Open AccessMoments of Disjuncture: The Value of Corporate Ethnography in the Research Industrial Complex
Author(s) -
AMIREBRAHIMI SHAHEEN
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
ethnographic praxis in industry conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1559-8918
pISSN - 1559-890X
DOI - 10.1111/1559-8918.2015.01036
Subject(s) - churning , ethnography , value (mathematics) , sociology , sociotechnical system , work (physics) , epistemology , public relations , knowledge management , political science , computer science , engineering , economics , anthropology , mechanical engineering , philosophy , labour economics , machine learning
This paper seeks to examine some of the underlying tensions that shape how and why ethnographers in industry often find their efforts devalued or not realized by stakeholders – i.e. “moments of disjuncture.” I argue that in many large corporations there is a separation between the stories anthropologists tell about themselves and those which are told about them, which mutually constitute an “informed fiction.” This fiction acts as a catalyst within a broader cycle of knowledge exchange (the industrial research complex) that demands a fast paced churning out of “newness” in insights before they grow old. These two processes often come to a head, creating a “seen it before” phenomena which risks devaluing timely and important work. To understand this I examine a case study of smart and automated technologies and offer potential solutions.