How is constructionism important to my perspective in this research?

When Frankl (1959 [2004]) states that his goal is to help others to see, not to paint a picture for them, he is acting in a social constructionist manner. When Gehry (2004) uses multi-modelling techniques, using different materials to create large and small scale prototyp es to susp en d h is “h aste in w an tin g to kn ow ” (C h ia & M o rgan , 1996: 55) w h at th e fin al o utcom e w ill lo o k like, h e is “exp an din g th e w ays in w h ich h e co n stitutes h is sen se o f reality” (C o llo p y, 2002: 3). H e to o is actin g in a social constructionist manner. Social construction conceived as such is thus reminiscent of C h ia‟s feeling o n es‟ “… w ay through a w o rld th at is itself in m o tio n ...” (C h ia, 2004: 31, citin g In go ld, 2000: 155). If things are in motion, a mapped route can not be prescribed; a route has to be created.

I am less concerned with how FifeX gains an increase in speed to market by 1, 5 or 10%, and more concerned with gaining a sense of meaning. As a constructionist, I am concerned with creating representations that resonate with the research participants personal perspectives (Collopy, 2002: 5;

94 Fearfull, 2005: 139) so they, and we -as readers, can understand their actions in their own terms. As such, as a researcher I am not claiming to present ultimate truth. I do not have a monopoly on truth. Rather, constrained by language in this research text, I re-construct meaning for myself using as many of the categories handed to me from the research actors and those found in the literature, to re-present for readers, possible interpretations of the meanings contained in the actions of others. These meanings are constructed interactively through language. As such, rather than the organization, the move, retrofitting or office design, my unit of analysis is meaning constructed through social interaction.

I have been part of that process of constructing meaning. Had somebody else been in my stead the meanings arrived at would have been somewhat different to what is represented herein. What I present here is a true account of events and the meanings of situations for me. My text is not the „m o ve‟, it sh o uld n o t b e m istaken fo r „th e m o ve‟‟, n eith er is m y text th e p lace m akin g p ro cess w ith in FifeX: my text is not a mirror of these happenings, my text is a production, just like an other product of mass consumption, for example, that we buy from supermarkets. The text is made up of raw materials (the concepts, language, words and pictures) and production techniques for manipulating those materials (research protocol and traditions of research writing); it is one voice and one reality among many others.

3.4 Methods

...w h en o n e‟s co n cern is th e exp erien ce o f p eo p le, th e w ay th ey th in k, feel and act, th e m o st truthful, reliable, complete and simple way of getting that information is to share their experience (Waddington, 2004: 154, citing Jack Douglas, 1976).

This thesis is based on an attempt to address place making issues using a constructionist perspective. The constructionist perspective constitutes an approach to place making that advocates the role of intuition, imagery, imagination, inspiration, creativity, play and experimentation with the creation and invention of new possibilities. Here I present the research methods consistent with my views and those methods which I feel will lead to the realisation of my research objective.

To understand what happens during place making, and how decisions on workplace issues come in to being, data were gathered using several methods: (1) participant-observation; (2) interviews, (3)

95 audio recording, (4) activities of artistic creation (including pictorial representation, and visualisation / projective metaphor), and (5) photographing.

3.4.1. Participant-observation

Practicing participant-observation entails forming relationships with the research participants and requires full participation in activities while making no “secret o f an in ten tio n to o b serve even ts” (Waddington, 2004: 154). Participant-observation thus implies proximity to the research participants and direct involvement with the subject matter. Following on from this, Waddington (2004: 155) n o tes, “a key distin guish in g feature o f th e m eth o d [i.e. p articipan t-o b servatio n ] is th at th e o b server‟s o w n exp erien ce is co n sidered an im p o rtan t an d legitim ate so urce o f data”. Participant-observation is thus chosen as a method for gathering data when the research aim is to develop understanding from within the activity itself.

3.4.2. Interviews

Generally speaking, there are three main types of interviews: open, semi-structured, and structured. In short, there is a continuum between open and structured interviews. The type of interview chosen by a researcher is, in part, determined by how much s/he wants to influence the words used by the research participant in his/her own sense making of the phenomenon that is being studied. Compared to the structured end of this continuum, interviews at the open end afford much more freedom and therefore provide richer data than interviews typically conducted at the structured end of the continuum. Following on from this, semi-structured interviews represent a half-way-house between a solipsistic anything goes approach and a positivistic reductionist approach to gathering data.

3.4.3. Audio recording

Recordings of naturally occurring conversations can be useful because they allow researchers to re- visit social action in the moment of its happening and pick up on the interpretive categories that participants use themselves to make sense of place and justify their decisions on space. People use their relations to mobilise physical and linguistic resources, and it is through these relations that people bring places into being; audio recordings can help capture some of these lived relationships.

96 3.4.4. Activities of artistic creation

This section explains two different yet related activities of artistic creation. The first is pictorial representation; the second is projective metaphor (visualisation). They are different in that one (i.e. pictorial representation) produces a cultural (physical) artefact, namely a drawing and a story about that drawing; and the other (i.e. projective metaphor) has no direct material outcome. These activities are related in th at b o th activities en gage the research p articip an ts‟ im agin atio n .

3.4.4.1. Pictorial representation: Drawing on experience

The whole idea behind the use of drawing in research on place making is that it might help the research participants to think about actions and events and how they felt about those actions and events, in ways that would not have normally surfaced when thinking in words and using only verbal lan guage to co m m un icate. A fter all, it h as b een argued th at “th e fun dam en tal th in g th at a draw in g co m m un icates th erefo re, th ro ugh its visual lan guage, is feelin g” (Sao rsa, 2001) an d research suggests th at draw in gs / im ages can “reveal w hat w o rds alo ne can n o t” (Stiles, 2004: 138).

Learning about processes of organising from drawing is not new in management research. Perhaps the earliest use of drawing in management studies can be found in Maddox et al., (1987) and Zuboff (1988), -see summary below in Table 7. As a research practice, drawing has also been used in non management / organization studies (see Table 8): media audience research, for example (Gauntlett, 2006). Drawing mainly from art therapy literature (Edwards, 2004 for example), Gauntlett (2006: 1) o b serves, visual creative m eth o ds o ffer a “p o sitive ch allen ge to th e taken -for-granted idea that you can exp lo re th e so cial w o rld just b y askin g p eo p le questio n s, in lan guage”. F ro m him (2006: 2), draw in g is “an enabling methodology – it assumes that people have something interesting to co m m un icate, an d th at th ey can do so creatively”. H o w draw in g can h elp p eo p le th in k w as also a major concern for Buzan & Buzan (1993 [2000]). In their work on Mind Mapping, they argued that th e use o f verb al lan guage o n ly en gages a fraction o f o ur b rain ‟s cap acity to p ro cess an d recall in fo rm atio n . F o r B uzan & B uzan (1993 [2000]: 67), “[I]m ages are therefo re o ften m o re evo cative than words, more precise and potent in triggering a wide range of associations, thereby enhancing creative th in kin g an d m em o ry”. E lsew h ere, it h as also b een n o ted th at “visualisatio n in sp ired b y artistic activity requires us to use all areas of our brain, and therefore contributes to more holistic an d creative research results” (M o u ssi, 2003). An argument can be made that pictures are more

97 ambiguous than words, but they draw out more emotion, laughter, and energy and so they are more in vo lvin g. M o reo ver, p ictures “in vite in terp retatio n ” (M in tzb erg & W estly, 2001: 92) an d it is exactly this interpretive element (by drawers) that I was interested in accessing through their own drawings. Buzan & Buzan (1993 [2000]) point to the benefits of using more colour and images because despite being perceived as childlike, their research shows that colour and image activate and engage all the parts of our brain. This, they argue, improves learning.

But drawing can also be disempowering (Stiles, 2004). Therefore, it important to go to some effort to make participants feel relaxed about their drawing abilities. From my reading on drawing as a qualitative research technique, three main pieces of advice stand out. The first is warm-up exercises are crucial in helping research participants to feel comfortable about their ability to create drawings (Stiles, 2004). T h e secon d is “to m in im ize an xiety an d in terview er effect”, th e research er m igh t leave the room while drawing takes place (Stiles, 2004: 131). The third is interpretation has to come from the person who made the artefact (Kearney & Hyle, 2003: 25; Gauntlett, 2006: 6). The following table summarises some of the research which supported my decision to encourage participants to produce drawings. It was also these readings which helped inform my approach and ready the research participants to create visual artefacts.

3.4.4.2. Visualisation / Projective metaphor

As with pictorial representation, a key question is what is being surfaced? It is generally accepted that whereas, pictorial representations are fabrications for an audience, visual images (inner pictures), o r im agery is a “sub jective, p ro jected reco rd o f a sen se-exp erien ce m ain ly created fo r so m eo n e‟s o w n sake” (Stiles, 2004: 128). A n argum en t co uld b e m ade, th en , that, p ictorial representation uses imagination in the same way that projective metaphor does, but projective metaphor stops at the inner picture. Stiles (2004: 137) warns that some researchers might fail to get past the inner picture stage because some research p articip an ts dem o n strate “a reluctance to m ake creatio n s p ub lic”.

98 Table 7: Examples of participant-produced drawings as a technique for drawing out emotions in

management inquiry

Author Research topic Research focus Main finding

Maddox et al.,

(1987) Creative thinking and problem solving in strategy formulation

The use of imagery in strategic planning. Senior managers were invited to draw using pen and paper, and describe the image they have of their organization (p.123).

“G uid ed im agery can h elp strategic planning to become a more holistic endeavour drawing on both the rational an d in tuitive talen ts o f sen io r m an agers” (p . 124).

Zuboff (1988) Information

technology The impact of information technology on the future of work and power in organizations Research participants were invited to draw how they feel before and after conversation to a new computer system

D raw in gs “fun ctio n ed as a catalyst, h elp in g them to articulate feelings that had been im p licit an d w ere h ard to d efin e” (p .141).

Kearney &

Hyle (2003) Organizational change Authors examine emotional impact of change on individuals in an educational institution

D raw in g is “a w ay to tap quickly in to th e em o tio n al lives o f p articip an ts” an d “affo rd ed p articip an ts every o p p o rtun ity to frame their own experiences,

unencumbered by our biases about people an d o rgan izatio n al ch an ge” (p . 4)

Stiles (2004) Organizational characteristics (culture)

Using the personality metaphor, th e “aim w as to gen erate organizational strategies for the schools by examining images of the organization held by stakeh o ld ers” (p . 131, citin g others).

“P icto rial rep resen tatio n can p ro vid e researchers with a powerful and overlooked tool with which to develop more creative o rgan izatio n al strategies” (p .127).

“P icto rial exercises revealed organizational elements not identified using verbal research in strum en ts” (p .136).

99 Table 8: Examples of participant-produced drawing as a technique to draw out emotions in non- management fields of inquiry

Author Research topic Research focus Main finding

Gauntlett

(2006) Media audience research E xp lo rin g h o w „T V L ivin g‟ and the role of media in everyday life shapes identity

“T h is is a p ro cess w h ich takes tim e, an d which uses the hands and body as well as the mind. The approach is optimistic ab o ut p eo p le‟s ab ility to gen erate in terestin g th eo ries th em selves” McKillop

(2006) Educational research E xp lo rin g stud en ts‟ exp erien ces of the assessment process “T h e visual rep resen tatio n s w ere particularly effective at conveying the more affective responses to assessment an d in cap turin g stud en ts‟ visceral un d erstan d in gs o f assessm en t” (M cK illo p 2006: 11).

“P ictures an d sto ries can b e far m o re effective than feed-back questionnaires in d eterm in in g stud en ts‟ exp erien ces” (McKillop, in Stothart, 2006: 6) Bryans &

Mavin (2006) Educational research Exploring how new and experienced researchers see research and researchers

“D raw in g an d d iscussin g p ictures allo w s emotional and unconscious aspects of engaging in research to surface, helping drawers put into words what may be d ifficult to vo ice” (p .113)

3.4.5. Photography

Photographing emerged as a research practice when I was invited by the research participants to take snap-sh o ts o f th e „n ew ‟ prem ises. T h e in vitatio n cam e th e day th e keys w ere h an ded over and we b egan m o ving b elo ngin gs in to th e „new ‟ p rem ises. I in itially to o k m y vo ice reco rder in to F ifeX to record naturally occurring conversations, but as soon as the research participants realised that my voice recorder was also a digital camera (Sony Ex-slim 2 megapixel), they coercively invited me to “take p h o to s o f th e ro o m s as th ey are n o w ”, an d “w h y do n ‟t yo u take so m e later so yo u can compare before and after”. A s such , I w as takin g p h o to s in a “do cum en tary sen se” (W arren , 2002). At the time I could not see any relevance of such photographs for my thesis, but I continued „sn ap p in g‟, cap turin g “visual fieldn o tes” ab o ut th e m aterial th in gs th at w ere o f “such im p o rtan ce (b o th p o sitively an d n egatively) to th e p articipan ts” (adap ted fro m W arren , 2002: 231).

100 The use of photography in qualitative management research is a relatively innovative method of gathering data. It has been a mainstay in visual sociology / anthropology and has been used since the 1940s (Warren, 2002: 236, citing Bateson & Mead, 1942). In the hands of such anthropologists, the photographic image becomes a document that provides realist proof (Warren, 2002: 236) of what life was like in other cultures. The role of the photograph is to confirm the authors interpretation and “co n tin ue th e p ro ject o f auth o rity b y claim in g to sh o w a reality „un tain ted‟ b y th e research ers in terp retatio n ” (W arren , 2002: 236). H o w ever, p h o to grap h s tell a very differen t sto ry in the hands of management researchers. An alternative post-structuralist construal of photographs, o n e th at is esp o used b y W arren (2002: 236, m y em p h asis) is, “p h o to grap h s are o n ly a partial,

fragmented and contextually bound versio n o f reality”.

Warren (2005: 862) observes that photography has been used in advertising research (Goffman, 1987) an d co n sum er / m arketin g research (B elova, 2003) fo r exam p le, an d “w h at un ites th ese ap p ro ach es is th e assum p tio n th at im age is th e data”. W arren (2005: 862, m y adap tatio n ) co n tin ues, w ith th e excep tio n o f B uch an an ‟s (2001) use o f p h otographs to document a re-engineering process in a h o sp ital, an d H arp er‟s (1984) study o f m ean in g an d w o rk, o rgan izatio n , m an agem en t an d