A Case Study in Sensemaking:
A Thesis submitted to the faculty of graduate studies at the University of Calgary
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This case study reveals and describes a pre-conference geological field trip as an instance of sensemaking and as an instance of pilgrimage. Using the ethnographic technique of observation participation in conjunction with formal and informal interviews during and after the field trip, the researcher accompanied fifteen paleontologists on a six-day pre-conference field trip through the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Background constructs used to interpret the data collected include Humberto Maturana's objectivity-with-parenthesis path for explaining the nature of reality in which the observer is considered the source of all discernible knowledge and Ken Wilber's three strands of all valid knowing: instrumental injunction, direct experience, and confirmation by a community of knowers. From an analysis of the data, three sensemaking themes emerged: being there, direct contact with geological and paleontological features; storytelling, shaping direct experiences into plausible accounts; and living together, building a community of knowers through shared experience. Based on the unique nature of this particular field trip and the number of features it holds in common with traditional religious pilgrimage, it is perceived and described as an instance of pilgrimage. By collecting data from each of the "I," "We," and "It" domains of reality outlined by Ken Wilber, this case study attempts to integrate the cultural value spheres: Self, Culture, and Nature. In a final analysis of the field trip as an instance of sensemaking, the author proposes that scientific-field-trip-as-pilgrimage constitutes an instance of the integration of the three cultural value spheres of reality at the sensorimotor, mental, and soul levels of Being without the reduction of one sphere, or level, to another. Chapter 1: Journey to the Start
May the FORCE be with you!
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