Institutional Ethnography Workshop

 
A day long institutional ethnography workshop is being held in conjunction with the SSSP meeting on Thursday, August 18th from 8:30am -5:30pm at Harrah’s Las Vegas Hotel.  Dorothy Smith along with members of the community of scholars she has influenced will be facilitating an interactive program.  The program will include a discussion about some of the theoretical and historical evolution of the method.  There will also be interactive “working” sessions to provide guidance for data collection and data analysis.  The cost of the workshop is $100.  To register please use the following link:  http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=951957.

For more information contact Janet Rankin at the University of Calgary, .

 

The sociology department at Maxwell School of Syracuse University has provided sponsorship dollars for 10 students to attend the workshop for $50.  If you would like to take advantage of this support please e-mail Janet Rankin.  The funds will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The registration system cannot be changed to accommodate this half price sale!  Thus, if you are subsidized you will be asked to write Janet Rankin a personal cheque 50.00USD. If you have already registered and would like to take advantage of the subsidy, please let Janet know. She will put your name on a list and will reimburse you $50.00USD at the workshop. 

 

Institutional Ethnography Workshop
Preliminary Program 

Laughlin Room

 

Morning (08:30am -12pm) 

Welcome:  Kamini Maraj Grahame, IE Division Chair

Session One

Mapping and formulating a Problematic
 

Part One

Mapping as conceptual, as data collection and as analysis 

Alison Griffith (lead) with Lois Andre-Bechely, Laurie Clune, Lauri Grace, Dorothy Smith

Using Smith's theory of cartography and IE as a practice of "mapping" participants in this session will bring examples of any mapping work they have done --either polished or rough drafts. The maps will be displayed (rather like a poster session) at the beginning of the session and participants will be given the opportunity to describe their maps and how they worked with them.

Part Two

Formulating and holding onto a problematic:

Janet Rankin (lead) with Alison Griffith, Paul Luken

  • mapping for a problematic
  • theoretical and conceptual features of the problematic (what is it)
  • how to approach the problematic as a technical tool
  • how to formulate a problematic from data
  • choosing the problematic to follow
  • doing research without a problematic

 
Afternoon (1pm-3:30pm)

Session Two

Old Hand Questions – IE’s theoretical framework

Dorothy Smith (lead) with "The old hands" (TBA)

Questions and discussion about the sociology that informs IE

  • Feminism – standpoint
  • Marx – materiality; ideology
  • Bakhtin – language and words
  • Mead – symbolic interactionism
  • Garfinkel – ethnomethodology
  • Foucault – discourse

Afternoon (4pm-5:30pm)

Session Three 

Extending the range of IE thinking: Pushing boundaries

Marjorie DeVault (facilitator) Liza McCoy; Eric Mykhalovskiy; Lauren Eastwood; Paul Luken

Discuss the various "elements" of IE and how they have developed and changed over time. Consider how we could engage with IE, not only as a method, but a mode of inquiry focused on particular aspects of the social that could open up other possibilities (or not) for a range of projects that don't always look like a "classic” IE.

This session will be formulated around the following questions:

  • What are some of the different types of research that might spring from the basic ontology and orientation of this mode of inquiry?
  • How can we support students who are drawn to IE/SOK and who are equally drawn to ANT and/or studies of governmentality?
  • What are we reading and doing that is informing our thinking and research practice? How might that shape the ongoing development of IE?