Page 74 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

62
Design Meets Business
2.3.2. Doing ethnography
To explore how designers cope with changes in material practices at work, the fieldworker conducted an ethnographic study. An ethnography is a form of longitudinal field research which “usually involves the researcher participating, overtly or covertly, in people’s daily lives for an extended period of time, watching what happens, listening to what is said and/or asking questions through informal and formal interviews, collecting docu- ments and artefacts - in fact, gathering whatever data are available to throw light on the issues that are the emerging focus of inquiry” (Hammersley & Atkinson 2007: 3). The field research lasted for about 17 months between March 2016 and July 2017. Doing ethnography allowed the fieldworker to study the actions of designers in their everyday contexts, whether that was in their own design studio or in the office of their clients. This, in turn, enabled the fieldworker to capture, both frontstage and backstage (Goffman 1959), the often-fleeting moments in which designers sensed and responded to changes in their work. To collect data, the fieldworker combined partici- pant observations, interviews and archival data (see Table 2.1).
Participating in the daily lives of designers. Most of the data used in this paper is collected through doing participant observations. A benefit of this approach, in comparison with other forms of data collection, is that it allowed to capture the actions of designers in private domains and also those actions they undertake unconsciously (Hammersley & Atkinson 2007). While the fieldworker participated in the life worlds of designers for the entire duration of her fieldwork (17 months), the emphasis on partic- ipant observations was especially when joined a design team in the role of a ‘design researcher’ (7 months). This immersive experience allowed her to personally observe the work activities of designers, both during and after work hours. Especially helpful were observations of meetings, held both among designers themselves and between designers and clients. Examples of such meetings include weekly ‘production meetings’ in which the status of the project was discussed, brainstorming sessions about possible design directions and client presentations to communicate (intermediate) design solutions. It was often in such meetings in which the designers reflected on work changes. When possible, the fieldworker tried to capture the meetings on record (in total 55 meetings were recorded and transcribed during the project, and in total 73 during the entire fieldwork). When it was not possible to record meetings, the fieldworker jotted down conver- sations that emerged between designers as quickly as possible, which she later developed into a more coherent story. Besides capturing meetings, the fieldworker also made note of daily activities of designers, highlighting