{"title":"Doing/Undoing Stigma: The Moral Enterprise of Territorial Stigma","authors":"Thaddeus Müller","doi":"10.1177/08912416241229690","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this article I focus on stigma, and more specifically on territorial stigma in a Dutch suburb built in the 1970s. This publication is based on ethnographic fieldwork that lasted two and half years and which took place at the end of the 1980s. The data is reanalyzed in the light of recent developments in studies on stigma and territorial stigma, specifically how this is countered. I will use the conceptual pair—doing stigma and undoing stigma—to unpack stigma as a complex and dynamic process in which a diverse range of actors, such as inhabitants, civil servants and youth, are involved. The aim of this article is twofold: to describe and analyze the social construction of territorial stigma (doing stigma) of the neighborhood over a period of ten years and whether and how this stigma is countered (undoing stigma). This article highlights the agency of those targeted by stigma by paying attention to local narratives and using a multi-perspective ethnographic lens. The narratives show that stigma did not gain a master status because (1) the stigma producers were marginal in the social world of the targeted inhabitants and (2) it did not align with structural stigma (as in e.g., housing, health care, income, and education).","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241229690","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SOCIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In this article I focus on stigma, and more specifically on territorial stigma in a Dutch suburb built in the 1970s. This publication is based on ethnographic fieldwork that lasted two and half years and which took place at the end of the 1980s. The data is reanalyzed in the light of recent developments in studies on stigma and territorial stigma, specifically how this is countered. I will use the conceptual pair—doing stigma and undoing stigma—to unpack stigma as a complex and dynamic process in which a diverse range of actors, such as inhabitants, civil servants and youth, are involved. The aim of this article is twofold: to describe and analyze the social construction of territorial stigma (doing stigma) of the neighborhood over a period of ten years and whether and how this stigma is countered (undoing stigma). This article highlights the agency of those targeted by stigma by paying attention to local narratives and using a multi-perspective ethnographic lens. The narratives show that stigma did not gain a master status because (1) the stigma producers were marginal in the social world of the targeted inhabitants and (2) it did not align with structural stigma (as in e.g., housing, health care, income, and education).
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Contemporary Ethnography publishes in-depth investigations of diverse people interacting in their natural environments to produce and communicate meaning. At its best, ethnography captures the strange in the familiar and the familiar in the strange. JCE is committed to pushing the boundaries of ethnographic discovery by building upon its 30+ year tradition of top notch scholarship.