ABSTRACT

In our daily experiences, we feel, perceive, designate, invoke or comment on a plurality of beings: people, artifacts, technologies, institutions, projects, animals, divinities, emotions, cultures, ideologies or opinions that are part of our world. While these beings are all part of our world, they present various forms of existence. Echoing recent developments in existential anthropology, Communication as Constitutive of Organization (CCO) research, and Actor Network Theory, here scholars from a variety of disciplines discuss how they study the types of beings that have been at the core of their respective research. Reflecting on the specific mode of existence, presence and action of the being they follow, they reveal the methodological innovations they deploy in order to analyze excerpts of field notes, filmed interactions, conversations, pictures, newspapers, narratives, etc.

chapter 1|31 pages

Following and Analyzing a Human Being

On the Continuity and Singularity of an Individual

chapter 2|30 pages

Following and Analyzing a Project

On the Intricacies of Shadowing a Messy Being

chapter 3|38 pages

Following and Analyzing Public Opinion

Invention and Circulation of an Authority Figure

chapter 4|27 pages

Following and Analyzing an Artifact

Culture-through-Things

chapter 5|31 pages

Following and Analyzing a Divinity

God Speaks in Public, or Charismatic Prophecy from Intimacy to Politics

chapter 6|32 pages

Following and Analyzing an Identity

The Case of the Public Specular Appearances of Chelsea (Bradley) Manning

chapter 7|31 pages

Being Followed by an Organization

A Hauntological Perspective on Organizational Ethnography

chapter 8|25 pages

Following and Analyzing an Idea

What Does It Mean To Do So for a Communication Researcher?