Methodological Lens Research Articles

Exploring the Interconnections Between Indigenous Leadership and Collective Leadership (WITHDRAWN)

Indigenous leadership offers a productive focus for the exploration of collective leadership. Indigenous leadership is often non-hierarchical, has to work both inside and outside of organisational boundaries, is contextually and culturally influenced, and shaped by a generational worldview focused on sustainable futures. Collective leadership theories emphasis social construction of leadership which requires exploration and investigation of context and shared understanding to lay the groundwork for collective action. Drawing on Indigenous leadership research, we present a four-year longitudinal and multi-qualitative study of a leadership program for young Australian Aboriginal people. An innovative source of data was the digital stories produced by participants of the project, which we have also analysed. Using an Indigenous social research epistemology to provide a rich methodological lens for exploring collective leadership through a process approach, we present empirical findings demonstrating the emergence of collective leadership. Based on our analysis, we argue that the interconnections between Indigenous and collective leadership provides a meaningful site for exploring the dimensions of collectively experienced and enacted leadership practices.

Ethnography for Radiographers: A Methodological Insight for Prospective Researchers

In recent years, ethnography has become a methodology of choice for exploring radiographic practices. This article adds to the existing evidence base by providing detailed methodological accounts of two experienced researchers. It aims to provide a critical methodological lens to prospective researchers who may also use ethnography as their methodology of choice. The author's reflect on their experiences of utilising ethnography as a methodological approach. Here, accounts of the original tools aligned to undertaking ethnographic research in radiography are discussed and how these can be used to uncover original phenomena. The article identifies the researchers' own positionality and reflexivity as researchers and how this impacted on data collection. In short, this article provides a detailed account of undertaking ethnography as a methodological approach within diagnostic radiography. The experiences documented can provide prospective researchers an insight of the researchers' position within the fieldwork.

The Operational Code Analysis of the Serbian Orthodox Church’s Official Political Discourse on Kosovo (2008-2019)

Abstract The Serbian Orthodox Church has been described in scholarship as having had a significant impact onto the social and political life of Serbia, especially since the wars of the nineties. With the coming of the age of the Internet and social science automation, however, more options have gradually become available to researchers in the recent years. For this reason, this article will tackle the official rhetoric of the Serbian Orthodox Church in relation to the sociopolitical with the assistance of social science automation. Forming an examination via the methodological lens of Operational Code Analysis, this article delves into the Church’s discourse on Kosovo, via heavy vetting of all official statements given on the website of the Serbian Orthodox Church. It also expands upon the initial methodology – Operational Code Analysis – to an analysis of an institution with a uniform discourse, which has so far not seen light in scholarly production.

A mapping study of employee innovation: proposing a research agenda

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to systematically explore the current understanding of the role of non-R&D and non-managerial employees in different phases and types of innovation, and to propose avenues for future research.Design/methodology/approachBy conducting a mapping study and applying a critical discourse analysis, the phenomenon of “ordinary” employee innovation is explored across various fields, such as human resource management, psychology, economics, strategy, marketing and technology management. Proposals for future research are suggested based on the theoretical framework of dynamic capability, with the aim of further integrating employee innovation in the innovation management domain.FindingsThe findings illuminate five main themes that form the employee innovation discourse across various academic disciplines, namely, employee innovative work behavior, firm innovation performance, employee innovation processes, frontline service employees and management tools for employee innovation.Originality/valueUnlike prior studies in the field of innovation management, this study specifically focuses on the employees without innovation-specific functions in organizations, or “ordinary” employees. Concerning the methodological lens of critical discourse analysis, the authors suggest forming the employee innovation discourse in an inclusive manner. Based on the theoretical lens of dynamic capability, a research agenda is proposed in which employee innovation research makes additional use of innovation processes and types, and takes into account the interactive processes and strong empirical evidence for relevant management tools.

REAGAN’S AUSTERITY BUREAUCRATS

AbstractIn 1982, President Ronald Reagan’s administration initiated a dramatic policy shift towards a new housing voucher program, which simultaneously resulted in a near-halt in public and project-based assisted housing funding. When analyzing this historic policy shift, many affordable housing scholars have overemphasized race-absent narratives about fiscal austerity to explain the Reagan administration’s policy rejection of public housing and embrace of housing vouchers. To present a more comprehensive and intersectional history of the Reagan administration’s transition to housing vouchers, I employ an alternative methodological lens that I call Black feminist critical policy studies. This paper traces how the Office of Management and Budget and Housing and Urban Development officials relied on obscured racial and gender bias in their debate informing Reagan's alternative housing voucher program. By revealing the social bias endemic in the Reagan administration’s housing debate, this article illustrates that housing vouchers were not simply a neutral, cost-efficient policy tool but helped ensure low-income black mothers’ continued subjection to anti-welfare backlash, housing discrimination, and paternal supervision.

From Health Technology Assessment to Health Technology Sustainability

This paper aims to propose a methodological lens to the assessment of technological innovations in healthcare based on the principles of social, economic, and political sustainability. Starting from the consideration of a lack of a unified interpretative framework of health technology assessment, using a content analysis of the relevant literature on the topic, we identified both the scientific perspectives adopted by the scholars and the most widely discussed topics. Consequently, the less explored scientific areas were framed, and, therefore, those more susceptible to further investigation came to light. The result is an overall picture which highlights the absence of unified and generally accepted approaches to evaluation, together with the lack of awareness on the fact that the multiplicity of methods adopted is essentially connected to the multiplicity of innovations, for each of which a method (or a set of methods) of preferable evaluation can be prefigured. Based on these observations, we propose a general reference framework for evaluation, based on the Viable Systems Approach (vSa), and a schematic outline of the connections between the complexity of innovations and the evaluation methodologies.

Making writing practices visible and sustainable in the engineering curriculum: a practice architectures theory analysis

Engineering practice requires engineers who have strong spoken and written communication skills, but the development of these skills, notably writing practices, is often invisible in the engineering curriculum, and rarely embedded. Decades of reviews of engineering education have identified the gap between the engineering curriculum and engineering practice, such as engineering graduates’ level of writing skills being inadequate for the workplace. This paper draws on research from a qualitative study which investigates the perspectives of engineering educators about writing practices in the engineering curriculum, utilizing the theory of practice architectures as a theoretical and methodological lens. Using examples from the case studies, we explore some constraints of the development of writing practices in the engineering curriculum. We then focus on case studies where the development of writing practices is enabled within a subject, across a sequence of subjects and throughout an engineering degree program, and identify elements that contribute to these practices. Our findings suggest that the development of writing practices can be integrated into engineering studies, but certain pre-conditions are required.

A construção do estudo de caso em psicanálise: revisão de literatura

It is known that the case study is considered fundamental for the constitution of Psychoanalysis. However, it should be noted that the scientific production of the area does not indicate parameters for the construction and writing of a case study, which commonly produces criticism to the method of psychoanalytic research, placing it in an inadequate position or indifferent to the scientific criteria. In this sense, this paper aims at describing how the scientific literature in psychoanalysis has discussed and placed the case study, either as a methodological lens or object of study. This is a systematic literature review in the PePSIC and SciELO databases. The descriptors and boolean operators “case study” OR “clinical report” OR “clinical case” OR “case construction” were used. The final survey resulted in 43 articles that deal with case study in psychoanalysis. Data analysis was based on content analysis, as proposed by Bardin. The categories formed were: “The clinical case as a device for transmitting the experience”; “The place of writing in psychoanalysis”; “The construction of the clinical report”; “Case construction x case study: Devices of elaboration”; “The singularity of the case and its fictional character”. In addition, the material analyzed can be organized into two main groups: (1) studies that had the objective to discuss the epistemological aspects of the case study, according to the theoretical and methodological assumptions of psychoanalysis; and (2) studies that used a case study to develop issues or problems considered relevant to the clinic. Finally, in the evaluation of the articles, some points were synthesized that can serve as guides and references for construction and the writing of a case study in psychoanalysis.Keywords: case study, clinical case, case construction.

Dynamics of Decoloniality in South Africa: A Critique of the History of Swiss Mission Education for Indigenous People

This paper presents a new framework to analyse missionary education in South Africa, using Grosfoguel’s conceptual and methodological lens of coloniality of power, coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of being. Firstly, the paper introduces the theoretical lens that undergirds this study and describes the three above-mentioned dimensions. Rather than seek generalisations concerning missionary education in the historical record, the paper presents an analysis of the endeavours of the Swiss Mission Society as an example of Protestant evangelism in South Africa. I indicate how the Swiss Mission used education to racialise and hierarchise the indigenous people and how, in this process, knowledge and indigenous people were dehumanised. The argument is based on examples drawn from the Swiss Mission’s teacher training institution, namely the Lemana Teachers’ Training College, near Elim. Based on the paper’s critical analysis, I propose how power structures, colonised knowledge systems and beings could be decolonised.

Chasing the Fish Oil—Do Bunker Vessels Hold the Key to Fisheries Crime Networks?

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is recognised as a major threat to the health of the world’s oceans. In addition, the discourse around IUU is recognizing and recommending that IUU be viewed through the lens of transnational crime. Reducing IUU fishing therefore requires a detailed understanding of how fishing fleets function and interact transnationally. However, this is difficult to determine because IUU fishing is by nature a clandestine activity, and often occurs in contexts that, by intention, make monitoring very difficult. Disentangling fleet activities therefore necessitates identifying and understanding how key players or actors function to support or guide IUU activities. In this regard, recent efforts have focused on identifying transhipment activities by finding and following refrigerated cargo (reefer) vessels. We suggest that bunker (fuel) vessels, may provide one solution to understanding and unravelling these IUU networks for two main reasons: they are fewer in number, are known to provide additional support to fishing vessels beyond refuelling. In this respect, bunker vessels are also used to resupply provisions, and crew, thereby facilitating human trafficking and slavery, which is demonstrably rife in certain components of the commercial fishing realm (e.g., long distance or high seas fleets). Here, we illustrate how social network analysis could be used as a methodological lens to expose previously clandestine IUU fishing fleet dynamics. Specifically, we highlight the connectedness of a tanker vessel, and several fishing and reefer vessels, in an area in the Southern Indian Ocean that has high levels of fishing and general shipping.

The Art Gallery and its Audience: Reflecting on Scale and Spatiality in Practice and Theory

This paper explores scale and spatiality in the practice and theory of the art gallery. Through the example of Des Hughes: Stretch Out and Wait, an exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield, I unpick the construction of scaled notions such as ‘local’, ‘(inter)national’ and ‘community’, in particular, a ‘local’ versus‘(inter)national’ binary; and explore how we may seek alternatives to such hierarchized thinking and practice. By testing and developing Kevin Hetherington’s approach of analyzing the topological character of the spaces of the museum (1997), I treat the space of Des Hughesas one which is complex, contingent and folded around certain objects on display. In so doing, this paper argues that scale and spatiality should not only be attended to as a subject of study for museums, galleries and heritage; but that they can also form a useful methodological lens through which productive alternatives for the knowledge and practice of these organizations may be explored.

Practices, projects and portfolios: Current research trends and new directions

Project portfolio management (PPM) bridges strategy and project management. Traditional research in PPM has primarily investigated the rational, top-down and structural aspects of strategizing. By doing so, it has failed to focus on the underlying practices that are triggered by the strategy and how these practices frame strategy implementation. Practice-based research provides a methodological lens to explore the reality of strategic enactment through the project portfolio. Practice-based perspectives are under-represented in PPM research; therefore the aim of this paper is to provide an agenda for further practice-based research in PPM. Central to this agenda is a concern with various aspects of practice, including its discursivity, representation, dynamic capabilities, leadership and materiality.

Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation

Storywork provides an epistemic, pedagogical, and methodological lens through which to examine Indigenous language reclamation in practice. We theorize the meaning of language reclamation in diverse Indigenous communities based on firsthand narratives of Chickasaw, Mojave, Miami, Hopi, Mohawk, Navajo, and Native Hawaiian language reclamation. Language reclamation is not about preserving the abstract entity “language,” but is rather about voice, which encapsulates personal and communal agency and the expression of Indigenous identities, belonging, and responsibility to self and community. Storywork – firsthand narratives through which language reclamation is simultaneously described and practiced – shows that language reclamation simultaneously refuses the dispossession of Indigenous ways of knowing and refuses past, present, and future generations in projects of cultural continuance. Centering Indigenous experiences sheds light on Indigenous community concerns and offers larger lessons on the role of language in well-being, sustainable diversity, and social justice.

Development of a Theoretical Framework to Investigate Alignment of Big Data in Healthcare through a Social Representation Lens

The aim of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework grounded in the literature, which can be used to explore the influence of big data on business-IT alignment in the healthcare context. Increasingly the availability of information systems in healthcare delivery and service management results in massive amounts of complex data that have the 3V characteristics of big data (i.e. volume, variety, velocity). Use of big-healthcare-data has been identified as bringing significant benefits to the healthcare sector from improved decision making through to population health analysis. Although the technical dynamics around big data such as analytics and infrastructure requirements are extensively researched, less attention has been given to social dynamics such as peoples’ experience, understanding and perceived usefulness of this data. To address this gap, the paper uses social representation theory as a methodological lens to develop a theoretical framework to study the social dynamics around big data and its use in the healthcare context. The selected case for this development is the New Zealand healthcare sector and an approach using multi-level macro, meso, and micro analysis is taken. Use of social representation theory as a methodological lens to develop a theoretical framework is a novel approach. Such a theoretical framework will be useful as a foundation for carrying out on-going empirical research on big data to understand its influence on business-IT alignment in the healthcare context.

Super-diversity as a methodological lens: re-centring power and inequality

ABSTRACTSuper-diversity as a methodological lens calls for a study of dynamics of new and diversified social groups that moves away from more traditional approaches focused on ethnicity. In examining the potential of super-diversity as a methodological lens, I identify a risk of downplaying the effect of “old” categories of difference that are likely to continue to shape social structures as well as space. I propose a re-centring of power and inequality in the study of super-diversity by situating its study within an urban culturalist approach, with sociological tools borrowed from ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism. This proposal is illustrated through the analysis of two public spaces in a super-diverse New York neighbourhood. I conclude by raising questions about the use of super-diversity discourse in the public and policy spheres.

A Ratchet Lens: Black Queer Youth, Agency, Hip Hop, and the Black Ratchet Imagination

This article explores the utilization of the theory of a Black ratchet imagination as a methodological perspective to examine the multiple intersections of Black and queer identity constructions within the space of hip hop. In particular, I argue for the need of a methodological lens that recognizes, appreciates, and struggles with the fluidity, imagination, precarity, agency, and knowledge production of Black queer youth who create and consume hip hop. As an example, I apply a Black ratchet imagination methodological perspective to an examination of New Orleans’s bounce culture. I conclude the article by underscoring the need for humanizing, hyper-local, and messy theoretical frameworks that provide further context for research investigating Black queer youth whose identities are informed by the culture of hip hop.

The ‘three-leaf clover’

As the global distribution, broadcast and viewing of Danish TV drama in different parts of the world involves the engagement of heterogeneous players involved in complex interrelationships, this article discusses the methodological lens of the ‘three-leaf clover’ to capture the complexity of these interrelationships. The article explains how the three-leaf clover model helps in embracing transnational interconnectivities, presents its opportunities and challenges and tests the capacity of the model by discussing the differing historical trajectories of how the series travelled into the world, the varying intensities of interest in the series and the permeability of the audience groupings.

The influence of subliminal crosstalk in dementia narratives.

Ethnographic audio-visual research data recorded in a busy dementia care environment were initially considered to be ‘contaminated’ by unwanted background noise. This included a variety of elements: ambient sound, mechanical noise, non-narrative vocalisation and narrative fragments from parallel conversation. Using the methodological lens of conversation analysis, we present an exploration of the striking temporal and sequential resonances between the narrative of one man with dementia and a group of care staff holding a separate conversation some distance away. We suggest that in this and similar settings, where random and intrusive background sounds and conversation form a ubiquitous backdrop, the presence of such ‘noise’ can have a detectable influence on the content and direction of situated narratives. We argue that rather than attempting to filter out these apparently intrusive sounds from micro-interactional data, interference elements can usefully be incorporated into the analysis of interactions.

Entrepreneurial learning: peripherality and connectedness

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the roles of peripherality and centrality in relation to entrepreneurial learning and development. Peripherality has previously been considered from a mainly geographical perspective as being remote, loosely connected and marginal. A broader conception of the topic is addressed, asking: in what ways is peripherality relevant to entrepreneurial learning? How can centre-peripheral connectivity enhance this? What are the implications for communities, learners and educators?Design/methodology/approachDiscourses of entrepreneurship development relating to policy, economics, geography and culture favour the concept of centres, which attract attention, resources, activities and people. Whilst peripherality is an enduring topic of interest in regional studies, it is widened through using the conceptualisation of legitimate peripheral participation in social learning as a methodological lens for the study. A case study of the technology sector in Cape Breton, Canada is included to illustrate peripheral entrepreneurship.FindingsThe paper suggests ways in which peripheral-central relationships can be a positive factor in entrepreneurial learning. It suggests that rebalancing the bidirectional “flow” of knowledge, talent and resources between centres and peripheries can enhance the value of peripheral entrepreneurship, learning and innovation.Social implicationsThe paper connects with prior work on community economic development, offering observations for entrepreneurial learning and development of knowledge-intensive businesses in peripheral areas. Boundary-spanning leadership and skills are required to facilitate peripheral-central interaction and entrepreneurship.Originality/valuePeripherality is defined more widely than in prior work, suggesting peripheral learning is part of the fundamental human experience and offers new insights, innovations and opportunities which can create shared value. A conceptual framework for peripheral-central entrepreneurial learning is proposed, which may assist in rebalancing central-peripheral value creation, innovation and regeneration.

The rhetoric of the real: stereotypes of rural youth in American reality television and stock photography

ABSTRACTThrough an examination of the visual rhetoric of identity presented by reality shows, especially Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, this paper explores ways in which American reality television and related media images construct, deploy, and reiterate visual stereotypes about whites from rural regions of the United States. Its focus is the relationship between image rhetoric and social identity expression and how they converge to create a discourse loop. Combining identity theory and visual rhetoric studies as a unique methodological lens, this paper focuses on why and how stereotypes circulate in the so-called realistic media. The implications of broadening stereotype study to include all varieties of visual artifacts in analysis of specific tropes are particularly important to the study of stereotypes of white rural others, especially since such imagery has increased in volume in recent years and appears in several different types of media.