Doing Dirty Research Using Qualitative Methodologies: Lessons from Stigmatized Occupations

Special issue call for papers from

Doing Dirty Research Using Qualitative Methodologies: Lessons from Stigmatized Occupations 

Guest editors:

Dr. Gina Grandy (Mount Allison University, Canada)
Email: ggrandy@mta.ca

Prof. Sharon Mavin (Northumbria University)
Email: sharon.mavin@unn.ac.uk

Prof. Ruth Simpson (Brunel University)
Email: R.Simpson@brunel.ac.uk

Objectives:

There is a growing interest in exploring the complexities of stigmatized or dirty work(ers) in organization studies. Dirty work (Hughes,1958) refers to occupations or tasks that are viewed as physically, socially or morally tainted (Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999). A diverse range of occupations can be considered dirty work (e.g., garbage collector, funeral directors, prison guards, exotic dancers, bill collectors), however,the extent to which a job is considered dirty is context-­specific in that it may not be considered dirty in all places for all people (Dick, 2005).

Despite the various streams of research and dirty work sites that have been explored to date, there is still much to understand about the experiences of dirty work(ers) for management and organisation studies. This special issue aims to bring together high quality, qualitative papers that critically address the issues surrounding dirty work(ers). The contribution of this special issue to the field would be as follows:

1. To detail illustrative and innovative qualitative methods of doing dirty work research.
2. To offer novel insights into understudied dirty work sites and the challenges of doing dirty research using qualitative methods.
3. To be the first dedicated journal issue in organization and management research literature entirely focused on dirty work.

Scope:

We are interested in a wide range of perspectives on dirty work within organization and management studies that adopt qualitative methodologies. We are interested in qualitative papers that aim to contribute a mix of theoretical, methodological and empirical papers. In addition to QROM’s regular expectations, criteria for inclusion would include:

1. originality of site, approach or subject and
2. a reflexive focus upon the experiences of researchers doing dirty work research.

An indicative, but not exhaustive, list of what we see as potential questions of interest is given below:

• What do researchers view as dirty work sites?
• What innovative methods have researchers utilized to study dirty work sites? What can we learn from these innovative methods for, and how can these methods be utilized in, ‘clean’ research sites?
• Are dirty workers’ experiences similar to those experienced by individuals employed in non‐stigmatized work
• How do organizations that provide dirty work services maintain positive organizational identities?
• Do researchers who conduct research on dirty work sites become dirty researchers?
• Does organization culture serve as a resource in securing positive identities for dirty workers?
• What role does the media play in creating and sustaining dirty work?
• What can mainstream organization studies learn from dirty work research?

Papers submitted should be no longer than 9000 words (including notes and bibliography) and based on qualitative material and qualitative methods and analysis, incorporating an explicit methodological focus and submitted online to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qrom by 15th December 2012.