After Herzog: blurring fact and fiction in visual organizational ethnography

Abstract

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to introduce the unique artistic approach of filmmaker Werner Herzog as an inspiration to rethink ethnographic studies in general and the notion of reflexivity in particular. Approach-This paper reviews the particularities of Werner Herzog's approach to film making, linking them to the methodological tradition of visual ethnography and especially the debate about the role of reflexivity and performativity in research. Findings-Herzog's conceptualization of meaning as 'ecstatic truth' offers an avenue for visual organizational ethnographers to rethink reflexivity and performativity, reframe research findings and reorganize research activities. The combination of multiple media and the strong authorial involvement exhibited in Herzog's work, can inspire and guide the development of 'meaningful' organizational ethnographies. Originality/value-The paper argues that practicing visual organizational ethnography 'after Herzog' offers researchers an avenue to engage creatively with their research in novel and highly reflexive ways. It offers a different way to think through some of the challenges often associated with ethnographic research.

In Mondovino Veritas? Politics of the Documentary Film for Critical Management Research

“…is classic in visual research methods (Bell & Davison, 2013), a distinction can be made between work that uses the documentary film as a given material or data source (the film precedes the research) and that which uses it as a method or result of research (the film is generated by or through the research). Certain research studies thus analyze one or more existing documentary films from a perspective that can be theoretical (Kenny, 2009;Tadajewski & Hamilton, 2014), historical (Aitken, 1998;Hassard, 1998Hassard, , 2009, or epistemological (Steyaert et al, 2012;Walz et al, 2016). Even so, the documentary film format is increasingly often considered as a method for the production of data in its own right, in a sociological and anthropological tradition of filmed research (Colleyn, 1993(Colleyn, , 2009Pink, 2013), or more firmly anchored in contemporary art-based research methods (Barone & Eisner, 2012;Debenedetti et al, 2019;Mairesse, 2019).…”

“…Emphasizing the esthetic or poetic dimension of the narrative, this work makes the film an immersive, experiential form (vs. informational and conceptual) likely to disturb the relation between the researcher, the subject, and the audience (Wood et al, 2018), and to open up new ways of thinking, seeing, and understanding . This provides the research documentary a 'hybrid' status between art and science, blurring the frontiers between empirical evidence and artistic invention (Walz et al, 2016;Wood & Brown, 2011), and placing the researcher where the work of the scientist and the artist or auteur intersects (Belk & Kozinets, 2005;Wood & Brown, 2012). This overlap tends to bring the documentary closer to fiction ('video is fiction', , where the videography has 'the power to show us compelling fantasies of possible worlds' (Rokka & Hietanen, 2018, p. 114).…”

La fiction comme stratégie organisationnelle

“…Poser cette question de l'usage stratégique de la fiction en sciences de gestion est d'autant plus crucial qu'en tant que chercheurs et chercheuses en sciences de gestion, lorsque nous restituons dans des articles et ouvrages les résultats de nos recherches, nous ne nous contentons pas de présenter des faits mais faisons aussi -au moins partiellement -oeuvre de fiction (Van Maanen, 1979). Si des travaux sur la fiction existent bien en sciences de gestion, notamment en théorie des organisations (Grimand, 2009 ;Moriceau, 2018 ;Rhodes et Brown, 2005 ;Walz et al, 2016), on constate aujourd'hui un renouveau des questionnements à l'endroit de la fiction, désormais au centre de nombreux débats dans le champ des sciences humaines et sociales.…”