Understanding, Seeing and Representing Time in Tempography
Research Article
How to Cite
Scheller V.K., Semenova V.V. (Trans), Tartakovskaya I.N. (Trans). Understanding, Seeing and Representing Time in Tempography. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation. 2020. Vol. 12. No. 4. P. 9-33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2020.12.4.1 (in Russ.).
Abstract
I discuss in this article how ethnographers understand, see and represent time by presenting a research study of a newly established cardiac day unit. Previous discussions of time in relation to ethnography mainly revolved around choosing an appropriate tense for writing up the text, and few studies attempted to develop a framework for conducting time-oriented ethnography in organizations, i.e., tempography. I argue that doing tempography requires considerations in several phases of the research process: how we understand time through theory; how we see time in different qualitative methods; and how we represent time in writing. I present empirical findings that illustrate different ways that time emerges in the ethnographic research process, for example, in observational accounts, through depictions and narratives that support different temporal conceptualizations, patients' stories about their trajectories and as ethnographic accounts of professional work. I contend that ethnographers need to consider: 1. methodological temporal awareness as recognition of coexisting temporal modes in qualitative data; 2. temporal analytical practices as understanding time and temporality through different theoretical concepts; and 3. multi-temporal merging as a matter of representing diverse perspectives in ethnographic writing.
Keywords:
time, temporality, ethnography, organization studies, time objects, temporal work, trajectories
References
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Adam B. Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.
Atkinson P., Hammersley M. Ethnography and Participant Observation // Handbook of Qualitative Research / Ed. by N.K. Denzin, Y.S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994. P. 248–261.
Auyero J., Swistun D. Tiresias in Flammable Shantytown: Toward a Tempography of Domination // Sociological Forum. 2009. Vol. 24. № 1. P. 1–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2008.01084.x
Barley S.R. On Technology, Time, and Social Order: Technically Induced Change in the Temporal Organization of Radiological Work // Making Time: Ethnographies of High-Technology Organizations / Ed. by F.A. Dubinskas. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988. P. 123–169.
Bergman M.M. Conference Essay: The Broad and the Narrow in Ethnography on Organisations // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2003. Vol. 4. № 1. Art. 23. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-4.1.766
Birth K.K. Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137017895
Bobys R.S. Reviewed Work(s): Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: A Sociological Perspective by Eviatar Zerubavel // Social Forces. 1980. Vol. 59. № 2. P. 581–582. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/59.2.581
Clarke V., Braun V., Hayfield N. Thematic Analysis // Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods / Ed. by J.A. Smith. 3rd ed. L.: Sage, 2015. P. 222–248.
Czarniawska B. Shadowing, and Other Techniques for Doing Fieldwork in Modern Societies. Copenhagen: Liber, Copenhagen Business School Press, Universitetsforlaget, 2007.
Dawson P. Reflections: On Time, Temporality and Change in Organizations // Journal of Change Management. 2014a. Vol. 14. № 3. P. 285–308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2014.886870
Dawson P. Temporal Practices: Time and Ethnographic Research in Changing Organizations // Journal of Organizational Ethnography. 2014b. Vol. 3. № 2. P. 130–151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-05-2012-0025
Fabian J. Time and the Other: How Anthropology Constructs Its Object. NY: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Glaser B.G., Strauss A.L. Time for Dying. Chicago: Aldine, 1968.
Hammersley M., Atkinson P. Ethnography: Principles in Practice. 3rd ed. L.: Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203944769
Harvey D.C. Waiting in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans: A Case Study of the Tempography of Hyper-Marginalization // Symbolic Interaction. 2015. Vol. 38. № 4. P. 539–556. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.185
Hernes T. Process as the Becoming of Temporal Trajectory // The Sage Handbook of Process Organization Studies / Ed. by A. Langley, H. Tsoukas. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2017. P. 601–607. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957954.n38
Jarzabkowski P., Bednarek R., Lê J.K. Producing Persuasive Findings: Demystifying Ethnographic Textwork in Strategy and Organization Research // Strategic Organization. 2014. Vol. 12. № 4. P. 274–287. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127014554575
Jensen T.E. Witnessing The Future // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 1. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.200
Kaplan S., Orlikowski W.J. Temporal Work in Strategy Making // Organization Science. 2013. Vol. 24. № 4. P. 965–995. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1120.0792
Kozin A. On Making Legal Emergency: Law Office at its Most Expeditious // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 12. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.202
McGivern G. et al. The Silent Politics of Temporal Work: A Case Study of a Management Consultancy Project to Redesign Public Health Care // Organization Studies. 2018. Vol. 39. № 8. P. 1007–1030. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617708004
Moreira T. How to Investigate the Temporalities of Health // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 13. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.203
Nowotny H. Time: The Modern and Postmodern Experience. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994.
Orlikowski W.J. Sociomaterial Practices: Exploring Technology at Work // Organization Studies. 2007. Vol. 28. № 9. P. 1435–1448. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607081138
Orlikowski W.J. Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations // Organization Science. 2000. Vol. 11. № 4. P. 404–428. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.404.14600
Orlikowski W.J., Scott S.V. 10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization // The Academy of Management Annals. 2008. Vol. 2. № 1. P. 433–474. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520802211644
Orlikowski W.J., Yates J. It's About Time: Temporal Structuring in Organizations // Organization Science. 2002. Vol. 13. № 6. P. 684–700. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.6.684.501
Pedersen A.R. Moving away from Chronological Time: Introducing the Shadows of Time and Chronotopes as New Understandings of “Narrative Time” // Organization. 2009. Vol. 16. № 3. P. 389–406. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508409102302
Pedersen A.R., Humle D.M. Doing Organizational Ethnography: A Focus on Polyphonic Ways of Organizing. NY: Routledge, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315677279
Pedersen A.R., Johansen M.B. Strategic and Everyday Innovative Narratives: Translating Ideas into Everyday Life in Organizations // Innovation Journal. 2012. Vol. 17. № 1. P. 2–19.
Reinecke J., Ansari S. When Times Collide: Temporal Brokerage at the Intersection of Markets and Developments // Academy of Management Journal. 2015. Vol. 58. № 2. P. 618–648. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2012.1004
Rosa H. Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. NY: Columbia University Press, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/rosa14834
Schilling E. “Success is Satisfaction with What You Have”? Biographical Work-Life Balance of Older Female Employees in Public Administration // Gender, Work and Organization. 2015. Vol. 22. № 5. P. 474–494. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12097
Schultz M., Hernes T. A Temporal Perspective on Organizational Identity // Organization Science. 2012. Vol. 24. № 1. P. 1–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0731
Strauss A.L. et al. Social Organization of Medical Work. 2nd ed. Piscataway: Transaction, 1997.
Timmermans S. Closed-Chest Cardiac Massage: The Emergence of a Discovery Trajectory // Science, Technology & Human Values. 1999. Vol. 24. № 2. P. 213–240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/016224399902400202
Timmermans S. Mutual Tuning of Multiple Trajectories // Symbolic Interaction. 1998. Vol. 21. № 4. P. 425–440. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1998.21.4.425
Wall R. “Natural”, “Normal”: Discourse and Practice at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, 1880–1920 // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 17. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.208
Waterworth S. Temporal Reference Frameworks and Nurses' Work Organization // Time & Society. 2003. Vol. 12. № 1. P. 41–54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x03012001362
Waterworth S. Time and Change in Health Care // Leadership in Health Services. 2017. Vol. 30. № 4. P. 354–363. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs-08-2016-0038
Willis E.M. The Problem of Time in Ethnographic Health Care Research // Qualitative Health Research. 2010. Vol. 20. № 4. P. 556–564. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310361243
Yakura E.K. Charting Time: Timelines as Temporal Boundary Objects // Academy of Management Journal. 2002. Vol. 45. № 5. P. 956–970. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/3069324
Zerubavel E. Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Zerubavel E. Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: A Sociological Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
Adam B. Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.
Atkinson P., Hammersley M. Ethnography and Participant Observation // Handbook of Qualitative Research / Ed. by N.K. Denzin, Y.S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994. P. 248–261.
Auyero J., Swistun D. Tiresias in Flammable Shantytown: Toward a Tempography of Domination // Sociological Forum. 2009. Vol. 24. № 1. P. 1–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2008.01084.x
Barley S.R. On Technology, Time, and Social Order: Technically Induced Change in the Temporal Organization of Radiological Work // Making Time: Ethnographies of High-Technology Organizations / Ed. by F.A. Dubinskas. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988. P. 123–169.
Bergman M.M. Conference Essay: The Broad and the Narrow in Ethnography on Organisations // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2003. Vol. 4. № 1. Art. 23. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-4.1.766
Birth K.K. Objects of Time: How Things Shape Temporality. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137017895
Bobys R.S. Reviewed Work(s): Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: A Sociological Perspective by Eviatar Zerubavel // Social Forces. 1980. Vol. 59. № 2. P. 581–582. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/59.2.581
Clarke V., Braun V., Hayfield N. Thematic Analysis // Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods / Ed. by J.A. Smith. 3rd ed. L.: Sage, 2015. P. 222–248.
Czarniawska B. Shadowing, and Other Techniques for Doing Fieldwork in Modern Societies. Copenhagen: Liber, Copenhagen Business School Press, Universitetsforlaget, 2007.
Dawson P. Reflections: On Time, Temporality and Change in Organizations // Journal of Change Management. 2014a. Vol. 14. № 3. P. 285–308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14697017.2014.886870
Dawson P. Temporal Practices: Time and Ethnographic Research in Changing Organizations // Journal of Organizational Ethnography. 2014b. Vol. 3. № 2. P. 130–151. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-05-2012-0025
Fabian J. Time and the Other: How Anthropology Constructs Its Object. NY: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Glaser B.G., Strauss A.L. Time for Dying. Chicago: Aldine, 1968.
Hammersley M., Atkinson P. Ethnography: Principles in Practice. 3rd ed. L.: Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203944769
Harvey D.C. Waiting in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans: A Case Study of the Tempography of Hyper-Marginalization // Symbolic Interaction. 2015. Vol. 38. № 4. P. 539–556. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.185
Hernes T. Process as the Becoming of Temporal Trajectory // The Sage Handbook of Process Organization Studies / Ed. by A. Langley, H. Tsoukas. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2017. P. 601–607. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473957954.n38
Jarzabkowski P., Bednarek R., Lê J.K. Producing Persuasive Findings: Demystifying Ethnographic Textwork in Strategy and Organization Research // Strategic Organization. 2014. Vol. 12. № 4. P. 274–287. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1476127014554575
Jensen T.E. Witnessing The Future // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 1. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.200
Kaplan S., Orlikowski W.J. Temporal Work in Strategy Making // Organization Science. 2013. Vol. 24. № 4. P. 965–995. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1120.0792
Kozin A. On Making Legal Emergency: Law Office at its Most Expeditious // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 12. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.202
McGivern G. et al. The Silent Politics of Temporal Work: A Case Study of a Management Consultancy Project to Redesign Public Health Care // Organization Studies. 2018. Vol. 39. № 8. P. 1007–1030. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617708004
Moreira T. How to Investigate the Temporalities of Health // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 13. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.203
Nowotny H. Time: The Modern and Postmodern Experience. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994.
Orlikowski W.J. Sociomaterial Practices: Exploring Technology at Work // Organization Studies. 2007. Vol. 28. № 9. P. 1435–1448. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840607081138
Orlikowski W.J. Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations // Organization Science. 2000. Vol. 11. № 4. P. 404–428. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.404.14600
Orlikowski W.J., Scott S.V. 10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization // The Academy of Management Annals. 2008. Vol. 2. № 1. P. 433–474. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/19416520802211644
Orlikowski W.J., Yates J. It's About Time: Temporal Structuring in Organizations // Organization Science. 2002. Vol. 13. № 6. P. 684–700. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.6.684.501
Pedersen A.R. Moving away from Chronological Time: Introducing the Shadows of Time and Chronotopes as New Understandings of “Narrative Time” // Organization. 2009. Vol. 16. № 3. P. 389–406. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508409102302
Pedersen A.R., Humle D.M. Doing Organizational Ethnography: A Focus on Polyphonic Ways of Organizing. NY: Routledge, 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315677279
Pedersen A.R., Johansen M.B. Strategic and Everyday Innovative Narratives: Translating Ideas into Everyday Life in Organizations // Innovation Journal. 2012. Vol. 17. № 1. P. 2–19.
Reinecke J., Ansari S. When Times Collide: Temporal Brokerage at the Intersection of Markets and Developments // Academy of Management Journal. 2015. Vol. 58. № 2. P. 618–648. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2012.1004
Rosa H. Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity. NY: Columbia University Press, 2013. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/rosa14834
Schilling E. “Success is Satisfaction with What You Have”? Biographical Work-Life Balance of Older Female Employees in Public Administration // Gender, Work and Organization. 2015. Vol. 22. № 5. P. 474–494. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12097
Schultz M., Hernes T. A Temporal Perspective on Organizational Identity // Organization Science. 2012. Vol. 24. № 1. P. 1–21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0731
Strauss A.L. et al. Social Organization of Medical Work. 2nd ed. Piscataway: Transaction, 1997.
Timmermans S. Closed-Chest Cardiac Massage: The Emergence of a Discovery Trajectory // Science, Technology & Human Values. 1999. Vol. 24. № 2. P. 213–240. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/016224399902400202
Timmermans S. Mutual Tuning of Multiple Trajectories // Symbolic Interaction. 1998. Vol. 21. № 4. P. 425–440. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/si.1998.21.4.425
Wall R. “Natural”, “Normal”: Discourse and Practice at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, 1880–1920 // Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research. 2007. Vol. 8. № 1. Art. 17. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.208
Waterworth S. Temporal Reference Frameworks and Nurses' Work Organization // Time & Society. 2003. Vol. 12. № 1. P. 41–54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463x03012001362
Waterworth S. Time and Change in Health Care // Leadership in Health Services. 2017. Vol. 30. № 4. P. 354–363. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/lhs-08-2016-0038
Willis E.M. The Problem of Time in Ethnographic Health Care Research // Qualitative Health Research. 2010. Vol. 20. № 4. P. 556–564. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310361243
Yakura E.K. Charting Time: Timelines as Temporal Boundary Objects // Academy of Management Journal. 2002. Vol. 45. № 5. P. 956–970. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/3069324
Zerubavel E. Hidden Rhythms: Schedules and Calendars in Social Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Zerubavel E. Patterns of Time in Hospital Life: A Sociological Perspective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
Article
Received: 01.10.2020
Accepted: 25.12.2020
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APA
Scheller, V. K., Semenova, V. V., & Tartakovskaya, I. N. (2020). Understanding, Seeing and Representing Time in Tempography. Interaction. Interview. Interpretation, 12(4), 9-33. https://doi.org/10.19181/inter.2020.12.4.1
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Theoretical discourses and debates
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