The role of inscription in organizational life

The relationship between ethnography and inscription is a complex one and the relationship between ethnography and writing a curious one. Naturally, both inscription in general and writing in particular often appear as important elements in most social and organizational settings. Yet, despite this, the role of inscription is often marginalized in ethnographic studies. Indeed, where inscription (as text) does appear in ethnography it is often positioned as a mute ‘informant’ and valued almost solely for its content.  A focus on content is, however, unnecessarily limited and limiting in scope and it can often be more instructive and revealing to examine the ways in which the carriers of text and other forms of inscription are manufactured, manipulated and used in empirical setting rather than to examine their content or ‘meaning’.  

In this paper the author reviews four distinct ways in which documentation - as key carriers of inscription - may be approached in the field. These are as informant (ie. as containers of information and knowledge), as manufactured object, as a tool for use, and as actor.  In this presentation examples of each of the aforementioned roles are provided, examined and commented on. The author concludes by arguing that documents, records, and writing in fieldwork settings ought to be understood and approached as dynamic and active agents rather than as static containers of knowledge.