Anteby, M. (2024). The interloper: Lessons from resistance in the field. Princeton University Press.
- Anteby, M. (2015). Denials, Obstructions, and Silences: Lessons from Repertoires of Field Resistance (and Embrace). In Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Research (pp. 197-205). Routledge.
- Bourmault, N., & Anteby, M. (2023). Rebooting one’s professional work: The case of French anesthesiologists using hypnosis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 68(4), 913-955.
- Anteby, M., & Occhiuto, N. (2020). Stand-in labor and the rising economy of self. Social Forces, 98(3), 1287-1310.
28 MIN
APR 27, 2023
Episode 15 - Angèle Christin: Researching Influencers and Social Media Platforms
In this episode, we talk with Angèle Christin about the challenges and opportunities of studying influencers and social media platforms. The context for this conversation is her latest research, a digital ethnography for a new book on the algorithmic labor of influencers and influencer marketing on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The conversation is packed with insights on gaining access to a phenomenon that happens online in private spaces (including a story on how Angèle became an influencer herself); the promises of designing research on niches or fields in the social media space; and practical reflections on how to make ethnography “the art of the possible.”
Angèle Christin is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and affiliated faculty in the Sociology Department, the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization at Stanford University. She studies how algorithms and analytics transform professional values, expertise, and work practices.
Further information:
Angèle Christin is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and affiliated faculty in the Sociology Department, the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization at Stanford University. She studies how algorithms and analytics transform professional values, expertise, and work practices.
Further information:
- Christin, A., and Y. Lu. Forthcoming. “The Influencer Pay Gap: Platform Labor Meets Racial Capitalism.” New Media & Society.
- Christin, A. 2020. “The Ethnographer and the Algorithm: Beyond the Black Box.” Theory & Society. 49(5-6): 897-918.
- Kellogg, K.C, M.A. Valentine, and A. Christin. 2020. “Algorithms at Work: The New Contested Terrain of Control.” Academy of Management Annals 14(1): 366-410.
- Christin, A. 2020. Metrics at Work: Journalism and the Contested Meaning of Algorithms. Princeton University Press.
57 MIN
FEB 19, 2023
Episode 14 - Anissa Pomiès: Researching Materiality
This time we welcome Anissa Pomiès to the Atelier and talk with her about methodological opportunities and challenges of studying materiality, the things that are pervasive in life but have been for long-time eluding researchers. In this conversation, Anissa reflects on her research on taste and coffee making, where she found it was central to take objects seriously—since they were taken as such by informants in that context. She also shares some tips on organizing the analysis of images, videos, and artifacts and using a broader range of senses to collect data.
Anissa Pomiès is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Lifestyle Research Center at emlyon business school. She completed her PhD at ESCP Europe and Sorbonne University and is trained as a sociologist and an ethnographer. Her research focuses on taste, market creation, and transformation, consumption practices. She typically uses ethnographic methods to study these topics in combination with actor-network theory, practice theory, and similar approaches.
Further information:
Anissa Pomiès is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Lifestyle Research Center at emlyon business school. She completed her PhD at ESCP Europe and Sorbonne University and is trained as a sociologist and an ethnographer. Her research focuses on taste, market creation, and transformation, consumption practices. She typically uses ethnographic methods to study these topics in combination with actor-network theory, practice theory, and similar approaches.
Further information:
- Pomiès, A., & Arsel, Z. (2022). Market Work and the Formation of the Omnivorous Consumer Subject. Journal of Consumer Research.
- Pomiès, A., & Hennion, A. (2021). Researching taste: an interview of Antoine Hennion. Consumption Markets & Culture, 24(1), 118-123.
31 MIN