Ethnographic Field Research: Interpreting One's entrance into the Field as Thrownness

The field is where an ethnographer does the fieldwork, yet a discussion of one’s entrance into the field is essentially overlooked in the IS research literature. This paper suggests that entrance into the field can be seen as a rite of passage into a practice world. Using phenomenological hermeneutics, we direct the focus to everyday being-in-the-world to develop a practical understanding of the field as a fusion of horizons where an ethnographer is thrown. The concept of thrownness suggests including one’s historicity and prejudices as one enters the field. We provide some empirical evidence from an ethnographic field study at a large scale IT services organization. This paper is intended as a contribution to the discussion about qualitative research methods in information systems.