Organising in the context of writing workshops : ritual, care and intimacy

The Esade Institute for Social Innovation hosted the tenth Ethnoworkshop – an annual event dedicated to ethnographic research – at Esade Barcelona on 29 and 30 May 2023.The workshop brought together leading academics and experts in the field of ethnography such as Guillaume Dumont, Ali Aqirnas, Ismael Al Ahmoudi, Victoria Lavriniuk, Alessandra Gerson, Nicolas Balas, Manon VIgnaud, and Charlotte Durieux, in a session in which sensitive and complex issues were discussed. The event was presented and moderated by Ignasi Martí, director of Esade's Institute for Social Innovation.One of the participants, Guillaume Dumont, assistant professor at the OCE Research Center and member of the Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Emlyon Business School, shared his insight on the advantages of ethnographic methodology compared to other research approaches when tackling sensitive issues. Dumont explained: ‘Ethnography allows us to look for new answers and explain how and why people perform certain practices. While more quantitative approaches reveal the magnitude of a phenomenon, our aim is to explore and understand the reasons behind these practices. We dedicate the time to experiment and share daily life with our study subjects'.Each year, the Institute organizes this workshop in order to offer, through the active participation of the participants, another vision and way of approaching reality, seeking to observe, listen and understand what the world is like for those who have lived in certain contexts. The Ethnoworkshop is consolidated as an event where the importance of empathy, immersion, and deep understanding of communities and social phenomena is valued for creating meaningful knowledge and encouraging social justice.