Sophie Tabuteau-Harrison, Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, Avril Mewse
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"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}
{"title":"That’s Gonna Leave a Mark: Positionality and Secondary Trauma in Researching Mass Killing and Genocide","authors":"Todd H. Nelson","doi":"10.1177/08912416241238449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241238449","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I describe two fieldwork experiences dealing with traumatic subject matter: a three-month trip to the Russian Federation, researching the crimes of Stalin against the Soviet population, and a two-week odyssey across Poland, researching memorialization of the Holocaust as it occurred there. I had a much more difficult time on the Polish trip. These trips took place at different times, and my positionality had changed dramatically between the two experiences. The other relevant factor in each case was the nature of the material itself and the extent to which I was exposed to it. The Stalinist Terror is much more submerged in Russian society, for example, and it was often challenging to find evidence that it had occurred, as this involved travel to often far-flung Gulag and mass execution sites. In the Polish case, however, the Holocaust narrative and evidence of its occurrence was front and center in my experiences there, to the extent that the ubiquity of sites where terrible events occurred became overwhelming. The interaction of my positionality and the extent to which I was exposed to different types of traumatic experience, led to widely differing emotional tolls on my psyche in each case. I hope an analysis of this interaction, and the differing effects it produced provides information about planning and executing research on traumatic subjects that is valuable to others preparing to undertake it. (Or perhaps it will provide a cautionary tale about what to avoid). This article adds to the literature on personal negative outcomes experienced by those researching traumatic subject matter, particularly in the social sciences.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"114 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140147247","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}
{"title":"Having a Laugh and Negotiating the Situation: The Significance of Humor During Fieldwork Among International Teenagers","authors":"Mari Korpela","doi":"10.1177/08912416241235934","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241235934","url":null,"abstract":"This article elaborates on the significance of humor and playful interactions in an ethnographic research project among 14- and 15-year-old teenagers in an international middle school in Finland. First, it discusses the role of humor among students and their teachers in the school. Second, the article elaborates on the role humor played when an adult ethnographer was negotiating her role and actions with these teenagers; humor and playful interactions provided useful tools with which to negotiate the researcher’s role and made the project a fun and enjoyable experience for the researcher and participants alike. The article employs the concept of reality play when analyzing everyday interactions in a school context, and it argues both that the use of humor can contribute to forming meaningful and ethically sound relationships between researcher and participants and that elaborations on research and ethics should pay more attention to the significance of humor and playfulness as essential parts of human life.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140070346","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}
{"title":"Navigating Academic Identity: Autoethnography of Otherness and Embarrassment Among First-Generation College Students","authors":"Elazar Ben-Lulu","doi":"10.1177/08912416241233697","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416241233697","url":null,"abstract":"As a first-generation college student (FGCS), I have never felt entirely comfortable with this label, both in academic spaces and in various personal family situations. The notion of being a FGCS has evoked internal embarrassment, a sense of academic otherness, and external micro-aggressions. Through an autoethnographic analysis of my participation in the FGCS annual workshop, I explore the strengths and weaknesses of this category. The workshop provided insights into the diverse experiences of FGCSs, revealing it to be a fluid academic construct with multiple voices and narratives. However, when intersecting with other identities, the fragility of the FGCS category emerged, leading to conflicting conversations and resistance among participants. A rigid definition of FGCS overlooks its historical context of social exclusions and disregards the unique sensitivities and differences among ethnic and national groups within it. This approach weakens the struggle of marginalized groups and perpetuates their exclusion, both on and off campus. Acknowledging the complexity and diversity within the FGCS category can foster a more inclusive environment that respects the unique experiences of each individual. This approach paves the way for a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by FGCSs and empowers them to navigate their academic journeys with confidence.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140070338","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}