Taking Centre Stage: Organisational change, aesthetics and the meaning of an office space

Seminar abstract

This presentation applies a critical visual ethnographic approach, applied to a single case study organisation, in order to analyse and understand the shifting meaning of objects within a newly 'empty' workspace.

Using self-made images through photography, it is argued here that office furniture and artefacts sitting empty and unused, amidst an accompanying organisational change, can form a discourse around the concept of  'organisational change'.

The empty space was conductive to the evocation of feelings of a 'ghost-town' on a regular weekday afternoon; asking to be captured by the the camera lens in the form of a visual ethnography.

Based on an analysis of visual empirical data, collected by an employee of the organisation in question.

The aim of this study was to bring into 'focus' the abject, in terms of economic and social distribution, within the chosen case study organisation.

Booking

This seminar is free to attend and there is no need to book in advance. We welcome you to come along and join us.

Speaker bio

Dr Aylin Kunter is a Lecturer in Organisational Studies and Human Resources at the Essex Business School.

Her main research focus is around the appropriation of culture within organisational environments. She applies methods such as photography, ethnography, CDA, work-life history as well as other visual methods.

Aylin is currently on looking at religious and spirituality in the workplace and experiences of women from non UK backgrounds in UK based organisations.