Data, disasters and disquietude in ethnography: learning by trial and error how to behave like a civil servant in Malawi
Abstract
Purpose
In this article, I answer the call to normalize and discuss how ethnographers navigate failure in the field by sharing my own experiences from long-term fieldwork in Malawi. I highlight, particularly, my own struggles with feelings of failure and the role of my interlocutors in helping me navigate and understand these situations.
Design/methodology/approach
My argument is based on more than 18 months of ongoing in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in Malawi, where I study the everyday practices of civil servants active in disaster governance, focusing on those working for the Malawi Government Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DODMA).
Findings
I use ethnographic vignettes to show how my interlocutors tried to teach me what being a Malawian civil servant is all about, which often came most forcefully to the fore in moments where either I or they deemed that I had failed to behave like one.
Originality/value
This adds new empirical data to the discussions on the various manifestations and roles of failure in ethnographic research, underlining how frictions and feelings of failure are a difficult yet productive and central part of fieldwork and ethnographic data creation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
I thank “Joseph”, “Kondwani”, the members of the Southern Africa Writing Group at the African Studies Centre Leiden University, participants in the Paper Doctor sessions at KU Leuven, as well as Cecilie Baann, Camille Maubert, Kirsten Nielsen, Loes Oudenhuijsen, Sid Stocking, Caspar Swinkels, Rozemarijn Weyers, Steven van Wolputte and the reviewers for comments on earlier drafts. This article is based on fieldwork conducted within the Anthropology of Human Security in Africa (ANTHUSIA) program, which was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 764546. It was written during my postdoctoral research fellowship, which is funded by Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO), grant agreement number 12ZM123N.
Citation
Hendriks, T.D. (2024), "Data, disasters and disquietude in ethnography: learning by trial and error how to behave like a civil servant in Malawi", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-09-2023-0051
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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