Organizing spaces: photography and the visual production of space-texts in organizational ethnography

Lucas, Mike and Wright, Alex (2015). Organizing spaces: photography and the visual production of space-texts in organizational ethnography. In: APROS/EGOS Colloqium 2015 Sub-theme 12: Organizational Ethnography and the Challenge of Social Space, 9-11 Dec 2015, UTS Sydney, Australia.

Abstract

This paper examines the use of ethnographic photography to investigate organizational space. We integrate insights from social anthropology and discourse theory on the practices of photography in ethnographic research; and, organizational theory and post-modern geography on the socially productive, relational nature of space. An approach to researching organizational/organizing space-texts that addresses the challenge of a theoretically informed visual methodology by positing ethnographic photography as integral to the both spatial practice and its theorization is advanced. Through this we challenge current approaches, much of which retain an empiricist/realist flavour in certifying the photographer as an ‘objective’ witness to spacing, or at best support an individualist aesthetic. We contribute to knowledge through an examination of the materiality and embodied experiences of space. Our use of intertextual theory positions the ethnographic photographer in a dialogic practice of spacing and the textual politics of authorship and authority

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