Pub Date : 2024-08-16DOI: 10.1177/08912416241269890
Joshua Lew McDermott
In urban Sierra Leone, more than 90% of young men survive precariously in the informal economy. Squeezed by an underdeveloped economy and the pressure to engage in a culture-ideology of consumerism indicative of twenty-first century capitalism, these men face the existential crisis of being unable to meet the material requirements for maintaining romantic relationships, caring for their families, and fulfilling expectations of a consumerist masculinity. This ethnography explores how these young men navigate this disconnect, grounding its analysis of masculinity in a class-based approach which centers the dearth of good jobs and the prevalence of informal work, both central features of capitalism in Africa today.
{"title":"The Dilemma of Consumerist Masculinity in Capitalist West Africa: Men Navigating Gender, Class, and Romance in Sierra Leone’s Informal Economy","authors":"Joshua Lew McDermott","doi":"10.1177/08912416241269890","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241269890","url":null,"abstract":"In urban Sierra Leone, more than 90% of young men survive precariously in the informal economy. Squeezed by an underdeveloped economy and the pressure to engage in a culture-ideology of consumerism indicative of twenty-first century capitalism, these men face the existential crisis of being unable to meet the material requirements for maintaining romantic relationships, caring for their families, and fulfilling expectations of a consumerist masculinity. This ethnography explores how these young men navigate this disconnect, grounding its analysis of masculinity in a class-based approach which centers the dearth of good jobs and the prevalence of informal work, both central features of capitalism in Africa today.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142190453","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-14DOI: 10.1177/08912416241269990
Andrea Bottalico, Annalisa Murgia
The rise of solo self-employment has led to the emergence of increasingly broad categories of workers in search of collective representation, who find no support either in trade unions or in employer organizations. Based on the case of Redacta, an informal group founded in Italy and composed of solo self-employed (SSE) workers in the publishing industry, the article contributes to the debate on Resource Mobilization Theory and New Social Movements by showing that, along with other resources typically available to social movements and activist groups, it is mainly through the combination of institutional and symbolic-performative resources that a process of grassroots organizing—that we call socio-emotional organizing—can be successfully triggered, especially in the case of particularly underrepresented groups of workers, such as the SSE.
{"title":"“We Have Two Engines, and We Must Keep Them Both Running”: The Combination of Institutional and Symbolic Resources in the “Socio-Emotional Organizing” of Solo Self-Employed Workers","authors":"Andrea Bottalico, Annalisa Murgia","doi":"10.1177/08912416241269990","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241269990","url":null,"abstract":"The rise of solo self-employment has led to the emergence of increasingly broad categories of workers in search of collective representation, who find no support either in trade unions or in employer organizations. Based on the case of Redacta, an informal group founded in Italy and composed of solo self-employed (SSE) workers in the publishing industry, the article contributes to the debate on Resource Mobilization Theory and New Social Movements by showing that, along with other resources typically available to social movements and activist groups, it is mainly through the combination of institutional and symbolic-performative resources that a process of grassroots organizing—that we call socio-emotional organizing—can be successfully triggered, especially in the case of particularly underrepresented groups of workers, such as the SSE.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142190454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-08-07DOI: 10.1177/08912416241276589
Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk
{"title":"Call for Papers: Ethnographies of Infrastructure","authors":"Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk","doi":"10.1177/08912416241276589","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241276589","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141930984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-26DOI: 10.1177/08912416241265950
Sophie Tabuteau-Harrison, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, Avril Mewse
Recent calls have been made to investigate the lived experience of migrant sex workers, to broaden the scope and inclusivity of macro-level conceptualizations, and to develop contextually grounded forms of understanding. Our ethnographic study sought to explore the lived perspectives of an under-researched occupational group: migrant women working as irregular streetwalkers in a European city. Nineteen Nigerian Edo women working as prostitutes and Madams in Spain participated in an ethnographic, longitudinal study spanning five years of data collection. In this article, we focus on some of the key challenges, including ethical considerations, of undertaking ethnographic work in a hazardous fieldwork setting that presents psychological and physical dangers to both participants and researchers, including threats of violence, and researcher burnout.
{"title":"Dangerous Fieldwork: Reflections on Ethnographic Research with Irregular, Nigerian Streetwalkers and Madams in Spain","authors":"Sophie Tabuteau-Harrison, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, Avril Mewse","doi":"10.1177/08912416241265950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241265950","url":null,"abstract":"Recent calls have been made to investigate the lived experience of migrant sex workers, to broaden the scope and inclusivity of macro-level conceptualizations, and to develop contextually grounded forms of understanding. Our ethnographic study sought to explore the lived perspectives of an under-researched occupational group: migrant women working as irregular streetwalkers in a European city. Nineteen Nigerian Edo women working as prostitutes and Madams in Spain participated in an ethnographic, longitudinal study spanning five years of data collection. In this article, we focus on some of the key challenges, including ethical considerations, of undertaking ethnographic work in a hazardous fieldwork setting that presents psychological and physical dangers to both participants and researchers, including threats of violence, and researcher burnout.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141785020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-25DOI: 10.1177/08912416241265704
Daniel D. Martin, Janelle Wilson
This study examines strategies employed by university administrators and managers to gain compliance from subordinates even as they attempted to increase their workload. These strategies have received comparatively little attention within organizational studies of compliance. The participants in our study included employees at a public university in the Midwest identifying themselves as either “staff/faculty” or “managers/administrators.” Our findings indicate that when administrators and managers are unable to use formal rewards and punishments they attempt to gain compliance from subordinates through two main strategies that we identify as overtures and interactional trebuchet. Both strategies represent a sequence of interaction that we refer to more generally as “boundary work”—a set of activities through which boundaries on time, resources, and workload are defended or diminished, and for which we provide a model. We draw upon organizational, symbolic interactionist, and dramaturgical theories in the analysis of our data.
{"title":"Boundary Work and Strategies of Compliance: The Underlife of the Ivory Tower","authors":"Daniel D. Martin, Janelle Wilson","doi":"10.1177/08912416241265704","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241265704","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines strategies employed by university administrators and managers to gain compliance from subordinates even as they attempted to increase their workload. These strategies have received comparatively little attention within organizational studies of compliance. The participants in our study included employees at a public university in the Midwest identifying themselves as either “staff/faculty” or “managers/administrators.” Our findings indicate that when administrators and managers are unable to use formal rewards and punishments they attempt to gain compliance from subordinates through two main strategies that we identify as overtures and interactional trebuchet. Both strategies represent a sequence of interaction that we refer to more generally as “boundary work”—a set of activities through which boundaries on time, resources, and workload are defended or diminished, and for which we provide a model. We draw upon organizational, symbolic interactionist, and dramaturgical theories in the analysis of our data.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141770794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-06-25DOI: 10.1177/08912416241262758
Dani X. Knoll
In this study I examine the ritualistic behavior of participants in the intentional community where I live, the Los Angeles Ecovillage, and how that relates to well-being in a collective sense. Studying the ritualistic behavior within the Los Angeles Ecovillage can offer insight into areas that have been perhaps less explored, as in ritual’s relationship to well-being in intentional communities, particularly in the urban context of this community. Furthermore, although it is a factor, psychological well-being in this context is not limited to an individual’s self-reported quality of mental and physical health—it arguably extends to a collective expression of well-being. In describing social alternative approaches to health and well-being related problems posed by societal barriers to human connection, a paradigm may be formed for how intentional community can support psychological needs.
{"title":"“Re-Inventing How We Live in the City”: Well-being and the Los Angeles Ecovillage","authors":"Dani X. Knoll","doi":"10.1177/08912416241262758","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241262758","url":null,"abstract":"In this study I examine the ritualistic behavior of participants in the intentional community where I live, the Los Angeles Ecovillage, and how that relates to well-being in a collective sense. Studying the ritualistic behavior within the Los Angeles Ecovillage can offer insight into areas that have been perhaps less explored, as in ritual’s relationship to well-being in intentional communities, particularly in the urban context of this community. Furthermore, although it is a factor, psychological well-being in this context is not limited to an individual’s self-reported quality of mental and physical health—it arguably extends to a collective expression of well-being. In describing social alternative approaches to health and well-being related problems posed by societal barriers to human connection, a paradigm may be formed for how intentional community can support psychological needs.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"35 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141502014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-05-06DOI: 10.1177/08912416241254002
Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk
{"title":"Call for Papers: Ethnographies of Infrastructure","authors":"Philipp Budka, Peter Schweitzer, Olga Povoroznyuk","doi":"10.1177/08912416241254002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241254002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"261 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-05-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140886683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-26DOI: 10.1177/08912416241248459
Devrim Adam Yavuz
The article is an analytical autoethnography that explores the author’s experience of navigating the Turkish healthcare system while caring for his father who underwent emergency bypass surgery. Their atypical positions, at once members of a privileged group but lacking extensive familial connections, helped bring to light the diverse range of tactics that patients use to navigate the hospital, despite reforms that tried to establish greater universalism. By highlighting the relationship between formal institutions and informal practices in the healthcare system and how they survive to include/exclude different status groups, the author’s micro-level observations and background in political sociology help reveal the complex impact that non-universalistic practices have on democratization and political change in Turkey and beyond.
{"title":"The Companion: A Hospital Autoethnography on the Relationship Between Informal and Formal Institutions","authors":"Devrim Adam Yavuz","doi":"10.1177/08912416241248459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241248459","url":null,"abstract":"The article is an analytical autoethnography that explores the author’s experience of navigating the Turkish healthcare system while caring for his father who underwent emergency bypass surgery. Their atypical positions, at once members of a privileged group but lacking extensive familial connections, helped bring to light the diverse range of tactics that patients use to navigate the hospital, despite reforms that tried to establish greater universalism. By highlighting the relationship between formal institutions and informal practices in the healthcare system and how they survive to include/exclude different status groups, the author’s micro-level observations and background in political sociology help reveal the complex impact that non-universalistic practices have on democratization and political change in Turkey and beyond.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"157 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140798808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-04-18DOI: 10.1177/08912416241246273
Sophia Sykes, Veronica Hopner
Globalizing anti-globalism and modernizing the anti-modern, Tradwives are communities of right-wing women who commercialize social media to commodify traditional heteronormative renditions of femininity that are equal parts ideology and aesthetic. As social media influencers, Tradwives grow social networks and expand audiences by monetizing right-wing ideologies and curating particular versions of wife and mother. A netnographic analysis designed to understand online cultures and communications was used to observe thirty-six Tradwife social media profiles over a 10-month period in 2022. Employing Koestler’s Theory of Holarchies, four key findings or “holons” comprised a holography or representation of Tradwife culture captured at a certain point in time. The Tradwife Landscape explored these women across a right-wing landscape, Cross-platform Influencers, outlined Tradwives operating across a variety of social media platforms; Feminine not Feminist, discussed Tradwives’ (anti)feminist standpoints; and The Tradwife Side-Hustle, examined the monetization of Tradwife culture. As an alive and growing ecosystem, Tradwife subculture offers supportive and empowered spaces for women wishing to take up roles as archetypal wives and mothers within highly conservative lifestyles. As agents of Tradwife subculture and wider right-wing communities, Tradwives raise important questions about gender and gendered relationships, sexuality, legal practices, public policy, and political systems. Above all else, Tradwives offer comments on the autonomy and agency women have in their everyday lives.
{"title":"Tradwives: Right-Wing Social Media Influencers","authors":"Sophia Sykes, Veronica Hopner","doi":"10.1177/08912416241246273","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241246273","url":null,"abstract":"Globalizing anti-globalism and modernizing the anti-modern, Tradwives are communities of right-wing women who commercialize social media to commodify traditional heteronormative renditions of femininity that are equal parts ideology and aesthetic. As social media influencers, Tradwives grow social networks and expand audiences by monetizing right-wing ideologies and curating particular versions of wife and mother. A netnographic analysis designed to understand online cultures and communications was used to observe thirty-six Tradwife social media profiles over a 10-month period in 2022. Employing Koestler’s Theory of Holarchies, four key findings or “holons” comprised a holography or representation of Tradwife culture captured at a certain point in time. The Tradwife Landscape explored these women across a right-wing landscape, Cross-platform Influencers, outlined Tradwives operating across a variety of social media platforms; Feminine not Feminist, discussed Tradwives’ (anti)feminist standpoints; and The Tradwife Side-Hustle, examined the monetization of Tradwife culture. As an alive and growing ecosystem, Tradwife subculture offers supportive and empowered spaces for women wishing to take up roles as archetypal wives and mothers within highly conservative lifestyles. As agents of Tradwife subculture and wider right-wing communities, Tradwives raise important questions about gender and gendered relationships, sexuality, legal practices, public policy, and political systems. Above all else, Tradwives offer comments on the autonomy and agency women have in their everyday lives.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140623552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-03-16DOI: 10.1177/08912416241239554
Fábio Rafael Augusto
This paper seeks to understand the social role played by food assistance initiatives in Portugal. Based on the understanding that these organizations are “spaces of care,” it is possible to reflect on the support provided by them in a more comprehensive and integrative way. Therefore, the various care practices that emerge in these organizational contexts are explored. This study presents a qualitative comparative methodological approach and a range of ethnographic methods to explore the perspectives of different actors (supervisors, volunteers, and beneficiaries) within different models of food assistance (Surplus Food Redistribution Charity, Soup Kitchen, and Social Supermarket). The main results indicate the presence of several “improvised” and “veiled” care practices in the analyzed initiatives that go beyond food issues. These manifestations of care may stem from altruistic acts and/or function as a “remedial measure,” serving as a compensatory mechanism in response to services deemed inadequate.
{"title":"“I Don’t Come Here Just for the Food”: Manifestations of Care in Food Assistance Initiatives","authors":"Fábio Rafael Augusto","doi":"10.1177/08912416241239554","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241239554","url":null,"abstract":"This paper seeks to understand the social role played by food assistance initiatives in Portugal. Based on the understanding that these organizations are “spaces of care,” it is possible to reflect on the support provided by them in a more comprehensive and integrative way. Therefore, the various care practices that emerge in these organizational contexts are explored. This study presents a qualitative comparative methodological approach and a range of ethnographic methods to explore the perspectives of different actors (supervisors, volunteers, and beneficiaries) within different models of food assistance (Surplus Food Redistribution Charity, Soup Kitchen, and Social Supermarket). The main results indicate the presence of several “improvised” and “veiled” care practices in the analyzed initiatives that go beyond food issues. These manifestations of care may stem from altruistic acts and/or function as a “remedial measure,” serving as a compensatory mechanism in response to services deemed inadequate.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140147181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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