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Sub-theme 22: Ethnographies Beyond the Rules: Rethinking Power, Practice, and Possibility

Convenors:
Rafael Alcadipani
FGV-EAESP, Brazil
Jenna Pandeli
University of the West of England (UWE), UK
Jennifer Manning
Maynooth University, Ireland

Call for Papers

Call for short papers (pdf)

Organizational ethnography has offered rich, nuanced accounts of the everyday dynamics of organizational life (O’Doherty & Neyland, 2019; Pandeli et al., 2022). By “living with and living like” those in the field, ethnographers gain access to situated meanings, interactions, and practices within particular organizational settings (Van Maanen, 2020). Critical ethnography offers a space for producing rich, nuanced accounts of the field, while also engaging with the voices, perspectives, and narratives of those who have been marginalized (Foley, 2002; Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005; Madison, 2012). It fosters a dialogical relationship between researcher and participants (Madison, 2012), encouraging conversation and reflection (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005). Being reflexive in ethnographic research involves recognizing that knowledge production is situated and partial, shaped by the researcher’s social location and the power dynamics embedded in the research context (Manning, 2018). While traditional ethnographies in organization studies aim to describe and interpret through immersive observation and thick description, critical ethnography interrogates the structures of power, ideology, and inequality that shape organizational life. Our stream seeks to highlight ethnographic work that brings to light hidden, uncomfortable, or suppressed truths within contemporary social, organizational, and political life.

We are inspired by ethnographies that explore how alternative economies and relations emerge from community-driven solutions (Alakavuklar, 2024); that show us how Indigenous communities mobilize to safeguard their ancestral ontologies and spirituality (Maher & Loncopán, 2024); that draw on cultural and feminist anthropology for collective reflection (Gilmore & Kenny, 2015); that examine how gender, power, and vulnerability surface in fieldwork within hypermasculine organizations (Pandeli & Alcadipani, 2025); that open the untold “secrets” of organizations (Alcadipani et al., 2025); and that use decolonial feminist theory to introduce us to alternative Indigenous organizational forms and ways of working (Manning, 2025). We are particularly interested in ethnographies that make visible the experiences of marginalized and silenced groups, or that interrogate the everyday practices of power—from exploitative managerial practices to everyday acts of resistance, or even simply an insight into how people are transforming their lives, workplaces, and/or practices.

The aim is not exposure for its own sake, but exposure as a transformative act: to unsettle dominant narratives, reveal structural injustice, and help us imagine new ways of knowing, working, and living together—to rewrite the rules of the game.

Possible areas of inquiry include (but are not limited to):

  • Ethnographies of marginalization, inequality, and resistance

  • A critical insight into managerial, corporate, or bureaucratic exploitation

  • Hidden labors, affective work, and invisible work

  • Ethical and methodological challenges in “ethnography as exposure”

  • The politics of voice, representation, and storytelling

  • New ways of working, including the realities of hybrid working

  • Subtle everyday practices that transform

  • Alternative ways of working and organizing, including Indigenous and collective economies

  • The craft of being a critically reflexive ethnographer and reflections on doing critical ethnographies

  • Ethnographies that bring us into the dark side of organizations and organizational life


References
  • Alakavuklar, O. N. (2024). Organizing food, faith and freedom: Imagining alternatives. Bristol University Press.
  • Alcadipani, R., Maguire, E., & Brookman, F. (2025). Homicide investigation in the Global South: ‘Jeitinho’ and differences between policy and street-level practice. Policing and Society, 35(8), 1019–1035. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2025.2553653
  • Foley, D. E. (2002). Critical ethnography: The reflexive turn. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(4), 469–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518390210145534
  • Gilmore, S., & Kenny, K. (2015). Work-worlds colliding: Self-reflexivity, power and emotion in organizational ethnography. Human Relations, 68(1), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726714531998
  • Kincheloe, J. L., & McLaren, P. (2005). Rethinking critical theory and qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 303–342). SAGE Publications.
  • Madison, D. S. (2012). Critical ethnography: Method, ethics and performance. (2nd ed.) Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452233826
  • Maher, R., & Loncopán, S. (2024). Repoliticizing spirituality: A collaborative autoethnography on Indigenous identity dynamics during an environmental conflict in a Mapuche community in Chile. Human Relations, 77(7), 906–936. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267241248582
  • Manning, J. (2025). A decolonial feminist contribution to management studies: Introducing Maya women’s communitarian organising. Management Learning. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076251349120
  • Manning, J. (2018). Becoming a decolonial feminist ethnographer: Addressing the complexities of positionality and representation. Management Learning, 49(3), 311–326. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507617745275
  • O’Doherty, D., & Neyland, D. (2019). The developments in ethnographic studies of organising: Towards objects of ignorance and objects of concern. Organization, 26(4), 449–469. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508419836965
  • Pandeli, J., Sutherland, N., & Gaggiotti, H. (2022). Organizational ethnography: An experimental and practical guide. Routledge.
  • Pandeli, J., & Alcadipani, R. (2026). The dramas of navigating hypermasculine organisations: Negotiating the researcher-participant relationship in ethnographic fieldwork practice and the use of collaborative ethnographic sensemaking. Organization, 33(5), 763–785. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084251371508
  • Van Maanen, J. (2020). Withdrawals pains and gains: Exiting from the field. In R. Mir & A.-L. Fayard (Eds.), Routledge companion of anthropology in business (pp. 501–513). Routledge.



Rafael Alcadipani is a Professor of Organization Studies at the São Paulo School of Business Administration, Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV EAESP), Brazil. His ethnographic research adopts an inductive and process-oriented approach, addressing themes such as power, resistance, violence, identity, and the politics of knowledge production within the field of management and organization studies. He serves as Associate Editor for both 'Human Relations' and 'Organization Theory' and has published in leading journals in the field.
Jenna Pandeli is an Associate Professor in Organisation Studies at UWE, Bristol. Her research interests focus on using qualitative methodologies, namely ethnography, to provide a greater understanding of the everyday experiences of work. She has a special interest in prison labour and other forms of invisible work. She is currently involved in several research projects that include exploring prison leavers rehabilitative journey through work and enterprise, and researching women’s experiences of invisible work on maternity leave.
Jennifer Manning is Assistant Professor of Responsible Management and Director of Postgraduate Programmes at Maynooth University, Ireland. As an ethnographer, during her PhD, she developed a decolonial feminist approach to ethnography. Her research draws on decolonial feminist theory to critically examine the intersections of colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism within management and organisation studies, as well as management education. She explores Indigenous and alternative organisations and ways of working, contributing to broader conversations on epistemic justice and transformative practice. Her work has been published in leading journals, including 'Organization', 'Management Learning', and 'Gender, Work & Organization'.