Pub Date : 2023-09-13DOI: 10.1177/08912416231199095
Kerry Brennan-Tovey, Elisabeth M. Board, John Fulton
The need for emergency food aid is increasing across the United Kingdom (UK). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 2.5% of UK households accessed food banks. As of June 2022, 15% of households were using food banks, and emerging evidence suggested increased stigma, shame and embarrassment associated with food aid use, food poverty, and food insecurity. This ethnographic study explored food aid user experiences of stigma-power, and antistigma strategies utilized by both food aid users and volunteers, at one North East of England Independent Community Food Hub (ICFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings revealed that stigma-power and the negative dominant narrative adversely affected food aid users, who created stigma avoidance techniques to reduce the perceived stigma of food bank usage. Findings also showed ways in which the ICFH implemented numerous antistigma strategies to reduce the stigma, shame, and embarrassment felt by food aid users.
{"title":"Counteracting Stigma-Power: An Ethnographic Case Study of an Independent Community Food Hub","authors":"Kerry Brennan-Tovey, Elisabeth M. Board, John Fulton","doi":"10.1177/08912416231199095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231199095","url":null,"abstract":"The need for emergency food aid is increasing across the United Kingdom (UK). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 2.5% of UK households accessed food banks. As of June 2022, 15% of households were using food banks, and emerging evidence suggested increased stigma, shame and embarrassment associated with food aid use, food poverty, and food insecurity. This ethnographic study explored food aid user experiences of stigma-power, and antistigma strategies utilized by both food aid users and volunteers, at one North East of England Independent Community Food Hub (ICFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings revealed that stigma-power and the negative dominant narrative adversely affected food aid users, who created stigma avoidance techniques to reduce the perceived stigma of food bank usage. Findings also showed ways in which the ICFH implemented numerous antistigma strategies to reduce the stigma, shame, and embarrassment felt by food aid users.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135781938","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 : 2023-08-29DOI: 10.1177/08912416231190911
D. Shalin
Erving Goffman has a reputation as an intellectual maverick who did not fit neatly into any disciplinary mold. His failure to adhere to professional conventions and occasionally off-putting demeanor are mentioned as an aside that has little to do with his oversize influence on the science of society. This paper advances a thesis that Goffman’s status as the most cited American sociologist and widespread influence across social science is related to his principled refusal to fit his scholarship into prevailing scholarly canons. The argument is made that Goffman shared with his mentor, Everett Hughes, misgivings about the narrow professional focus in contemporary sociology, that his cross-disciplinary approach advanced social inquiry beyond its traditional confines, and that his colloquial style and penchant for long essays helped disseminate his ideas. The discussion starts with an overview of Goffman’s professional career, after which it moves to the reception of his ideas by fellow sociologists and the impact of his work on neighboring disciplines. The study draws on the interviews, correspondence, and other documents assembled in the Erving Goffman Archives, as well as on several social science citation indexes and datasets illuminating Goffman’s stature in various fields of scholarship.
{"title":"Erving Goffman: The Social Science Maverick. Assessing the Interdisciplinary Impact of the Most Cited American Sociologist","authors":"D. Shalin","doi":"10.1177/08912416231190911","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231190911","url":null,"abstract":"Erving Goffman has a reputation as an intellectual maverick who did not fit neatly into any disciplinary mold. His failure to adhere to professional conventions and occasionally off-putting demeanor are mentioned as an aside that has little to do with his oversize influence on the science of society. This paper advances a thesis that Goffman’s status as the most cited American sociologist and widespread influence across social science is related to his principled refusal to fit his scholarship into prevailing scholarly canons. The argument is made that Goffman shared with his mentor, Everett Hughes, misgivings about the narrow professional focus in contemporary sociology, that his cross-disciplinary approach advanced social inquiry beyond its traditional confines, and that his colloquial style and penchant for long essays helped disseminate his ideas. The discussion starts with an overview of Goffman’s professional career, after which it moves to the reception of his ideas by fellow sociologists and the impact of his work on neighboring disciplines. The study draws on the interviews, correspondence, and other documents assembled in the Erving Goffman Archives, as well as on several social science citation indexes and datasets illuminating Goffman’s stature in various fields of scholarship.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42689319","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 : 2023-08-01Epub Date: 2022-10-16DOI: 10.1177/08912416221131512
Rachelle Miele
This autoethnography explores my experiences as a hospital entrance screener during the first wave of the pandemic in a hospital in Ontario, Canada. In April 2020, I was redeployed from my research role to a hospital entrance screener. Focused on my lived experiences, the purpose of this research is to provide a glimpse into what it was like to work in a hospital early in the pandemic, to understand these experiences in relation to sociocultural meanings, and to try to make sense of my experiences with COVID-19. Through reflections, I offer a critical account of my experiences working as a screener and analyze personal reflections about my thoughts, feelings, and experiences from a post-structural lens. My analysis reveals several themes: responsibilization, risk, emotional labor, policing and securitization, and the hero discourse. My experiences as a screener demonstrate the complexities of the COVID-19 society and experience.
{"title":"Tales from a Hospital Entrance Screener: An Autoethnography and Exploration of COVID-19, Risk, and Responsibility.","authors":"Rachelle Miele","doi":"10.1177/08912416221131512","DOIUrl":"10.1177/08912416221131512","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This autoethnography explores my experiences as a hospital entrance screener during the first wave of the pandemic in a hospital in Ontario, Canada. In April 2020, I was redeployed from my research role to a hospital entrance screener. Focused on my lived experiences, the purpose of this research is to provide a glimpse into what it was like to work in a hospital early in the pandemic, to understand these experiences in relation to sociocultural meanings, and to try to make sense of my experiences with COVID-19. Through reflections, I offer a critical account of my experiences working as a screener and analyze personal reflections about my thoughts, feelings, and experiences from a post-structural lens. My analysis reveals several themes: responsibilization, risk, emotional labor, policing and securitization, and the hero discourse. My experiences as a screener demonstrate the complexities of the COVID-19 society and experience.</p>","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"493-513"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9574532/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44037139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-07-07DOI: 10.1177/08912416231183437
Pinelopi Topali
The present article examines women’s narratives concerning the COVID-19 pandemic experience in Athens, Greece. The spacetime contexts that women construct to situate this experience involve the city and the house, the former involving historical and cosmological temporalities, and the second a ritualized domestic tempo that gradually becomes disorganized. In these spatiotemporal formations women develop performative acts of individuality and singularity that end up as explorations of mainly ungendered, bodily selves that exist in the emptiness of a short-term, suspended pandemic present.
{"title":"Constructing Selves in (Im)mobility: Greek Women’s Narratives Concerning the COVID-19 Lockdowns in Athens, Greece","authors":"Pinelopi Topali","doi":"10.1177/08912416231183437","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231183437","url":null,"abstract":"The present article examines women’s narratives concerning the COVID-19 pandemic experience in Athens, Greece. The spacetime contexts that women construct to situate this experience involve the city and the house, the former involving historical and cosmological temporalities, and the second a ritualized domestic tempo that gradually becomes disorganized. In these spatiotemporal formations women develop performative acts of individuality and singularity that end up as explorations of mainly ungendered, bodily selves that exist in the emptiness of a short-term, suspended pandemic present.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42798995","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 : 2023-07-07DOI: 10.1177/08912416231183720
E. Hertzog, Yossi Korazim-Kőrösy
The article focuses on ageism during COVID-19 lockdowns. It is based on a study that investigated how the elder population, living at home or in out-of-home settings, experienced that period. It also explored managements’ attitude toward residents’ representatives in out-of-home frameworks during that time. Employing the narrative research method 16 interviews were carried out with people aged 75–97, living at home or in out-of-home settings, with tenants’ representatives and a few officials. The research revealed that all interviewees encountered ageist attitudes. Yet, those living at home experienced relative independence and control of their lives while the sense of isolation was especially acute among tenants in institutional settings, sometimes described as “a prison.” This connotation is accentuated by the tenants’ representatives’ claims about silencing them. Thus, it appears that the COVID-19 period intensified the embedded conflicts between residents’ representatives and managements. However, all appeared to comply with the strict regulations and supervision.
{"title":"“A Population at Risk”: Ageism Toward Elders During the COVID-19 Era in Israel","authors":"E. Hertzog, Yossi Korazim-Kőrösy","doi":"10.1177/08912416231183720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231183720","url":null,"abstract":"The article focuses on ageism during COVID-19 lockdowns. It is based on a study that investigated how the elder population, living at home or in out-of-home settings, experienced that period. It also explored managements’ attitude toward residents’ representatives in out-of-home frameworks during that time. Employing the narrative research method 16 interviews were carried out with people aged 75–97, living at home or in out-of-home settings, with tenants’ representatives and a few officials. The research revealed that all interviewees encountered ageist attitudes. Yet, those living at home experienced relative independence and control of their lives while the sense of isolation was especially acute among tenants in institutional settings, sometimes described as “a prison.” This connotation is accentuated by the tenants’ representatives’ claims about silencing them. Thus, it appears that the COVID-19 period intensified the embedded conflicts between residents’ representatives and managements. However, all appeared to comply with the strict regulations and supervision.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49083636","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 : 2023-06-13DOI: 10.1177/08912416231175866
Rodrigo Perez Toledo
I analyze racism in Sydney’s gay sauna scene through decolonial scholarship. In Sydney, there are three gay saunas; each of them caters to specific races and is decorated accordingly. Sauna 1 is popular among Asian men and their admirers and has an Oriental-like style. Sauna 2 is popular among white and non-Asian men and has a minimalist style featuring photographs of white, cisgender and muscular men. Sauna 3 is mostly visited by white and Middle Eastern straight-acting men and its décor does not reference race. Both patrons and venue owners are aware of the race dynamics in Sydney’s gay scene and actively reproduce them in the patronage of venues and organization and décor of space. I conclude that Sydney’s gay sauna scene is articulated by a combination of colonial understandings of race and Australian multicultural policies that privilege white and Anglo populations while avoiding explicit references to race.
{"title":"In the Saunas I’m Either Invisible or Camouflaged: Colonial Fantasies and Imaginations in Sydney’s Gay Saunas","authors":"Rodrigo Perez Toledo","doi":"10.1177/08912416231175866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231175866","url":null,"abstract":"I analyze racism in Sydney’s gay sauna scene through decolonial scholarship. In Sydney, there are three gay saunas; each of them caters to specific races and is decorated accordingly. Sauna 1 is popular among Asian men and their admirers and has an Oriental-like style. Sauna 2 is popular among white and non-Asian men and has a minimalist style featuring photographs of white, cisgender and muscular men. Sauna 3 is mostly visited by white and Middle Eastern straight-acting men and its décor does not reference race. Both patrons and venue owners are aware of the race dynamics in Sydney’s gay scene and actively reproduce them in the patronage of venues and organization and décor of space. I conclude that Sydney’s gay sauna scene is articulated by a combination of colonial understandings of race and Australian multicultural policies that privilege white and Anglo populations while avoiding explicit references to race.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49462025","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 : 2023-06-01DOI: 10.1177/08912416221113370
Andreas Gebesmair, Christoph Musik
In this article, we show how ritualized periodic encounters of business partners help to reproduce business relations and a shared understanding of doing business based on ethnographic fieldwork at six international trade fairs in three different cultural industries. We draw on Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals (IRs), which highlights the relevance of emotional contacts in social life. Although Collins’ theory and his conceptional instruments help to shed light on a neglected aspect in the sociology of markets, our results go beyond his ethological interpretation of interactions. First, we conclude that Collins underestimates the direct impact of the uneven distribution of economic resources on IRs. Second, we observed not only emotional entrainment in IRs but also the strategic production of emotions.
{"title":"Interaction Rituals at Content Trade Fairs: A Microfoundation of Cultural Markets.","authors":"Andreas Gebesmair, Christoph Musik","doi":"10.1177/08912416221113370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221113370","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, we show how ritualized periodic encounters of business partners help to reproduce business relations and a shared understanding of doing business based on ethnographic fieldwork at six international trade fairs in three different cultural industries. We draw on Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals (IRs), which highlights the relevance of emotional contacts in social life. Although Collins’ theory and his conceptional instruments help to shed light on a neglected aspect in the sociology of markets, our results go beyond his ethological interpretation of interactions. First, we conclude that Collins underestimates the direct impact of the uneven distribution of economic resources on IRs. Second, we observed not only emotional entrainment in IRs but also the strategic production of emotions.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 3","pages":"317-343"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10201071/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"10350372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-29DOI: 10.1177/08912416231177050
G. Dumont
This article challenges our current understanding of the role of knowing for organizational participation by discussing how, and under which circumstances, knowing hinders participation instead of fostering it. Drawing upon 18 months of fieldwork at a social impact accelerator, I first show that showing that the knowing emerging from collective practices and interactions generates disengagement among actors. Second, I illuminate the role of the social relations for actors to imbue their experience of new meanings and, third, develop a model of “meaningful reengagement” explaining how they retain their participation beyond the negative implication of knowing for participation. This article advances existing knowing research by bringing to the fore the role of relational patterns for participation, strengthening its relational but underdeveloped ambition, and providing insights for research on business accelerators and practitioners alike.
{"title":"The Janus Face of Organizational Knowing","authors":"G. Dumont","doi":"10.1177/08912416231177050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231177050","url":null,"abstract":"This article challenges our current understanding of the role of knowing for organizational participation by discussing how, and under which circumstances, knowing hinders participation instead of fostering it. Drawing upon 18 months of fieldwork at a social impact accelerator, I first show that showing that the knowing emerging from collective practices and interactions generates disengagement among actors. Second, I illuminate the role of the social relations for actors to imbue their experience of new meanings and, third, develop a model of “meaningful reengagement” explaining how they retain their participation beyond the negative implication of knowing for participation. This article advances existing knowing research by bringing to the fore the role of relational patterns for participation, strengthening its relational but underdeveloped ambition, and providing insights for research on business accelerators and practitioners alike.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45659091","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 : 2023-05-17DOI: 10.1177/08912416231159376
Laura McAdam-Otto
When young refugees who arrive in the European Union (EU) are categorized as “unaccompanied minors,” an implicit assumption and ascription coincides with their categorization, namely that they are vulnerable. Being underage and being vulnerable are inextricably linked and often equated. Thus, vulnerability is understood as a bodily fact linked to a person’s age, and discourse consequently overlooks how vulnerability is enacted in the EU’s border regime. To demonstrate how vulnerability is produced and stabilized through entangled practices of human and nonhuman agencies, I examine vulnerability-making in the context of young refugees who were classified as “unaccompanied minors” in Malta. I pay specific attention to policies, documents, and spatiality and ask: How is vulnerability of young refugees in the EU’s border regime produced and stabilized? And, how are nonhuman agencies implicated in these dynamics? The article, on one hand, makes an important empirical contribution to understanding the construction of vulnerability in respect to unaccompanied minors. The theoretical contribution of the article, on the other hand, lies in offering a new way of conceptualizing vulnerability in the border regime and within bordering practices in the EU by examining it through the epistemic lens of intra-action.
{"title":"Vulnerability-Making at Europe’s Edge: How Policies, Documents, and Spatiality Intra-Act in the Context of Young Refugees","authors":"Laura McAdam-Otto","doi":"10.1177/08912416231159376","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231159376","url":null,"abstract":"When young refugees who arrive in the European Union (EU) are categorized as “unaccompanied minors,” an implicit assumption and ascription coincides with their categorization, namely that they are vulnerable. Being underage and being vulnerable are inextricably linked and often equated. Thus, vulnerability is understood as a bodily fact linked to a person’s age, and discourse consequently overlooks how vulnerability is enacted in the EU’s border regime. To demonstrate how vulnerability is produced and stabilized through entangled practices of human and nonhuman agencies, I examine vulnerability-making in the context of young refugees who were classified as “unaccompanied minors” in Malta. I pay specific attention to policies, documents, and spatiality and ask: How is vulnerability of young refugees in the EU’s border regime produced and stabilized? And, how are nonhuman agencies implicated in these dynamics? The article, on one hand, makes an important empirical contribution to understanding the construction of vulnerability in respect to unaccompanied minors. The theoretical contribution of the article, on the other hand, lies in offering a new way of conceptualizing vulnerability in the border regime and within bordering practices in the EU by examining it through the epistemic lens of intra-action.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"721 - 747"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49074716","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 : 2023-05-12DOI: 10.1177/08912416231169501
A. Incorvaia
End-of-life doulas (EOLDs) represent a rising profession and are becoming increasingly well-known through pop culture, yet associated scholarship is scant. Through a “sociology of professions” lens, this research adds value by expanding and enriching scholarship on EOLDs—by further illuminating their training, functions, and scope of practice. To understand a largely feminine profession, this study employs a feminist epistemology that situates the knower as a featured player in knowledge generation. Through use of analytic autoethnography, this analysis of two American EOLD training programs employs a first-person narrative in which the researcher: (a) is a full member of the group or setting under examination, (b) is visible as such in published texts, (c) engages in reflexivity, considering the dynamic, interactive effect their presence has on the research itself, (d) incorporates insights from other group members, and (e) seeks to develop theoretical understandings of broader social phenomena. Both trainings frame their education in terms that are hallmarks of the Positive Death Movement, including normalizing death as a nonmedical event, emphasizing person-centered care, and affirming that facing death is an opportunity for personal growth. Each emphasized the nonclinical nature of the EOLD role while highlighting listening and intuition as primary skills for successful doula work. These programs also discussed the boundaries of doula services and portrayed EOLDs as a complement to hospice care. Expressivity at the end of life was lauded by both programs, but one entity encouraged proactive pursuit of psychosocial emotional work with clients; the other underscored receptivity to clients’ initiation. One training entity better equipped EOLDs to mindfully address isms by offering shovel-ready curriculum that fostered in-depth consideration of bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
{"title":"Inside American End-of-Life Doula Trainings through Analytic Autoethnography: A Social Movement for Death Positivity Manifests in a New Profession","authors":"A. Incorvaia","doi":"10.1177/08912416231169501","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231169501","url":null,"abstract":"End-of-life doulas (EOLDs) represent a rising profession and are becoming increasingly well-known through pop culture, yet associated scholarship is scant. Through a “sociology of professions” lens, this research adds value by expanding and enriching scholarship on EOLDs—by further illuminating their training, functions, and scope of practice. To understand a largely feminine profession, this study employs a feminist epistemology that situates the knower as a featured player in knowledge generation. Through use of analytic autoethnography, this analysis of two American EOLD training programs employs a first-person narrative in which the researcher: (a) is a full member of the group or setting under examination, (b) is visible as such in published texts, (c) engages in reflexivity, considering the dynamic, interactive effect their presence has on the research itself, (d) incorporates insights from other group members, and (e) seeks to develop theoretical understandings of broader social phenomena. Both trainings frame their education in terms that are hallmarks of the Positive Death Movement, including normalizing death as a nonmedical event, emphasizing person-centered care, and affirming that facing death is an opportunity for personal growth. Each emphasized the nonclinical nature of the EOLD role while highlighting listening and intuition as primary skills for successful doula work. These programs also discussed the boundaries of doula services and portrayed EOLDs as a complement to hospice care. Expressivity at the end of life was lauded by both programs, but one entity encouraged proactive pursuit of psychosocial emotional work with clients; the other underscored receptivity to clients’ initiation. One training entity better equipped EOLDs to mindfully address isms by offering shovel-ready curriculum that fostered in-depth consideration of bias, diversity, equity, and inclusion.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"691 - 720"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48487909","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}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：