Cartography: methodological approach for producing knowledge on people management

Abstract

In the domain of discussions on the methodological possibilities for people management research, this paper aims to introduce cartography as an alternative to the use of conventional methods, thus contributing to innovate in the construction of knowledge on administration. Still poorly explored in this field, cartography consists of mapping psychosocial territories, tracking the power lines which constitute them. Aware of the processes which make up subjectivity and take place between established statuses, it seeks to comprise the complexity of life, resisting to the reductionist trends of simplifying methods. In this paper, one describes the methodological path for a research aimed not only at understanding the connections made in a collective blog related to a public policy, but also at analyzing the possibilities for contributing to the production of work and the self, conceived in a context of immaterial work. The research presented is being carried out on the internet, which also constitutes a field that is currently being explored, particularly when one takes into account a qualitative approach. Regarding the results presented in this paper, they aren’t related to the aim of the research in progress, but to experiments of the cartographic method described herein. Instead of announcing partial results of the unfinished investigation, it’s the very practice of the method: setting of goals in the investigation path. Cartography is characterized by its procedural nature, something which allows one to regard sharing this experience, at its different production stages, as something valuable, too. At the end of the paper, cartography is indicated as an alternative to conventional research methods, thus contributing to the production of knowledge on work in the contemporary scenario.