Ethnography of Ecology of Organizations in Planning Bhubaneswar City, India

Abstract

This paper is a discussion of ‘doing organizational ethnography’ in Bhubaneswar, capital of the state of Odisha, India. Ethnography of the organizations involved in planning is possible because of the trust and acceptance among agencies that are enquired. Doing ethnography in urban spaces are a few and yet interesting with the complex and multiple realities. Evidences states that my identity being a student, a female, being an unknown person and my regional identity or belongingness, language and caste identity; and the ongoing issues and problems in the field mattered to the respondents; to either reveal or conceal the information. Interactions and trust building became easy because of regional and as well as caste identity. Some complications arose due to lack of trust and murder cases and frequent thrives happening in the field sites. Professional identity helped me inside the State agencies than in the neighborhoods. Being reflexive and understanding the context helps in reducing resistance and non-cooperation of the respondents through continuous interactions, and in-turn allows for getting better and in-depth meaning and information.