"At-home ethnography" Insider, outsider and social relations in rural drinking water management in Chile (original) (raw)
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Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2018
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to problematise the idea of “at-home ethnography” and to expand knowledge about insider/outsider distinctions by using insights from institutional ethnography (IE). It also examines the strengths and challenges of “returning” researchers recognising their unique position in overcoming these binaries. Design/methodology/approach IE is the method the researcher used to explore community-based water management in rural Chile. The researcher is interested in learning from rural drinking water organisations to understand the way in which their knowledge is organised. The data presented derived from field notes of participant observation and the researcher’s diary. Findings The notion of “at-home ethnography” fell short when reflecting on the researcher’s positions and experiences in the field. This is especially true when researchers return to their countries to carry out fieldwork. The negotiation of boundaries, codes and feelings requires the resear...
PhD Thesis, 2020
This thesis explores the organisation of rural water delivery in Chile. Specifically, it examines the Chilean government's Ministry of Public Works programme, Agua Potable Rural (APR), through the experiences of rural people's negotiated access to drinking water, their becoming members of an APR organisation, and, ultimately how their access to drinking water is institutionally mediated. As such, this dissertation is an inquiry into the organisation of community water management in rural Chile and its relation to the wider neoliberal context of water management in the country.
Anthropology in Action, 2016
Our ethnographic research focuses on the perception and use of components of the natural environment in terms of routine activities carried out by the residents of a rural community in the Calchaqui Valley (Salta, Argentina). Life in this community is characterised by the presence of traditional subsistence activities – agriculture, cattle farming, textile manufacturing and ancestral medical practices – coexisting with business ventures focused on mono-culture and export, tourism centred on landscape intervention and promotion of native products, and the growing key role of public policies in the areas of health and human development. In this context, a joint reflection on viability and sustainability of local and global practices and resources must be undertaken. Implementing intersectoral forums and focus-group discussions, governmental and non-governmental actors, researchers and local people must work conjointly to achieve a fresh patrimonial awareness of livelihood strategies b...
Berghahn Books, 2022
Our ethnographic research focuses on the perception and use of components of the natural environment in terms of routine activities carried out by the residents of a rural community in the Calchaqui Valley (Salta, Argentina). Life in this community is characterised by the presence of traditional subsistence activities-agriculture, ca<le farming, textile manufacturing and ancestral medical practices-coexisting with business ventures focused on monoculture and export, tourism centred on landscape intervention and promotion of native products, and the growing key role of public policies in the areas of health and human development. In this context, a joint reflection on viability and sustainability of local and global practices and resources must be undertaken. Implementing intersectoral forums and focus-group discussions, governmental and non-governmental actors, researchers and local people must work conjointly to achieve a fresh patrimonial awareness of livelihood strategies based on their long interaction with a specific environment.
Water, 2021
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Worldviews and the everyday politics of community water management
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