Schoneboom, A. and Slade, J. orcid.org/0000-0003-4901-799X (2020) Question your teaspoons : tea-drinking, coping and commercialisation across three planning organisations. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 9 (3). pp. 311-326. ISSN 2046-6749
Abstract
Purpose
As part of a wider ethnographic project that examines the significance of the public interest across three public and private sector UK planning organisations, this paper uses tea-drinking as a lens to understand structural forces around outsourcing and commercialisation. Reflecting across the five case studies, the analysis supports Burawoy's (2017) recent critique of Desmond's Relational Ethnography (2014). Using Perec's (1997[1973]) notion of the “infra-ordinary” as an anchor, it highlights the insight that arises from an intimate focus on mundane rituals and artefacts.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were gathered through participant observation, chronicling the researchers' encounters with tea in each of the sites. A respondent-led photography exercise was successful at two sites. Up to 40 days of ethnographic fieldwork were carried out in each site.
Findings
The tea-drinking narratives, while providing an intact description of discrete case study sites, exist in conversation with each other, providing an opportunity for comparison that informs the analysis and helping us to understand the meaning-making process of the planners both in and across these contexts.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to critical planning literature (Murphy and Fox-Rogers, 2015; Raco et al., 2016), illuminating structural forces around outsourcing and commercialisation. It also generates methodological reflection on using an everyday activity to probe organisational culture and promote critical reflection on “weighty” issues across study sites.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Organizational Ethnography. This version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You may not use the material for commercial purposes. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Economic and Social Research Council N/A |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2020 08:15 |
Last Modified: | 24 May 2022 11:30 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/joe-10-2019-0036 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:164545 |
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