General Information

The overall goal of the seminar is an introduction into the sociological ethnography with a focus on organization. The term organization can have many different meanings in social science. In an ethnographic perspective the concept of organization always points toward management and practice. The basic question is always: how do people the things that they have to, want or must do? Thus we will elaborate the concept of organization along the interaction order (how people talk and communicate in face-to-face situations) first. But of course we will see how the embedding formal organizational rule-sets (the bureaucratic or formal order) influences and frames such situations. And these framed situations themselves are part of the structures of a globalized world and belong to a specific conditional matrix of modernity.

The seminar aims at providing the basic theoretical, methodological and practical know-how in order to:

-    describe and analyze a social setting on the interactional level by the means of participant observation

-    link such an effort to overarching sociological theories

-    write a short ethnographic text in a scientific format

Specific focus

We will begin with what is called “the logic of the situation” where people talk and communicate with each other. In doing so they participate in the social order and create it at the same time. Such an interpretive perspective will need concepts like the social construction, life-world, intersubjectivity, significant and generalized others, practice, social action, structures of relevance etc. These theoretical concepts will be introduced by many examples from our everyday life. So slowly the student will become a competent theoretical reader of ordinary everyday situations.

Participant observation as an ethnographic method, a form of data-gathering and production will be a first technical focus in the practical part of the seminar. There are more questions than one might think linked to such a research approach: How is it done practically: Where do I look? What do I write down and how? What do I need to prepare before I enter the field? How do I ask informants useful questions? What are the ethical considerations of observing people in their habitat? What are the risks and joys of fieldwork? How do I write fieldnotes after the observation? May I use photographs and/or documents too? How does an ethnographic record look like? How do I analyze my complex ethnographic data? And finally: How do I write an interesting and inspiring ethnographic text in a scientific format? These are just a few problems that will pop-up while doing ethnography. We will talk about them and look at the solutions given by prominent ethnographers and textbooks.

The ethnographic perspective will surely provide the student with a very unusual but fresh and new approach toward organization and society. It helps particularly well to recognize important features in everyday life and phenomena of organization around us. In this sense ethnographic knowledge can enhance social competence too as a welcomed side-effect.

During the course the students will have to apply their ethnographic knowledge to a social situation of their choice and report on their research in the seminar.

-    The student will know how to do a participant observation in a particular social setting / in a social situation

-    The student will know how to produce, store and analyze ethnographic data

-    The student will know the special aspects of this research approach like field access, ethical considerations, social relations in the field etc.

-    The student will recognize interpretive sociological theory as a foundational source for doing ethnography

-    The student will enlarge his knowledge on the concept of organization

-    The student will be able to write a short ethnographic text in a scientific format

The course will be held as a “Blockseminar” within one week. Every day we will meet between four to six hours: Lecture, group-tasks, short exercises of data interpretation, plenary discussions, practical observational exercises, short reporting by students.

Students Obligations

a) The students must do an ethnographic study in a social setting of their choice after the seminar and hand the text for evaluation and feedback

b) The students are expected to participate at the observational exercise during the week

c) The students should actively participate at the lectures