How Is Ethnography of Work Possible in Russia? Demarginalization of Ethnography in the Field of Business Research

Abstract

This article analyses the prospects for the adoption of the labour ethnography methodology by Russian scholars. In many ways, the author is based on her own experience, which makes it possible to judge the possibilities of implementing ethnographic research of labor in both academic and applied projects. The topic of labor was central to Soviet sociology until the mid of 1980s; in the USSR, sociologists were mainly engaged in applied research commissioned by individual enterprises and organizations. However, the main research methods were questionnaires and interviews. The included observation was not used, except rare cases, such as Andrei Alekseev's project, although sociologists spent a lot of time at enterprises. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the study of labor by the method of included observation did not become more popular. In many ways it was hindered by the lack of opportunities to implement such research within the institutional framework of academic structures (researchers did not have time for long-term field work, there were no appropriate financial support programs, etc.). At the same time, the ethnography of labor was becoming a possible and in-demand approach in the field of applied research. Using the example of specific applied projects in which the author was a participant, the option of "adapting" the ethnography of labor to applied tasks was proposed by reducing the duration of field work (rapid ethnography) and by the introduction of a clear division of labor between the participants of the research team (collaborative ethnography).