At least since the seminal work The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) by Georg Simmel, the city has been a topic of interest to social researchers. During the first half of the last century, the Chicago School, fostering among other prominent urban sociologists Robert Park and Louis Wirth, was in many ways instrumental in the development of the city as an academic subject with its own field of research and theories. Since then research on the city has only widened in scope. Ethnographically, works likeWilliam FooteWhyte’s Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum (1943) and Elliott Liebow’s Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men (1967) are examples of early ethnographies focusing on particular aspects of city life. Ethnographic approaches to the city have become important in relation to understanding subjects like marginalization, community, planning, social networks, and relations between systems of welfare and their citizens. The city is the scene for everyday urban life and ethnographers have explored myriad iterations of the everyday: from how people inhabit and use urban spaces in different ways than planners and architects intended in the new city of Bras ılia (Holston, 1989); over howmarginalized citizens get by in gap spaces and barrios (Bourgois, 1995; Bourgois and Schonberg, 2009); to how police officers interpret duties and make decisions on the streets of cities (Moskos, 2008); how large-scale transformation alters not only the physical landscapes of cities but also the mental (Fennell, 2015); and to how a skyscraper can become a specter haunting the inhabitants of a city but also a successful legacy of a former political regime (Murawski, 2019); and many other phenomena that affect or are part of the everyday lives of people in cities. This special issue contributes to the above body of research in two ways. First, it investigates the city as a particular kind of organization. That is, by piecing together studies that, each in their ownway, address and feed into the broader picture and discussions of what it means to “run”, use and define a city, how this is experienced and by whom these processes are influenced. They remind us – perhaps – of the complexities of concerns, interests, needs and wishes of stakeholders such as citizens, investors, planners, administrators and politicians that need to be taken into account when playing the video game SimCity (a simulation game, invented in the 1980s, where the gamer acts as a mayor who designs and develops a city). Second, the special issue brings together a diversity of researchers from anthropology, urban sociology, urban management and migrations studies, who share a comparative and ethnographic approach to the study of different aspects of city life and organization, whether it is classic fieldwork observations, interviews, document analysis or a mixture of them all. Methodologically, ethnography has widened its scope from the still fundamental building
{"title":"Guest editorial: Organizing the city","authors":"Bagga Bjerge, Jonas Strandholdt Bach","doi":"10.1108/joe-04-2022-090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-04-2022-090","url":null,"abstract":"At least since the seminal work The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903) by Georg Simmel, the city has been a topic of interest to social researchers. During the first half of the last century, the Chicago School, fostering among other prominent urban sociologists Robert Park and Louis Wirth, was in many ways instrumental in the development of the city as an academic subject with its own field of research and theories. Since then research on the city has only widened in scope. Ethnographically, works likeWilliam FooteWhyte’s Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum (1943) and Elliott Liebow’s Tally’s Corner: A Study of Negro Streetcorner Men (1967) are examples of early ethnographies focusing on particular aspects of city life. Ethnographic approaches to the city have become important in relation to understanding subjects like marginalization, community, planning, social networks, and relations between systems of welfare and their citizens. The city is the scene for everyday urban life and ethnographers have explored myriad iterations of the everyday: from how people inhabit and use urban spaces in different ways than planners and architects intended in the new city of Bras ılia (Holston, 1989); over howmarginalized citizens get by in gap spaces and barrios (Bourgois, 1995; Bourgois and Schonberg, 2009); to how police officers interpret duties and make decisions on the streets of cities (Moskos, 2008); how large-scale transformation alters not only the physical landscapes of cities but also the mental (Fennell, 2015); and to how a skyscraper can become a specter haunting the inhabitants of a city but also a successful legacy of a former political regime (Murawski, 2019); and many other phenomena that affect or are part of the everyday lives of people in cities. This special issue contributes to the above body of research in two ways. First, it investigates the city as a particular kind of organization. That is, by piecing together studies that, each in their ownway, address and feed into the broader picture and discussions of what it means to “run”, use and define a city, how this is experienced and by whom these processes are influenced. They remind us – perhaps – of the complexities of concerns, interests, needs and wishes of stakeholders such as citizens, investors, planners, administrators and politicians that need to be taken into account when playing the video game SimCity (a simulation game, invented in the 1980s, where the gamer acts as a mayor who designs and develops a city). Second, the special issue brings together a diversity of researchers from anthropology, urban sociology, urban management and migrations studies, who share a comparative and ethnographic approach to the study of different aspects of city life and organization, whether it is classic fieldwork observations, interviews, document analysis or a mixture of them all. Methodologically, ethnography has widened its scope from the still fundamental building","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42107118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-22DOI: 10.1108/joe-06-2021-0036
Mohammad Alshallaqi
PurposeThis study focuses on the practical and ethical implications of the cultural practice of wasta for organizational ethnography in the Middle East. Wasta is a form of intercession rooted in the Middle Eastern cultural context and is similar to other cultural practices such as “guanxi” in China. Such practices do not only shape organizational lives in those contexts, but also how organizational ethnographies are designed and carried out.Design/methodology/approachThe data in this study are derived from field notes and the author’s reflections on the fieldwork of an organizational ethnography aimed to investigate a digital transformation project.FindingsThis study draws on the lens of positionality to illustrate how wasta helps favourably reconfigure a researcher’s positionality during interactions with gatekeepers and participants, thereby facilitating access and data collection. The study also presents the ethical concerns related to reciprocity triggered by wasta. Finally, this study demonstrates how wasta functions as a situated system to ensure ethical research practices.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates that it is inevitable that organizational ethnographers engage with cultural practices such as wasta or guanxi during fieldwork in such cultural contexts. Furthermore, the study provides theoretical and methodological contributions for future researchers by engaging in a reflexive exercise to present a more nuanced and theoretically informed understanding of wasta. Moreover, it shows how it is exercised during fieldwork, the ethical concerns inherent in its exercise and how they can be mitigated. The paper concludes with practical recommendations derived from this fieldwork experience for future research.
{"title":"Cultural practices and organizational ethnography: implications for fieldwork and research ethics","authors":"Mohammad Alshallaqi","doi":"10.1108/joe-06-2021-0036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-06-2021-0036","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThis study focuses on the practical and ethical implications of the cultural practice of wasta for organizational ethnography in the Middle East. Wasta is a form of intercession rooted in the Middle Eastern cultural context and is similar to other cultural practices such as “guanxi” in China. Such practices do not only shape organizational lives in those contexts, but also how organizational ethnographies are designed and carried out.Design/methodology/approachThe data in this study are derived from field notes and the author’s reflections on the fieldwork of an organizational ethnography aimed to investigate a digital transformation project.FindingsThis study draws on the lens of positionality to illustrate how wasta helps favourably reconfigure a researcher’s positionality during interactions with gatekeepers and participants, thereby facilitating access and data collection. The study also presents the ethical concerns related to reciprocity triggered by wasta. Finally, this study demonstrates how wasta functions as a situated system to ensure ethical research practices.Originality/valueThe study demonstrates that it is inevitable that organizational ethnographers engage with cultural practices such as wasta or guanxi during fieldwork in such cultural contexts. Furthermore, the study provides theoretical and methodological contributions for future researchers by engaging in a reflexive exercise to present a more nuanced and theoretically informed understanding of wasta. Moreover, it shows how it is exercised during fieldwork, the ethical concerns inherent in its exercise and how they can be mitigated. The paper concludes with practical recommendations derived from this fieldwork experience for future research.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47206455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-09DOI: 10.1108/joe-07-2021-0043
M. Dileep, Joshu Ajoon, B. B. Nair
PurposeThe tourism sector’s fragility lends significance to mental health and wellbeing, especially amongst workers in the hotel and tourism sectors. However, stakeholders’ subjective wellbeing and mental health in these sectors due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remain under-researched, especially for destinations with unique selling propositions (USPs). Thus, this study investigates the effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic on various stakeholders in Kerala, India. In particular, the authors assess the mental health and welfare of those involved in the tourism sector with an eye on how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the field’s psychological and technical developments.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an ethnographic approach to understanding the idiosyncratic experiences of stakeholders using in-depth interviews (n = 68), focus group interviews (n = 3) and participant observation for 14 months. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.FindingsThe findings reveal the shifting perceptions in the tourism sector’s workforce by detailing various societal, technical and physical transformations, especially amongst the younger generations. The resultant psychological mapping generates a framework of the emotional perspectives of stakeholders during each stage of the pandemic. This study also highlights the urgency of crisis-management training for the workforce.Originality/valueThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected all spheres of global business, resulting in unprecedented challenges in both personal and professional life. The sector’s fragility lends significance to mental health and wellbeing, especially amongst workers in the hotel and tourism sectors. However, the subjective wellbeing and mental health of stakeholders in these sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic remain under-researched, especially for the developing destinations with USPs.
{"title":"COVID-19 and tourism stakeholders: experience, behaviour and transformation","authors":"M. Dileep, Joshu Ajoon, B. B. Nair","doi":"10.1108/joe-07-2021-0043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-07-2021-0043","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe tourism sector’s fragility lends significance to mental health and wellbeing, especially amongst workers in the hotel and tourism sectors. However, stakeholders’ subjective wellbeing and mental health in these sectors due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remain under-researched, especially for destinations with unique selling propositions (USPs). Thus, this study investigates the effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic on various stakeholders in Kerala, India. In particular, the authors assess the mental health and welfare of those involved in the tourism sector with an eye on how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the field’s psychological and technical developments.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an ethnographic approach to understanding the idiosyncratic experiences of stakeholders using in-depth interviews (n = 68), focus group interviews (n = 3) and participant observation for 14 months. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.FindingsThe findings reveal the shifting perceptions in the tourism sector’s workforce by detailing various societal, technical and physical transformations, especially amongst the younger generations. The resultant psychological mapping generates a framework of the emotional perspectives of stakeholders during each stage of the pandemic. This study also highlights the urgency of crisis-management training for the workforce.Originality/valueThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected all spheres of global business, resulting in unprecedented challenges in both personal and professional life. The sector’s fragility lends significance to mental health and wellbeing, especially amongst workers in the hotel and tourism sectors. However, the subjective wellbeing and mental health of stakeholders in these sectors due to the COVID-19 pandemic remain under-researched, especially for the developing destinations with USPs.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47677717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1108/joe-03-2021-0016
H. Aden, A. Bosch, Jan Fährmann, Roman Thurn
PurposeThis paper analyzes micro-political strategies that police officers use during police stops, mostly based on their professional or personal life experience. Police stops take place in an asymmetric power relationship. Actions of police officers during a stop are backed by strong legal powers, and citizens typically do not negotiate how the stop should be carried out.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with German patrol officers.FindingsThe authors demonstrate that micro-political strategies relying on the officers' personal experience, rather than on strategies developed by the police agency based on empirical evidence, are highly problematic. Depending upon the acting officer, micro-political strategies can vary considerably according to the individual officer’s experience and attitudes. This leads to a risk of discrimination in police stops and of potential infringements on the citizens’ fundamental rights.Research limitations/implicationsSee the paper’s methodology section on the limitations of the empirical approach.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests improvements for the practice of police stops.Originality/valueThe article provides new empirical insights in the practice of police stops in Germany and situates the findings in a broader international debate on police stops and shortcomings of the legal rules that govern the police stops.
{"title":"Police stops in Germany – between legal rules and informal practices","authors":"H. Aden, A. Bosch, Jan Fährmann, Roman Thurn","doi":"10.1108/joe-03-2021-0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-03-2021-0016","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThis paper analyzes micro-political strategies that police officers use during police stops, mostly based on their professional or personal life experience. Police stops take place in an asymmetric power relationship. Actions of police officers during a stop are backed by strong legal powers, and citizens typically do not negotiate how the stop should be carried out.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with German patrol officers.FindingsThe authors demonstrate that micro-political strategies relying on the officers' personal experience, rather than on strategies developed by the police agency based on empirical evidence, are highly problematic. Depending upon the acting officer, micro-political strategies can vary considerably according to the individual officer’s experience and attitudes. This leads to a risk of discrimination in police stops and of potential infringements on the citizens’ fundamental rights.Research limitations/implicationsSee the paper’s methodology section on the limitations of the empirical approach.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests improvements for the practice of police stops.Originality/valueThe article provides new empirical insights in the practice of police stops in Germany and situates the findings in a broader international debate on police stops and shortcomings of the legal rules that govern the police stops.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"62135538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.1108/joe-12-2020-0053
Evan Brauer, Tamara Dangelmaier, Daniela Hunold
PurposeThe article presents research results of an ethnographic survey within the German police. The focus is on practices of spatial production and the functions of spaces.Design/methodology/approachThe article draws on data from the DFG-funded research project KORSIT (Social Construction of security-related Spaces) based on an ethnographic survey in the German police force (https://www.dhpol.de/korsit). Participant observations were conducted in police stations in two large German cities (pseudonymised as “Dillenstadt” and “Rosenberg”). It involved 60 guided interviews with police officers at different levels of the hierarchy, as well as further interviews with local and societal actors for contrasting purposes. The data was analysed on the basis of grounded theory (Strauss and Cobin, 1996).FindingsThis paper shed light on institutional spatial knowledge, which is the basis of police practices, is preceded by experience-based narratives. In an expanded perspective, the paper argues that urban spaces themselves can be understood as materialisations of social practices that serve as social demarcation that legitimise unequal styles of action in the different precinct within the German police. In terms of a relational conceptualisation of space, it is shown that the categories of ethnicity and gender interrelate within the institutional production of space.Originality/valueThe article links organisational research with sociological spatial research and provides basic explanatory models on the conditions of emergence and the persistence of discriminatory practices within the police.
{"title":"“Police spatial knowledge” – Aspects of spatial constitutions by the police","authors":"Evan Brauer, Tamara Dangelmaier, Daniela Hunold","doi":"10.1108/joe-12-2020-0053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-12-2020-0053","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe article presents research results of an ethnographic survey within the German police. The focus is on practices of spatial production and the functions of spaces.Design/methodology/approachThe article draws on data from the DFG-funded research project KORSIT (Social Construction of security-related Spaces) based on an ethnographic survey in the German police force (https://www.dhpol.de/korsit). Participant observations were conducted in police stations in two large German cities (pseudonymised as “Dillenstadt” and “Rosenberg”). It involved 60 guided interviews with police officers at different levels of the hierarchy, as well as further interviews with local and societal actors for contrasting purposes. The data was analysed on the basis of grounded theory (Strauss and Cobin, 1996).FindingsThis paper shed light on institutional spatial knowledge, which is the basis of police practices, is preceded by experience-based narratives. In an expanded perspective, the paper argues that urban spaces themselves can be understood as materialisations of social practices that serve as social demarcation that legitimise unequal styles of action in the different precinct within the German police. In terms of a relational conceptualisation of space, it is shown that the categories of ethnicity and gender interrelate within the institutional production of space.Originality/valueThe article links organisational research with sociological spatial research and provides basic explanatory models on the conditions of emergence and the persistence of discriminatory practices within the police.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46431799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-21DOI: 10.1108/joe-04-2021-0020
Päivi Kosonen, Mirjami Ikonen
PurposeThis paper aims at examining the prospects and possibilities of autoethnography in trust research. The focus of this study is on trust-building in a management team from an esthetic leadership perspective. The empirical context of the study is the organization of higher education during a funding reform.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative research strategy with co-produced autoethnographic methods. The data comprised the researcher's diary, field notes and written texts from informants. Autoethnographic methods were applied in data gathering; more precisely, the data were collected by the moving observing method of shadowing and complemented with the management team's written texts reporting their feelings. The data were analyzed by constructing autoethnographic vignettes and a critical frame story.FindingsThe findings of the study contribute to the methodological discussion of autoethnographic research when studying a complex phenomenon such as trust-building. The findings suggest that the role of authenticity in trust-building may vary depending on the esthetic leadership style. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the esthetic leadership theory by a proposal of esthetic reassurance as intentional leader-embodied communication aiming to reinforce follower trust in a leader.Originality/valueCo-produced autoethnography is applied in studying trust-building. Furthermore, this paper provides an inside view of the meaning of esthetics in leader-follower relationships in higher education organizations.
{"title":"Studying trust in the leader by co-produced autoethnography: an organizational esthetics approach","authors":"Päivi Kosonen, Mirjami Ikonen","doi":"10.1108/joe-04-2021-0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-04-2021-0020","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThis paper aims at examining the prospects and possibilities of autoethnography in trust research. The focus of this study is on trust-building in a management team from an esthetic leadership perspective. The empirical context of the study is the organization of higher education during a funding reform.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative research strategy with co-produced autoethnographic methods. The data comprised the researcher's diary, field notes and written texts from informants. Autoethnographic methods were applied in data gathering; more precisely, the data were collected by the moving observing method of shadowing and complemented with the management team's written texts reporting their feelings. The data were analyzed by constructing autoethnographic vignettes and a critical frame story.FindingsThe findings of the study contribute to the methodological discussion of autoethnographic research when studying a complex phenomenon such as trust-building. The findings suggest that the role of authenticity in trust-building may vary depending on the esthetic leadership style. Furthermore, the findings contribute to the esthetic leadership theory by a proposal of esthetic reassurance as intentional leader-embodied communication aiming to reinforce follower trust in a leader.Originality/valueCo-produced autoethnography is applied in studying trust-building. Furthermore, this paper provides an inside view of the meaning of esthetics in leader-follower relationships in higher education organizations.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44913459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-16DOI: 10.1108/joe-03-2021-0013
Maia Ebsen
PurposeThe paper ethnographically explores modes of urban resistance emerging in tandem with climate change mitigation programs in Copenhagen.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on 11 months of fieldwork with a Danish construction enterprise, the paper examines the politics of urban climate change mitigation programs through the lens of a group of builders' struggles to rethink and resolve dilemmas related to environmental concerns in construction and urban development.FindingsBased on an analysis of a specific construction project connected to a larger urban climate change mitigation program in Copenhagen, the paper shows how the builders deliberately move between different perspectives and positions as they navigate the shifting power relations of urban planning. The paper argues that this form of crafty resistance enables the builders to maneuver the political landscape of urban planning as they seek to appropriate the role of “urban planners” themselves.Originality/valueTaking up recent discussions of “resistance” in anthropology and cognate disciplines (e.g. Theodossopoulos, 2014; Bhungalia, 2020; Prasse-Freeman, 2020), the paper contributes an ethnographic analysis of struggles between diverging and, at times, competing modes of engagement in urban climate change mitigation programs and thus sheds light on how professional actors negotiate the ambiguity of “sustainability” in urban planning.
{"title":"The missing builders: craftwork and crafty resistance in the “eco-metropolis” of Copenhagen","authors":"Maia Ebsen","doi":"10.1108/joe-03-2021-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-03-2021-0013","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe paper ethnographically explores modes of urban resistance emerging in tandem with climate change mitigation programs in Copenhagen.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on 11 months of fieldwork with a Danish construction enterprise, the paper examines the politics of urban climate change mitigation programs through the lens of a group of builders' struggles to rethink and resolve dilemmas related to environmental concerns in construction and urban development.FindingsBased on an analysis of a specific construction project connected to a larger urban climate change mitigation program in Copenhagen, the paper shows how the builders deliberately move between different perspectives and positions as they navigate the shifting power relations of urban planning. The paper argues that this form of crafty resistance enables the builders to maneuver the political landscape of urban planning as they seek to appropriate the role of “urban planners” themselves.Originality/valueTaking up recent discussions of “resistance” in anthropology and cognate disciplines (e.g. Theodossopoulos, 2014; Bhungalia, 2020; Prasse-Freeman, 2020), the paper contributes an ethnographic analysis of struggles between diverging and, at times, competing modes of engagement in urban climate change mitigation programs and thus sheds light on how professional actors negotiate the ambiguity of “sustainability” in urban planning.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43324117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-09DOI: 10.1108/joe-05-2021-0024
Maj Nygaard-Christensen, Bagga Bjerge
PurposeThe authors investigate two contrasting, yet mutually constitutive strategies for regulating open drug scenes in the city of Aarhus, Denmark: A strategy of dispersing marginalized substance users from the inner city, and a simultaneous strategy of inclusion in a new, gentrifying neighbourhood.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a multi-temporal ethnography approach, including data from studies dating back to 2002. This enables us to scrutinize reconfigurations of processes of exclusion and inclusion in urban city life based on studies that in different ways feed into the broader picture of how socially marginalized citizens are included and excluded in urban space.FindingsThe municipality of Aarhus sways between strategies of dispersion and exclusion and those of inclusion of marginalized citizens. Taken together, these strategies constitute a “messy middle ground” (May and Cloke, 2014) in responses to the street people rather than either clear-cut punitive or supportive strategies. Finally, we point to the limit of inclusion in more recent strategies aimed at including marginalized citizens in urban planning of a new, gentrifying neighbourhood.Originality/valueThe article builds on studies that in critical engagement with the dominating focus on punitive or revanchist approaches to regulation of homeless citizens' presence in urban space have shown how such regulating practices are rarely punishing alone. We contribute to this literature by showing how seemingly contradictory attempts to exclude, disperse and include socially marginalized citizens in different urban settings are relational rather than in outright opposition. In continuation of this, we show how dispersal strategies both depend on and are legitimized by the promotion of alternative and more inclusive settings elsewhere.
{"title":"Inclusive gentrification? Reproducing logics of exclusion in strategies for inclusive urban planning","authors":"Maj Nygaard-Christensen, Bagga Bjerge","doi":"10.1108/joe-05-2021-0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-05-2021-0024","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe authors investigate two contrasting, yet mutually constitutive strategies for regulating open drug scenes in the city of Aarhus, Denmark: A strategy of dispersing marginalized substance users from the inner city, and a simultaneous strategy of inclusion in a new, gentrifying neighbourhood.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a multi-temporal ethnography approach, including data from studies dating back to 2002. This enables us to scrutinize reconfigurations of processes of exclusion and inclusion in urban city life based on studies that in different ways feed into the broader picture of how socially marginalized citizens are included and excluded in urban space.FindingsThe municipality of Aarhus sways between strategies of dispersion and exclusion and those of inclusion of marginalized citizens. Taken together, these strategies constitute a “messy middle ground” (May and Cloke, 2014) in responses to the street people rather than either clear-cut punitive or supportive strategies. Finally, we point to the limit of inclusion in more recent strategies aimed at including marginalized citizens in urban planning of a new, gentrifying neighbourhood.Originality/valueThe article builds on studies that in critical engagement with the dominating focus on punitive or revanchist approaches to regulation of homeless citizens' presence in urban space have shown how such regulating practices are rarely punishing alone. We contribute to this literature by showing how seemingly contradictory attempts to exclude, disperse and include socially marginalized citizens in different urban settings are relational rather than in outright opposition. In continuation of this, we show how dispersal strategies both depend on and are legitimized by the promotion of alternative and more inclusive settings elsewhere.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49321715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-04DOI: 10.1108/joe-01-2021-0004
Sarah Van Praet
Purpose This paper presents the results of an action research with a Brussels’ police force. This research aimed to identify elements or mechanisms within police selectivity that put pressure on the relationship between the public and the police and affect the equal treatment of individuals and groups. Montjardet (1996) looks to understand structural, organisational of other factors as weighing on police selectivity. This article focusses more precisely on the interaction between organisational justice on striving to improve procedural justice.Design/methodology/approach This study was made possible through a partnership between UNIA, the PolBruNo police force and the National Institute for Criminalistics and Criminology (NICC). The methodology of this two-year action research around two phases. The first one led through (22) interviews with management, (200 h of) observations and three group analysis to a shared diagnosis of problems regarding police selectivity. The action part centered on intervisions with the patrol officers based during further (over 420 h of) observations, giving extra information that has been integrated in the analysis.Findings This research points out that even when police interventions are oriented by the demands of the public – public that sometimes formulates demands based on (ethnic) stereotypes – the intervention can be problematic. Organisational aspects played an important role in how the intervention unfolded: if those demands will be treated rather as orders given by the caller or as problematic situations needing analysis by the police officers. The paper arguments that organisational justice as experienced by the police officers impact how much consideration will be given to procedural justice.Originality/value Many scholars have shed a light on the various situations patrol officers deal with and identified problems regarding police selectivity. Procedural justice was developed as an interesting notion to look at the relation of police officers and the (diverse groups within the) public as well as the broader impact of these encounters. The importance to look to the organisational level in the decisions made by the police officers has also been established. The paper arguments that organisational justice as experienced by the police officers impact how much consideration will be given to procedural justice.
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