Irony's architecture: Reflections on a photographic research project

22 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2020

See all articles by Janet Grace Sayers

Janet Grace Sayers

Massey University- Department of Management and International Business

Date Written: August 25, 2007

Abstract

This paper presents a research approach based on irony, rather than certainty. Using Richard Rorty's conception of irony, we contend that much traditional research in management presents a final language which is implicit in both the construction of a research method and its final presentation as findings. This paper suggests we should take irony more seriously, and deliberately construct research to allow and encourage re-description by our research's final arbiters - its readers, and even its subjects. Further, we advocate that by inviting irony into our work, we encourage greater identification between ourselves, our audience of readers, and the subjects of our work. We illustrate our argument by reflecting on a recent photographic research project which was a collaborative effort between management researchers and an artist. We show how the simple architecture of this project was built from doubt and how irony is communicated through the pictures. We then show how photography can be a useful technique that encourages readers to engage in re-description of petit rcits (small stories), told through images. We discuss our reflections by focusing on the implications of our research for management education.

Keywords: Qualitative methods, visual methods, art-based research, photographic research

Suggested Citation

Sayers, Janet Grace, Irony's architecture: Reflections on a photographic research project (August 25, 2007). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1258002 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1258002

Janet Grace Sayers (Contact Author)

Massey University- Department of Management and International Business ( email )

Albany Campus
Auckland
New Zealand

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