Marlot Kuiper

104 Connective Routines 4.5 Fieldwork: Doing research In ethnographic studies, the ways to collect empirical data are mostly referred to as “doing ethnographic fieldwork”. Van Hulst (2008, p. 64) states in his dissertation that: “In a sense, ‘doing ethnographic fieldwork’ is just a posh way of saying ‘go and see for yourself’”. Indeed, ethnographic fieldwork is most distinct from other strategies since the most important element is being in the field (Fetterman, 1998; Rhodes et al., 2007; Van Hulst, 2008) to be able to see for yourself. In this doctoral study, I adopted different methods of data collection; fromwhich ‘seeing’, or ‘observing’ was the most important one. Further, I had various formal and informal conversations, both proceeding and during the observations. During the fieldwork, I was also able to collect all kinds of other data that are ‘hard to get’ (Gill 2008), such as internal documents, e-mail conversations and memos. The data for this study was collected over a period of 29 months, in the period June 2014 – February 2016 (research setting 1) until March 2016 – October 2016 (research setting 2) (table 3 provides a schematic overview of the data collection; see also attachment I. Research log). Table 3:Schematic overview of the fieldwork Observation time (hrs) Formal conversations (hrs) Plainsboro 140 12 St. Sebastian’s 50 3 4.5.1 Shadowing professionals From a routine perspective, I contend that ‘working with checklists’ is a dynamic process. Naturally, routines provide a sense of stability – there should be a recognizable pattern – but at the same time, through the repetition of this pattern there is continues change. The focus of this research therefore matches with a process approach in which questions about “how and why things emerge, develop, grow, or terminate over time” are central (Langley et al., 2013, p. 1). Often, a process approach particularly departs from events that bluntly show change such as reorganisations or crises. I see the introduction of a checklist as a possible driver for change – however not necessarily, promptly or exclusively. I therefore did not decide to study how professionals work with a standards right