Academic activism, radical ethnography and the critical scholar

Reedy, Patrick; King, Daniel

Abstract

It has been proposed that engagement with activism might make critical organizational scholarship more relevant to practitioners. However, there are few examples of such engagement and thus a lack of systematic inquiry into how it might be undertaken. This paper seeks to redress this lack. We evaluate the potential of ethnography as a radical methodological framework for critical scholarship, drawing on organizational ethnography, urban anthropology and participative action research to construct a theoretical framework which we use to analyse four ethnographic vignettes based on our own experiences of engagement with activists. Our contribution is to 1) assess barriers to engagement, 2) explore identity conflicts between activist and researcher roles, 3) examine the ethical dilemmas of researching those we closely identify with and, 4) suggest ways in which to balance research and activism in order to benefit both. We conclude that, despite the difficulties, there is much to be gained by this form of critical performativity.

Citation

Reedy, P., & King, D. (2017). Academic activism, radical ethnography and the critical scholar. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2017(1), 13499. https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2017.13499abstract

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 1, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Nov 30, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Deposit Date: May 15, 2019
• Journal: Academy of Management Proceedings
• Print ISSN: 0065-0668
• Publisher: Academy of Management
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2017
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 13499
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2017.13499abstract
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/1788736
• Publisher URL: https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/AMBPP.2017.13499abstract