Reflections on Fieldwork in a Complex Organization: Lawyers, Ethnographic Authority, and Lethal Weapons

Abstract

Researcher ethnographic power & authority are examined through discussion of fieldwork experiences in two San Francisco, CA, law firms. The classic conception of ethnographic authority suggests that ethnographers have textual & social authority over their Ss. Such a conceptualization does not allow for the situational & relational factors that impact ethnographic authority. In one case, the female researcher's status in a male-dominated law firm represented a challenge to authority & required renegotiation of interactions with male elites. In another case, the researcher's covert status as a fieldworker prompted ethnical concerns & created tension between deceiving & exploiting people in the organization under study & achieving the goals of the ethnographic inquiry. Formation of researcher identity was vital to the ethnographic process & to unearthing the relationship between gender & power manifested in the organizations under study. 26 References. D. Generoli