Modes of Knowing

Abstract

The current article argues that video-based methodologies offer unique potential for multimodal research applications. Multimodal research, further, can respond to the problem of “elusive knowledges,” that is, tacit, aesthetic, and embodied aspects of organizational life that are difficult to articulate in traditional methodological paradigms. We argue that the multimodal qualities of video, including but not limited to its visual properties, provide a scaffold for translating embodied, tacit, and aesthetic knowledge into discursive and textual forms, enabling the representation of organizational knowledge through academic discourse. First, we outline the problem of representation by comparing different forms of elusive knowledge, framing this problem as one of cross-modal translation. Second, we describe how video’s unique affordances place it in an ideal position to address this problem. Third, we demonstrate how video-based solutions can contribute to research, providing examples both from the literature and our own applied case work as models for video-based approaches. Finally, we discuss the implications and limitations of the proposed video approaches as a methodological support.

Focusing ethnography: theory and recommendations for effectively combining video and ethnographic research

“…The notion of the ideal type that (in the sense of Schutz) orients the participants' actions although it is ultimately unrealistic, so that describing an ideal type is not an exercise in realism (Eberle, 2010). The concept of conveying tacit dimensions of the social through various modes of expression including prose (Hirschauer, 2007), poetry (Canniford, 2012), art (Gibson, 2010) or film (Hietanen et al, 2014;Toraldo et al, 2016). Attempts to create visceral resonance through artistic forms based in cultural phenomenology (Denzin, 2001;Sherry & Schouten, 2002;Wood & Brown, 2012).…”

“…A key issue that has been pointed out repeatedly is the lack of adequacy of most interview methods for studying practices, and of verbal quotes as the primary means of expressing findings (Halkier & Jensen, 2011;Woermann, 2016). Visual methods offer a strong and well-established alternative for analysing social practices because they are capable of capturing the tacit, embodied, pre-conscious and local dimensions of social conduct (Toraldo, Islam, & Mangia, 2016) -dimensions whose systematic inclusion into theoretically understanding social life is a key concern (and strength) of practice theory. The turn to video methods invoked by sociological theory dovetails with decades of work conducted in visual anthropology (Ruby, 2000) that equally aim at "exploring dimensions of social life different from those already defined in verbal and quantitative forms."…”

“…(MacDougall, 2005, p. 269) Adding whole dimensions to the list of relevant and researchable things worth knowing, however, increases the need for thinking about how certain elements of lived life end up in focus, while other are relegated to the background, if not cropped out of the picture entirely. Especially if these dimensions must indeed be thought of as inevitably tacit and at least partly beyond the reach of linguistic expression and theorizing (Toraldo et al, 2016), or if we even think of video as enabling some form of tacit-to-tacit transmission of knowledge -as most proponents of visual anthropology suggest (MacDougall, 2005;Ruby, 2000) -, then the by implication equally tacit procedures of finding focus require all the more careful deliberation and reflection. In the same vein, many practice-minded researchers have argued for 'zooming in' on the situated performance of practices, especially in organization studies (Gherardi, 2012;Nicolini, 2009;Toraldo et al, 2016) and medical anthropology (Mol, Moser, & Pols, 2010).…”

“…Especially if these dimensions must indeed be thought of as inevitably tacit and at least partly beyond the reach of linguistic expression and theorizing (Toraldo et al, 2016), or if we even think of video as enabling some form of tacit-to-tacit transmission of knowledge -as most proponents of visual anthropology suggest (MacDougall, 2005;Ruby, 2000) -, then the by implication equally tacit procedures of finding focus require all the more careful deliberation and reflection. In the same vein, many practice-minded researchers have argued for 'zooming in' on the situated performance of practices, especially in organization studies (Gherardi, 2012;Nicolini, 2009;Toraldo et al, 2016) and medical anthropology (Mol, Moser, & Pols, 2010). Here, zooming is taken both literally by employing cameras and analysing video sequences in detail, and also metaphorically in that it is recommended to iteratively zoom in to and out of situated performances, echoing the strategy of multi-sited ethnography (Marcus, 1995).…”

“…It captures rich traces of background sound, speech, material set-up, spatial layout, body position and posture, visual attention and lines of sight, gestures and body language (Belk & Kozinets, 2005;Knoblauch, Schnettler, Raab, & Soeffner, 2006) -and all of these in their sequential order, so that pauses, rhythms, and speeds can be recovered during the analysis, for example when the temporal unfolding is of interest (Woermann & Rokka, 2015). Attending to the sequential unfolding of the embodied orders of situated performances social conduct is arguably important for grounding qualitative inquiry of many types (Woermann, 2016), but it is especially important from a practice perspective (Hindmarsh & Llewellyn, 2016;Toraldo et al, 2016). That is because it is rooted in Wittgensteinian language philosophy in which every interaction or situated conduct is seen as an improvisation over a set of formal and informal rules, and where the resources that enable competent rule-following include bodily skills, material tools, and emotional routines (Stern, 2003).…”