Using and Being Used by Meetings: Two Autoethnographic Perspectives

• In Event: So Far, So Good, Part 1: Organizational Communication Research Escalator

Abstract

This paper presents two intertwining autoethnographic perspectives on meetings as a communicative practice in a newly formed nonprofit organization. The first perspective presents the view of a participant in meetings; the second perspective presents the view of the meeting as an agent within meetings, as understood by this same participant. These perspectives have been generated based on my one-year ethnographic project with Suicide Prevention Campaign, where I also serve as a member of the organization. My approach to this study is based on the communication as constitutive of organizations perspective and the ethnography of communication research tradition. This paper shows how organizational members can both use and be used by meetings by examining the meeting as an agent within meetings.

Author

• Katherine Rose Peters, U of Colorado