How Organisations Work: Ethnography in Institutions
| Module title | How Organisations Work: Ethnography in Institutions |
|---|---|
| Module code | SOC2062 |
| Academic year | 2024/5 |
| Credits | 15 |
| Module staff | Dr Geoffrey Hughes (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 20 |
|---|
Module description
From corporations and churches to schools, labour unions, voluntary associations, charities, government agencies, and NGOs, formal institutions increasingly define contemporary life. This module will provide you with practical tools for studying institutions using ethnographic methods. Hallmarks of ethnography include a commitment to understanding and sympathizing with local perspectives, self-reflexivity, a deep concern with the resulting ethical issues involved in collecting data from other human beings, and the attempt to link specific practices to broader social and cultural patterns. Through individually designed, hands-on projects, students will learn the basics of ethnographic methods and use them to study a local institution of their choosing.
Module aims - intentions of the module
You will learn how to conduct an ethnographic research project through hands-on experience in combination with an introduction to landmark methodological texts in sociology and anthropology. Instruction will take the form of lectures and ‘practicums’ (where students will apply module concepts to their own ethnographic practice). Some will address challenges inherent in any ethnographic project (picking a site, negotiating with gatekeepers, elicitation techniques, the perils of participation, writing up, and disseminating findings). Others will focus in on characteristic social dynamics of contemporary institutions (reliance on infrastructure, written record-keeping, and the use of statistics). Through a guided project, you will conduct your own ethnographic study of a local institution and present your findings in both oral and written formats.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate familiarity with the major contemporary social scientific approaches to the ethnographic study of institutions;
- 2. Show a developed understanding of specific aspects of ethnographic research like ethics, site selection, dealing with gatekeepers, building rapport, interviewing, participant observation, mapping, document analysis, writing up and the dissemination of findings;
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 3. Apply various theories and methodologies to a specific institutional case;
- 4. Critically assess claims about institutions and socio-political organization more generally;
- 5. Think critically about the social, political, and anthropological implications of institutions;
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Communicate effectively in written and oral form;
- 7. Engage in cross-cultural translation and comparison;
- 8. Conduct research on a topic and organize findings in written form in a compelling manner.
Syllabus plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- Ethics
- Finding a Site
- Gatekeepers
- Learning How to Ask
- Rapport
- Observing and Participating
- Infrastructure
- Paper
- Numbers
- Writing Up
- Disseminating Findings
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity | 22 | 11 x 1 Hour Lectures 2 hour weekly lecture/practicum (or 1 hour lecture + 1 hour practicum) |
| Guided Independent Study | 8 | Ethics Assessment |
| Guided Independent Study | 44 | Weekly Reading for Seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 48 | Hands-on Ethnographic Research |
| Guided Independent Study | 6 | In-Class Presentation |
| Guided Independent Study | 22 | Research Report |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation | 5 minutes | 1-8 | Oral and written |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethics Assessment | 35 | 1000 words | 1-7 | Written |
| Research Report | 65 | 2000 words | 1-8 | Written |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ethics Assessment | Ethics Assessment (1000 words) | 1-7 | August / September reassessment period |
| Research Report | Research Report (2000 words) | 1-8 | August / September reassessment period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Smith, Dorothy. 2005. Institutional Ethnography. Altamira.
Borges, J.L. 1969. ‘The Ethnographer’. Penguin
Pratt, Mary Louise. 1986. ‘Fieldwork in Common Places’. Writing Culture, Marcus and Clifford, eds. University of California Press.
Marcus, George. 1995. ‘Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography’. Annual Review of Anthropology.
Nader, Laura. 1969. ‘Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained From Studying Up’. Reinventing Anthropology, D. Hymes, ed. Pantheon.
Briggs, Charles. 1986. ‘Introduction’. Learning How to Ask. Cambridge
Hull, Matthew. 2010. ‘Democratic Technologies of Speech’. Linguistic Anthropology.
Herzfeld, Michael. 1992. The Social Production of Indifference. University of Chicago Press
Lewis-Krauss, Gideon. 2016. ‘The Trials of Alice Goffman’. New York Times
Deloria, Philip. 1998. Playing Indian. Yale University Press.
Star, Susan Leigh. 1999. ‘The Ethnography of Infrastructure’. American Behavioural Scientist.
Latour, Bruno. 1990. ‘Technology is Society Made Durable’. The Sociological Review.
Hull, Matthew. 2003. ‘The file: agency, authority, and autography in an Islamabad bureaucracy’. Language and Communication.
Garfinkel, Harold. 1967. ‘Good Organizational Reasons for ‘Bad’ Clinical Records’. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Polity.
Porter, Theodore. 1995. Trust in Numbers. Princeton University Press.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981. ‘Forms of Time and Chronotope in the Novel’. The Dialogic Imagination. University of Texas Press.
Ortner, Sherry. 1995. ‘Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal’ Comparative Studies in Society and History.
| Credit value | 15 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 7.5 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 04/02/2020 |
| Last revision date | 13/01/2022 |
