{"title":"Inside a Safe Place:","authors":"Anna Capretta, Bianca D'Anneo, Giacomo Polignano","doi":"10.15273/jue.v14i1.12036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v14i1.12036","url":null,"abstract":"The influence of LGBTQ+ spaces in defining the urban experience of people belonging to the LGBTQ+ community has become the subject of a growing literature in the field of urban sociology. Our present research focuses on the perception of these urban spaces by their attendants and analyses how different LGBTQ+ spaces shape a sense of identity, community, and security among them. Using the tools of ethnographic research, such as participant observation and in-depth interview, we analysed two LGBTQ+ friendly spaces located in Padua, an Italian medium-size city with a noteworthy LGBTQ+ history. The selected spaces each have a different social function: political or recreational; one space is the headquarters of a political association, and the other one is a club. Our results show that an LGBTQ+ urban space, especially the political one, can have a positive influence on the perception of a sense of identity, community, and security. This is both thanks to its social function, because it allows for the creation of solid bonds inside a safe place, and thanks to its history, which makes it a point-of-reference for the local LGBTQ+ community.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"168 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140449620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Carving in and \"Carving Out\" Space:","authors":"Bridgette Norwood","doi":"10.15273/jue.v14i1.12048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v14i1.12048","url":null,"abstract":"Skateboarding is a subculture with an ideology that counters normative authority and standards of masculinity. Yet, it continues to uphold persistent misogynistic perspectives and gender discrepancies in participation (Beal 1996; McCarthy 2022). Therefore, it is critical to understand the experiences of marginalized genders in the skateboarding subculture to discover how ideas of authenticity are formed and upheld in the skate subculture and how these standards impact skateboarders of marginalized genders. This qualitative study examines the unexplored skateboard subculture in Halifax, Nova Scotia through an analysis of its symbolic membership and physical and social space. This study identifies a disassociation from ‘typical’ masculinity and outwardly favourable attitudes towards gender diversity within the Halifax skateboard community; however, gender barriers remain within this still hyper-masculine setting disguised through support. Nevertheless, the historically resistant and rebellious attitudes that coincide with skateboarding may provide a space for female and non-binary skaters to counter subcultural and societal gender norms.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"251 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140449716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Seeking Stability in China's \"Involuted Generation\"","authors":"Yuchen Liang","doi":"10.15273/jue.v14i1.12047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v14i1.12047","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the word “involution” (Nei Juan) has become a popular word in Chinese society to refer to the great competitive pressure young people in China now face in their life such as passing the college entrance examination and searching for a job. They are called the “involuted generation.” To study the involution phenomenon, I conducted eleven semi-structured interviews with students, parents, and teachers in Zhejiang Province in China. This study also explores the causes and effects of the phenomenon of involution by combining online research and a literature review. I argue that the pursuit of stability produces the present involution while the college entrance examination and differences in family background create different degrees of involution which intensifies the stress of competition. The effects of involution include anxiety and tension for both students and parents brought on by competition, the devaluation of academic qualifications in the job market, and the gap young people experience between their interests and careers.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"23 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140450647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Changing Identities of Indian Migrants in the West:","authors":"Chandni Sakhrani","doi":"10.15273/jue.v14i1.12044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v14i1.12044","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this paper is to initiate a broader discussion concerning the identities of Indian migrants and their perceptions of arranged marriage. Through an oral testimony and a detailed life history of one interlocutor, my research explores my mother’s marital experiences, including the involvement of her family, the arrangement of the marriage itself, and the challenges that come with adjusting to marital life. Within the framework of this topic, larger theoretical and cultural phenomena are addressed such as the role of immigration, acculturation, changing notions of individualism, and identity in relation to diaspora. Such topics shed light on how Indian marital practices and related societal perceptions of identity such as gender norms, are changing for Indian migrants.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"35 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140450540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"You are what you eat\": Plant-Human Relations in Home Gardens","authors":"Lauren Culverwell","doi":"10.15273/jue.v13i2.11795","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v13i2.11795","url":null,"abstract":"Gardening has long been conceptualized as a practice that blurs nature-human binaries and connects humans to nature in rapidly urbanising worlds. Based on six weeks of fieldwork on the Cape Flats, this article explores human interpretations of beyond-human connections and experiences that are engendered in their home vegetable gardens. It weaves together ethnographic data and theoretical frameworks like posthumanism, multispecies ethnography and actor-network theory to analyse the inner workings of these relationships. I collaborated with six interlocutors and their gardens to reveal how companionships with plants and their produce complicate, contest or conform to nature-human binaries. In doing so, this paper investigates how through gardening, interlocutors come to recognize otherwise ‘invisible’ elements in the natural world as valued companions that not only co-produce healthy vegetables, but also co-create identities, emotions, practices, and justices. However, this paper also traces the exchanges that take place within the garden, contending that only the gardening agents that are perceived capable of maintaining beneficial reciprocities come to be coded as companions, whilst others that do not become pests or nuisances. Through these insights, it aims to add nuances to the claims that gardening dissolves human-nature dichotomies.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139241385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learning Differently: The Struggles and Silver Linings of Dyslexia","authors":"Kelsey Morrison","doi":"10.15273/jue.v13i2.11797","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v13i2.11797","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aims to understand the struggles and joys of individuals who have dyslexia. Situated in sociological theory, I contend that dyslexia is biological by nature, but socially constructed as a learning disability. This social construction is culturally shaped and bound by values of nonverbal communication which, consequently, is the area in which dyslexics struggle the most. Using a content analysis style of collecting data, I read hundreds of blog posts aiming to understand the experience of dyslexic individuals living in the United States. This article delves into themes of education, upbringing, and individual perceptions of self. I also explore how an accurate diagnosis of dyslexia can improve learning, which often helps promote positive self-esteem. This study explores how to find the gifts of dyslexia to redefine genius for individuals in Western societies.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"101 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139238918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Norm, Old Obstacles: The Impact of Distance Learning on Student Agency during the Covid-19 Pandemic","authors":"Tyler Cardenas","doi":"10.15273/jue.v13i2.11798","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v13i2.11798","url":null,"abstract":"Mandatory distance learning implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a new educational landscape for elementary students. Working- and middle-class students have had to meet new expectations around class attendance, homework, and time management, and some are now responsible for overseeing their own education. This study examines students’ agentive expressions and perceptions of time to explore the effects of these expectations, and to contribute to a discussion about the implications of distance learning. Through participant observation and interviews with elementary school students across four Southern California school districts, this study offers insights into how students conceptualize their new role in their education and it provides concrete examples of how this manifests day-to-day. Students from ages five to thirteen learning from home, especially those with limited assistancefrom guardians throughout the school day, have new responsibilities and a greater sense of “their time,” through which they simultaneously discover and establish their position as agents in their education.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"57 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139239535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"There's no way I'm gonna meet their expectations\":","authors":"Millie Takazawa Chen","doi":"10.15273/jue.v13i2.11799","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v13i2.11799","url":null,"abstract":"The persistent nature of patriarchal gender norms in Japan is well-known globally despite the nation’s commitment to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, one of which includes gender equality. This paper seeks to introduce and explore the personal narratives of Japanese expatriate women and youth diaspora in the United States to understand how they perceive gender roles in Japanese society and culture. Over the course of two months in 2021, bilingual open-ended interviews were conducted with ethnic Japanese expatriates and diaspora residing primarily in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Utilizing attitude development theories and existing research on cultural identity, this study provides a new look at the intersections between gender roles, migration, and what it means to accept—or reject—identity. New avenues of research are recommended to further discussions of gender norms, culture, and community by including the lived experiences of historically underrepresented populations.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"59 47","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139241604","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Young Adults and their Parents: The (Mis)understandings that Construct Mental Illness","authors":"Sydney Patterson","doi":"10.15273/jue.v13i1.11647","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v13i1.11647","url":null,"abstract":"While public awareness about young people’s mental health has been on the rise, the context in which it is studied has many gaps. Adolescent mental health is often studied within the context of family relationships but the same is not true for young adults over 18 years old. Drawing on interviews with young adults who have mental illness and their parents, I found that the parent-child relationship is a relevant context in which ideas about what mental illness is are constructed. Through the conscious presentation of self within the unique expectations of this relationship and the feedback from parents or children, young adults construct definitions of mental illness which guide their ideas of self and actions in the relationship. By considering this specific relationship and life stage, I hope to contribute to a more specific understanding of the social construction of mental illness and to highlight its practical implications in the lives and relationships of young adults.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"169 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116098335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"It is Not OK to Die (With Dignity) in America: An Analysis of the United States’ Denaturalization of Death and its Intimate Relationship with the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic","authors":"Creighton Burns","doi":"10.15273/jue.v13i1.11648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15273/jue.v13i1.11648","url":null,"abstract":"The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (COVID) transformed the everyday life of millions around the globe; however, many Americans never believed the virus—or the threat of death—was real to begin with. This research analyzes a systemic denaturalization of death and its processes within the United States, and subsequently identifies a public health crisis stemming from the biomedicalization of aging, illusory expectations of end-of-life care, and a generational pursuit to achieve a ‘good death’ within a capitalist economy. Informed by over 1,300 hours of first-hand participant observation in two public health institutions in Indiana and interviews with medical providers discussing the impact their own (de)naturalization of death on patient care, this paper dissects American’s social and cultural behavior regarding death, its processes, and its intimate connection to the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. While most Americans describe their worst nightmare for end of life, they are most often suffering and dying exactly as they fear: institutionalized and isolated. This explores why this is so.","PeriodicalId":298867,"journal":{"name":"Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography","volume":"61 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130634659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}