The ethnographer's pause: “qua” and the epistemic status of abstraction in governance level organisational ethnography

What is it about?

This article explains how organisational ethnographers can study complex governance settings, such as board or committee meetings, without oversimplifying them. These settings are complicated because a single discussion may involve strategy, accountability, regulation, personal relationships, documents, risk reports, and organisational history all at once. The article argues that ethnographers often need to focus on one part of this complexity in order to analyse it clearly. For example, a board meeting may be studied as a moment of strategic decision-making. This does not mean the meeting is only about strategy. It simply means strategy is the aspect being examined in that particular analysis. The article calls this aspectual specification. In plain language, this means being clear about which aspect of a complex situation is being studied. Drawing on Aristotle’s idea of considering something qua, or “as”, something else, the article shows how ethnographers can make their analytic focus explicit. The article’s main contribution is to show that abstraction is not necessarily a distortion. When used carefully, it can be a responsible way of explaining complex organisational life. The article offers a practical vocabulary for ethnographers, readers, and reviewers to understand what is being foregrounded, why it matters, and what remains present but outside the main focus.

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