Pub Date : 2022-03-09DOI: 10.1177/08912416221077676
Patrycja Trzeszczyńska
This article offers a reflection on a certain variant of broadening the position of “being inside” with some “buts,” or through “within but.” Drawing on my field experience in the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, I discuss the context-dependent, fluid and labile insiderness and the case of using a researcher’s embodied distinctions (senses, ethnicity, class) in the research site created by the fieldwork participants, and not the researcher him/herself. My considerations are embedded with the dialectics (not opposition) of the insider–outsider and point to the contextual “nativeness” and “strangeness” of the researcher. I also discuss the fluidity and contextuality of a researcher’s field familiarity, as well as when s/he conducts research in cooperation with “their own people,” as well as circumstances and factors that transform this familiarity into strangeness. I argue that the latter, instead of being an obstacle or barrier in the research, is a beneficial and mind-opening ethnographic tool.
{"title":"From Nativeness to Strangeness and Back: Ascribed Ethnicity, Body Work, and Contextual Insiderness","authors":"Patrycja Trzeszczyńska","doi":"10.1177/08912416221077676","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221077676","url":null,"abstract":"This article offers a reflection on a certain variant of broadening the position of “being inside” with some “buts,” or through “within but.” Drawing on my field experience in the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada, I discuss the context-dependent, fluid and labile insiderness and the case of using a researcher’s embodied distinctions (senses, ethnicity, class) in the research site created by the fieldwork participants, and not the researcher him/herself. My considerations are embedded with the dialectics (not opposition) of the insider–outsider and point to the contextual “nativeness” and “strangeness” of the researcher. I also discuss the fluidity and contextuality of a researcher’s field familiarity, as well as when s/he conducts research in cooperation with “their own people,” as well as circumstances and factors that transform this familiarity into strangeness. I argue that the latter, instead of being an obstacle or barrier in the research, is a beneficial and mind-opening ethnographic tool.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"845 - 867"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44399147","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 : 2022-03-09DOI: 10.1177/08912416221081870
D. Schiffer
In this article, I investigate how predominantly cisgender and straight participants of a university LGBT Ally Training program perceived transgender topics. As a trans woman, my positionality and gendered embodiment shaped my research process—depending on whether or not I was perceived as trans. Drawing on 21 interviews with 12 training participants and the training instructor, plus 12 hours of ethnographic observations of 4 Ally Trainings, I show the interactive nature of the research process and how I navigated what I call participant distress. Participant distress manifested due to participant anxiety regarding how I, a trans researcher, perceived their responses. I analyze distress through the lens of Goffman, and offer cistress as a more specific interactive process of disrupting cisnormative statements that results in guilt or anger.
{"title":"Researching While Trans: Being Clocked and Cooling Cistress","authors":"D. Schiffer","doi":"10.1177/08912416221081870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221081870","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I investigate how predominantly cisgender and straight participants of a university LGBT Ally Training program perceived transgender topics. As a trans woman, my positionality and gendered embodiment shaped my research process—depending on whether or not I was perceived as trans. Drawing on 21 interviews with 12 training participants and the training instructor, plus 12 hours of ethnographic observations of 4 Ally Trainings, I show the interactive nature of the research process and how I navigated what I call participant distress. Participant distress manifested due to participant anxiety regarding how I, a trans researcher, perceived their responses. I analyze distress through the lens of Goffman, and offer cistress as a more specific interactive process of disrupting cisnormative statements that results in guilt or anger.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"700 - 725"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47970341","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 : 2022-03-07DOI: 10.1177/08912416221082701
Kajsa Nolbeck, H. Wijk, G. Lindahl, S. Olausson
The aim of this study is to explore social interactions in the spatial and material environment within everyday life at special youth homes in Sweden, where youths with psychosocial problems, or criminal behavior are cared for involuntary. A microethnographic approach was chosen, and data was collected through participant observation. A theory integrating analysis, using Burke’s (1969) dramatistic pentad as a tool for structuring the data and Goffman’s (1956; 1961) dramaturgical perspective was undertaken. The findings demonstrate that the staff’s control over settings and objects also means control over the definition of what kind of place the special youth home is, and what takes place there. This is shown through a decorous behavior of sociomaterial control practices, rather than care practices, by the staff. This study contributes to knowledge on spaces and objects as crucial parts of care practices highlighting the intentions inscribed in institutional design and objects.
{"title":"Claiming and Reclaiming Settings, Objects, and Situations: A Microethnographic Study of the Sociomaterial Practices of Everyday Life at Swedish Youth Homes","authors":"Kajsa Nolbeck, H. Wijk, G. Lindahl, S. Olausson","doi":"10.1177/08912416221082701","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221082701","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this study is to explore social interactions in the spatial and material environment within everyday life at special youth homes in Sweden, where youths with psychosocial problems, or criminal behavior are cared for involuntary. A microethnographic approach was chosen, and data was collected through participant observation. A theory integrating analysis, using Burke’s (1969) dramatistic pentad as a tool for structuring the data and Goffman’s (1956; 1961) dramaturgical perspective was undertaken. The findings demonstrate that the staff’s control over settings and objects also means control over the definition of what kind of place the special youth home is, and what takes place there. This is shown through a decorous behavior of sociomaterial control practices, rather than care practices, by the staff. This study contributes to knowledge on spaces and objects as crucial parts of care practices highlighting the intentions inscribed in institutional design and objects.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"816 - 844"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48755434","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 : 2022-03-07DOI: 10.1177/08912416221079808
S. Mandel
Designed based on careful specifications and regulations, commercial refrigerators can be found in almost all restaurants across the United States. In this article I explore the multifaceted role of the commercial walk-in refrigerator as a space of mediation, secrecy, and pacification among restaurant industry workers in central Florida. I analyze two years of ethnographic research conducted from 2015 to 2017, and argue that the refrigerator acts as a liminal zone within the restaurant, which is used by management to subdue, pacify, and placate employees. To do so I draw on literature by design justice scholars on discriminatory design, to consider the ways in which the physical structure of American restaurant establishments perpetuate physical and emotional abuse of workers.
{"title":"On Refrigerators and Rage: Secrecy and Pacification in the Florida Restaurant Industry","authors":"S. Mandel","doi":"10.1177/08912416221079808","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221079808","url":null,"abstract":"Designed based on careful specifications and regulations, commercial refrigerators can be found in almost all restaurants across the United States. In this article I explore the multifaceted role of the commercial walk-in refrigerator as a space of mediation, secrecy, and pacification among restaurant industry workers in central Florida. I analyze two years of ethnographic research conducted from 2015 to 2017, and argue that the refrigerator acts as a liminal zone within the restaurant, which is used by management to subdue, pacify, and placate employees. To do so I draw on literature by design justice scholars on discriminatory design, to consider the ways in which the physical structure of American restaurant establishments perpetuate physical and emotional abuse of workers.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"726 - 745"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46704375","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 : 2022-02-13DOI: 10.1177/08912416221077141
Halyna Lemekh
Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores the intricate relationships between three major ethno-racial groups residing in a suburban town in the New York metropolitan area. At the present time, the prosperous Korean ethnoburb is gentrified by Korean immigrants, triggering the displacement of the old-timers, referred to as the “White exodus” in this research. Granted that the cheap labor is in high demand in the rejuvenating neighborhood, the town has become a magnet for Guatemalan immigrants who have established their own ethnic islet in the vicinity. While the relationships between the Asian immigrants and the White old-timers generated by invasion-succession trends are full of resentment, the work-related interactions between the Asian and Hispanic (mostly Guatemalan) immigrants can be described as immigrant symbiosis. Both groups are aware of explicit exploitation, but they need and rely on each other to attain their own “American dream.”
{"title":"Multifaceted Intergroup Relations in an American Town—Immigrant Intrusion, Symbiosis, and Invisibility","authors":"Halyna Lemekh","doi":"10.1177/08912416221077141","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221077141","url":null,"abstract":"Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores the intricate relationships between three major ethno-racial groups residing in a suburban town in the New York metropolitan area. At the present time, the prosperous Korean ethnoburb is gentrified by Korean immigrants, triggering the displacement of the old-timers, referred to as the “White exodus” in this research. Granted that the cheap labor is in high demand in the rejuvenating neighborhood, the town has become a magnet for Guatemalan immigrants who have established their own ethnic islet in the vicinity. While the relationships between the Asian immigrants and the White old-timers generated by invasion-succession trends are full of resentment, the work-related interactions between the Asian and Hispanic (mostly Guatemalan) immigrants can be described as immigrant symbiosis. Both groups are aware of explicit exploitation, but they need and rely on each other to attain their own “American dream.”","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"676 - 699"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47905501","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 : 2022-02-11DOI: 10.1177/08912416221075374
Karen S. Kingsbury
Through an autoethnographic account that interweaves academic observations, my story of how I came to study Santa Muerte in Mexico and the entangled, emotive tale of Abby, a Santa Muerte devotee whom I grew very close to, I discuss the topic of belief in the ethnography of the occult and the “politics of integration”, derisively referred to “as going native”. I reveal how being an ethnographer of the Mexican female folk saint of death has taught me the necessity of dividuality and embracing belief in both the epistemological worlds of academia and the occult. I argue that slipping fluidly between the realm of science and the cosmos of magic has given me access not only to arcane knowledge and networks of practitioners but also through shared experiences of participatory consciousness with devotees of death during our rituals, proffered unique experiences, and new insights through intersubjectivity and interexperience, allowing me to understand the mystical power of Death Herself.
{"title":"Autoethnography of Holy Death: Belief, Dividuality, and Family in the Study of Santa Muerte","authors":"Karen S. Kingsbury","doi":"10.1177/08912416221075374","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221075374","url":null,"abstract":"Through an autoethnographic account that interweaves academic observations, my story of how I came to study Santa Muerte in Mexico and the entangled, emotive tale of Abby, a Santa Muerte devotee whom I grew very close to, I discuss the topic of belief in the ethnography of the occult and the “politics of integration”, derisively referred to “as going native”. I reveal how being an ethnographer of the Mexican female folk saint of death has taught me the necessity of dividuality and embracing belief in both the epistemological worlds of academia and the occult. I argue that slipping fluidly between the realm of science and the cosmos of magic has given me access not only to arcane knowledge and networks of practitioners but also through shared experiences of participatory consciousness with devotees of death during our rituals, proffered unique experiences, and new insights through intersubjectivity and interexperience, allowing me to understand the mystical power of Death Herself.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"784 - 815"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47928507","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 : 2022-02-11DOI: 10.1177/08912416221075833
N. Rania, Rosa Parisi, Francesca Lagomarsino
The article is an autoethnographic account written by three Italian academic researchers and mothers with children of different ages. The authors engage in a reflection starting with their experience as working women committed to the work–family negotiation process while facing the COVID-19 health emergency that has affected the whole world. This article focuses on how we, as middle-class, heterosexual, white mothers working in a privileged employment context during the period of the pandemic lockdown, negotiated the complex mother and worker roles, balancing work and family time while smart working (teleworking from home). We start with a reflection on the use of autoethnography as a research tool and then propose an analysis of work–family balance strategies in an anomalous situation, such as that of the lockdown, highlighting the tensions in gender roles within dual-career families.
{"title":"Mothers and Workers in the Time of COVID-19: Negotiating Motherhood within Smart Working","authors":"N. Rania, Rosa Parisi, Francesca Lagomarsino","doi":"10.1177/08912416221075833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221075833","url":null,"abstract":"The article is an autoethnographic account written by three Italian academic researchers and mothers with children of different ages. The authors engage in a reflection starting with their experience as working women committed to the work–family negotiation process while facing the COVID-19 health emergency that has affected the whole world. This article focuses on how we, as middle-class, heterosexual, white mothers working in a privileged employment context during the period of the pandemic lockdown, negotiated the complex mother and worker roles, balancing work and family time while smart working (teleworking from home). We start with a reflection on the use of autoethnography as a research tool and then propose an analysis of work–family balance strategies in an anomalous situation, such as that of the lockdown, highlighting the tensions in gender roles within dual-career families.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"645 - 675"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44723339","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 : 2022-02-04DOI: 10.1177/08912416221075324
M. Hynes
The need to reverse the harmful economic, social and environmental effects of car-dependent cities has intensified as evidence of its costs on health, communities, local economies, and climate change goals becomes more apparent. Part solution must be a focus on reducing the need for private car use and increasing instances of active and sustainable transportation such as walking. Walkability is the measure of how walking-friendly an area is for individuals and includes concerns such as the built environment and connectivity to key amenities and additional transport options. This study presents an autoethnography of walking in Galway. By “experiencing” the author’s walk to work, it points to the lack of concern for the crucial features of walkability that would make this an attractive option for many in the city. The aim is to better inform community actors and policymakers on how to enhance urban design and planning with respect to walkability.
{"title":"Walk a Mile in My Shoes! An Autoethnographical Perspective of Urban Walkability in Galway","authors":"M. Hynes","doi":"10.1177/08912416221075324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221075324","url":null,"abstract":"The need to reverse the harmful economic, social and environmental effects of car-dependent cities has intensified as evidence of its costs on health, communities, local economies, and climate change goals becomes more apparent. Part solution must be a focus on reducing the need for private car use and increasing instances of active and sustainable transportation such as walking. Walkability is the measure of how walking-friendly an area is for individuals and includes concerns such as the built environment and connectivity to key amenities and additional transport options. This study presents an autoethnography of walking in Galway. By “experiencing” the author’s walk to work, it points to the lack of concern for the crucial features of walkability that would make this an attractive option for many in the city. The aim is to better inform community actors and policymakers on how to enhance urban design and planning with respect to walkability.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"16 6","pages":"619 - 644"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41289513","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 : 2022-02-01Epub Date: 2021-06-28DOI: 10.1177/08912416211026724
Ned Barker, Carey Jewitt
"Industry 4.0" marks the advent of a new wave of industrial robotics designed to bring increased automation to "extreme" touch practices and enhance productivity. This article presents an ethnography of touch in two industrial settings using fourth generation industrial robots (a Glass Factory and a Waste Management Center) to critically explore the social and sensorial implications of such technologies for workers. We attend to manifestations of dirt and danger as encountered through describing workers' sensory experiences and identity formation. The contribution of the article is two-fold. The first is analytical through the development of three "filters" to grasp the complexity of the social and sensorial dynamics of touch in situ while tracing dispersed mediating effects of the introduction of novel technologies. The second is empirical, teasing out themes embedded in the sociosensorial dynamics of touch that intersect with gender, ethnicity, and class and relate to the technological mediation of touch.
{"title":"Filtering Touch: An Ethnography of Dirt, Danger, and Industrial Robots.","authors":"Ned Barker, Carey Jewitt","doi":"10.1177/08912416211026724","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416211026724","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>\"Industry 4.0\" marks the advent of a new wave of industrial robotics designed to bring increased automation to \"extreme\" touch practices and enhance productivity. This article presents an ethnography of touch in two industrial settings using fourth generation industrial robots (a Glass Factory and a Waste Management Center) to critically explore the social and sensorial implications of such technologies for workers. We attend to manifestations of dirt and danger as encountered through describing workers' sensory experiences and identity formation. The contribution of the article is two-fold. The first is analytical through the development of three \"filters\" to grasp the complexity of the social and sensorial dynamics of touch in situ while tracing dispersed mediating effects of the introduction of novel technologies. The second is empirical, teasing out themes embedded in the sociosensorial dynamics of touch that intersect with gender, ethnicity, and class and relate to the technological mediation of touch.</p>","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"103-130"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/08912416211026724","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39801401","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 : 2022-01-17DOI: 10.1177/08912416211070622
K. Mischke
This research examines how feelings of body dissatisfaction arise, are experienced, and are managed over time. Analyzing female bodybuilders’ life histories, I find that negative reflected appraisals and social comparisons problematized aspects of each woman’s body during adolescence, generating body dissatisfaction and self-concept damage. Each responded by engaging in long-term body projects. These projects assuaged negative emotions and bolstered feelings of self-efficacy. By showing how body dissatisfaction develops, is managed, and shapes the unfolding of lives, this article contributes to our understanding of how the body is implicated in emotion work and how context limits possibilities for repairing damaged self-conceptions.
{"title":"“I’m a Million Times More Confident Now”: Body Dissatisfaction, Body Projects, and Self-Concept Repair","authors":"K. Mischke","doi":"10.1177/08912416211070622","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416211070622","url":null,"abstract":"This research examines how feelings of body dissatisfaction arise, are experienced, and are managed over time. Analyzing female bodybuilders’ life histories, I find that negative reflected appraisals and social comparisons problematized aspects of each woman’s body during adolescence, generating body dissatisfaction and self-concept damage. Each responded by engaging in long-term body projects. These projects assuaged negative emotions and bolstered feelings of self-efficacy. By showing how body dissatisfaction develops, is managed, and shapes the unfolding of lives, this article contributes to our understanding of how the body is implicated in emotion work and how context limits possibilities for repairing damaged self-conceptions.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"51 1","pages":"587 - 613"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49375792","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}