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AOM 2024 PDW: Decolonizing Field Research in a Neoliberal Economy

  • 1.  AOM 2024 PDW: Decolonizing Field Research in a Neoliberal Economy

    Posted 08-02-2024 11:11
    For those attending the Academy of Management conference this year we invite you to join us at our PDW on Decolonizing Field Research in a Neoliberal Economy.

    The PDW will take place on Saturday, August 10, 2024, from 1 PM to 2:30 PM CT at the Fairmont Hotel (Ambassador Room).

    This PDW aims to generate and sustain interest in a community of scholars, educators, and practitioners engaging in management research and teaching that focuses on the explicit and implicit effects of a neoliberal economy on social groups and organizations, in employing an intersectional approach to field research. Unlike research methods that emphasize detachment, distance, and objectivity from the phenomenon of interest, this workshop aims to generate dialogue on employing embodied experiences and demographic characteristics of the researcher as critical windows to generate research questions, engaging within the natural context of the phenomenon of interest during data collection, decolonizing prior research and sources of information during fieldwork in remote areas.

    Organizers:
    Ramaswami Mahalingam, U of Michigan
    Vijayta Doshi, Indian Institute of Management Udaipur
    Pankhuri Agarwal, U of Bath
    Poonam Barhoi, Institute of Management Technology Ghaziabad
    Akhil SG, Case Western Reserve University
    Tathagata Bhowmik, Case Western Reserve University

    The following themes will be explored-
    1. How to design an intersectional approach to field research: The importance of considering the social, economic, and political dynamics of the phenomena of interest and including them in the research questions, methodology, and instruments of data collection.

    2. The role of reflexivity in ethnographic research: Consciously examining and always being aware of one's subjectivity during the research process and accounting for the role of personal views and beliefs in shaping the research.

    3. The importance of decolonizing existing knowledge: Deconstructing existing research that valorizes the privileged and the powerful by designing the narrative in their favor and instead representing the voice of the marginalized by placing them as narrators of their own stories.

    4. The impact of the embodied experience of a researcher on their research: The impact a researcher's lived experiences based on their educational background, social class, gender identities, race, political beliefs, exposure to critical literature, etc., have on the formulation of research questions and the intuitions that guide the researcher through the data collection and analysis process.

    5. How to overcome logistical challenges in field-based research: Dealing with a lack of amenities like electricity and challenging journies to research sites can be stressful. Data collection on the field often has to be improvised with limited availability of resources and less than conducive environments.

    6. Post-fieldwork conflicts: Dilemmas on the output of the research, and its impact within academia and non-academia.

    --
    Tathagata Bhowmik (he/him/his)
    Ph.D. Student | Organizational Behavior
    Weatherhead School of Management | Case Western Reserve University
    (216) 673-8704
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tathagata-bhowmik-932031119/

    Writer/Director, Termite | https://www.csaff.org/film/termite/
    Musician | https://open.spotify.com/artist/6joestBxrvM7Zwa6VATdkg