AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AS A METHOD FOR REFLEXIVE RESEARCH Essay

AUTOETHNOGRAPHY AS A METHOD FOR REFLEXIVE RESEARCH - Essay Example lentlessly attempted to overcome the divide between academic knowledge (so called cultivated knowledge) and popular knowledge (so called uncultivated knowledge). In the poststructuralist paradigm, different streams have emerged such as rhetoric analysis, discursive analysis, ethnomethodology, content analysis and so on in order to comprehend the phenomena under consideration from unconventional planes and levels. Autoethnography too is a poststructuralist approach, which is used mainly for dealing with issues related to self and identity. It is a genre in the making in both academic as well as real life practices. Autoethnography is at present an established approach in a number social science fields such as anthropology, sociology and cultural studies (Anderson, 2006; Etherington, 2004; Roth, 2005). In essence, narrative analysis is what constitutes autoethnography as an independent social science approach. Moreover, autoethnography is broadly multidisciplinary as it synthesises many theoretical tolls from a number of paradigms. According to autoethnographic approach, one could cultivate knowledge or open up a new level of discourse or inve nt a new plane of theoretical activity through the medium of a personalised style of writing. Here, the personalised style of writing would essentially be linked to or based on established scientific theory. Being part of the postmodern tradition of knowledge-making, autoethnography rejects the prevalent scienticism in almost all the branches of human knowledge (Wall, 2006). On the other hand, theorists of various hues still see autoethnography as deprived of scientific rigour, methodological validity and epistemological legitimacy. Countering this, the proponents of autoethnography assert that critical practices which are established in social science for validating knowledge could also be replicated to autoethnography in order to check its legitimacy and accuracy. In reality, the difference of opinion on the matter of

XTRA(2) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words - 1

XTRA(2) - Essay Example lysis of the logical requirements, design as well as implementation and these would be discussed under different categories of tasks related to the Xtra case study. A close analysis of the case study of Xtra shows that it is a small company specializing in Hollywood memorabilia and its founding principles were based on the notion of business being conducted via the post from the central offices based in the city center. However, due to global economic recession, the company has seen a significant decline in sales and the need to generate more sales has seen the company underscoring on the need to develop an eBusiness system that would help in collecting of marketing data as well as to provide a more personal customer service. E-Business is basically a general term that encompasses e-commerce but also includes the use of the internet for other business tasks such as teamwork, communication and new business services Post & Anderson 2003). E-business is increasingly regarded as a valuable tool for more traditional firms and has a large role to play in the future of many organisations through offering convenient online services to the customers. The basic eBusiness systems requirement for Xtra is the use of a system that is able to collect data automatically especially at the point of sale. This would increase efficiency in gathering data about the clients and is more efficient compared to the traditional method of using hard files to store data about their products. This involves the identification of problems with the current system and making choices. This stage would also involve the aspect of persuading the others to accept the decision and subsequently implement the ultimate solution that would have been agreed upon. Apparently, this method can handle large volumes of data and process information about any transaction swiftly. Traditionally, Xtra has been conducting its business using postal services to do all the transactions. However, because of the