A processual and (post) humanist reading of ethnography, innovation, and gender in organizations
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Pecis, Lara
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
University of Warwick
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2014
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
Ph.D.
Body granting the degree
University of Warwick
Text preceding or following the note
2014
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
This study offers a particular reading of ethnography, innovation processes, and gender performances. By attending to processes, (gender) performances, and their effects, the thesis brings out the consequences of a specific approach - a processual, poststructuralist and posthumanist one - for gender (how performances include and exclude people), research methods (what we are responsible for in our ethnographies), and innovation (a politics of who acts in innovation processes and a politics of what innovation processes are about). The thesis draws on empirical material collected through an ethnographic study in two research organizations, a biomedical research centre based in Italy (BfL), and the British branch of an IT multinational (Techie). Through the analysis of the material, the thesis develops three contributions. As a first contribution, I offer a stronger process-oriented reading of innovation and show how a lens founded on the intertwinement of "performativity" and "enrolment" integrates extant innovation models by adding two dynamics (constructing and effecting), and by re-looking at the role of objects in shaping innovation processes. As a second contribution, I empirically address the lack of research on gender and innovation in management literature, by shedding more light on if, how, and with what consequences gender dynamics are enacted and shape innovation processes and its people. The third contribution refers to the elaboration of a theoretical framework enabling a politically responsible ethnographic practice, and accounting for differences as a methodological premise for grasping a phenomenon.