Multiplicity and reflexivity in organizational research : Towards a performative approach to the visual
Journal
Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal
ISSN
1746-5648
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2012-07
Author(s)
Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is, first, to assess the potential of the visual to enact multiplicity and reflexivity in organizational research, and second, to develop a performative approach to the visual, which offers aesthetic strategies for creating future research accounts in organization and management studies.
Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews existing visual research in organization and management studies and presents an in-depth analysis of two early, almost classical, and yet very different endeavors to create visual accounts based on ethnography: the multi-media enactments by Bruno Latour, Emilie Hermant, Susanna Shannon, and Patricia Reed, and the filmic and written work by Trinh T. Minh-ha and her collaborators.
Findings - The authors' analysis of how the visual is performed in both cases identifies a repertoire of three distinct and paradoxical aesthetic strategies: de/synchronizing, de/centralizing, and dis/covering.
Originality/value - The authors analyze two rarely acknowledged but ground-breaking research presentations, identify aesthetic strategies to perform multiplicity and reflexivity in research accounts, and question the ways that research accounts are written and published in organization and management studies by acknowledging the consequences of a performative approach to the visual.
Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews existing visual research in organization and management studies and presents an in-depth analysis of two early, almost classical, and yet very different endeavors to create visual accounts based on ethnography: the multi-media enactments by Bruno Latour, Emilie Hermant, Susanna Shannon, and Patricia Reed, and the filmic and written work by Trinh T. Minh-ha and her collaborators.
Findings - The authors' analysis of how the visual is performed in both cases identifies a repertoire of three distinct and paradoxical aesthetic strategies: de/synchronizing, de/centralizing, and dis/covering.
Originality/value - The authors analyze two rarely acknowledged but ground-breaking research presentations, identify aesthetic strategies to perform multiplicity and reflexivity in research accounts, and question the ways that research accounts are written and published in organization and management studies by acknowledging the consequences of a performative approach to the visual.
Language
English
Keywords
Aesthetics
Bruno Latour
Management
Multiplicity
Organizations
Performative approach
Reflexivity
Trinh T. Minh-ha
Visual methods
Visualization
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Ltd.
Publisher place
Bingley UK
Volume
7
Number
1
Start page
34
End page
53
Pages
20
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
214817