Title: Walking between the worlds: from shamanic practice to academic practice in one giant leap

Authors: Ali Young

Addresses: Centre for Leadership Studies XFI, Exeter University, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4PU, UK

Abstract: Inspired by Kate Kenny's work on Aesthetics and Emotion in Organisational Ethnography, this paper responds to her plea for the emotional process of the PhD undertaking to be made more visible. I begin with a theoretical analysis that seeks to link gender and power issues to the way in which the emotional world is both neglected and undervalued within academia. I continue with an auto-ethnographic section as I attempt to negotiate "the ongoing interplay between yearning for individual freedom of self-creation and the equally strong desire for security that only the stamp of social approval, countersigned by a community of reference, can offer" (Bauman, 2008, p.1).

Keywords: academic practice; shamanism; emotion; feminism; aesthetics; normative; gender; power; auto-ethnography; doctoral research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWOE.2011.045971

International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion, 2011 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.350 - 360

Published online: 23 Mar 2012 *

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