Field, place or space? A carnal ethnography of a therapeutic space-construct
Journal of Organizational Ethnography
ISSN: 2046-6749
Article publication date: 21 June 2023
Issue publication date: 24 July 2023
Abstract
Purpose
In advancing the academic discourse around the theory of field, place and space in ethnographic research, this paper proposes a carnal sociological reading of the meaning and form of the Lindsay Leg Clubs – third-sector community leg care centres for older adults with leg problems – as a therapeutic space-construct.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on non-formulaic, polymorphic ethnographic research in the UK Lindsay Leg Clubs conducted through multiple on-site and extramural engagements with the Leg Club community between 2019 and 2023 and an interview with the Leg Club founder and president, Professor Ellie Lindsay OBE. Wacquant's (2015) reflexive, enactive ethnographic approach is applied to develop an intellectual and carnal know-how of Leg Clubs as therapeutic space-constructs.
Findings
The researcher's “flesh and blood” experience of the Leg Clubs reveals the importance of cognitive and embodied appreciation of sounds, smells, sights, movements, the structures of wound stigma, centre-stage physical bodies of members and the volunteers, the material arrangement of the place and the researcher's own visceral and intellectual, biographical relation to the fieldwork to understand the therapeutic form and meaning of Leg Club spaces.
Originality/value
Applying the carnal sociology approach to reveal the therapeutic form and meaning of the Leg Club spaces makes concrete the abstract distinctions between field, place and space in ethnographic research, hence advancing the discourse around the theory of field in ethnography. A carnal sociological reading of the Leg Club spaces has implications for an embodied understanding of broader community care spaces.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The original version of this paper first was presented at the 15th Annual Ethnography Symposium in Suffolk, UK, on 24th August 2022 and won the Best Paper Award, co-sponsored by Emerald Publishing, the publisher of the Journal of Organizational Ethnography with which this conference is affiliated. The author thanks the Symposium participants for the helpful feedback, with special thanks to Professor Geoff Pearson for the kind suggestions for further improving this paper. The author specially thanks the Editor-in-Chief, Dr Harry Wels and two anonymous reviewers at the Journal of Organizational Ethnography for the constructive comments on this manuscript.
Citation
Galazka, A.M. (2023), "Field, place or space? A carnal ethnography of a therapeutic space-construct", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 209-222. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-01-2023-0001
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited