{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"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":null,"pages":null},"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}
{"title":"Street Art Commodification and (An)aesthetic Policies on the Outskirts of Lisbon","authors":"Otávio Raposo","doi":"10.1177/08912416221079863","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221079863","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I discuss how street art has become an ally of urban policies molded by the creative city paradigm in marginalized neighborhoods of Lisbon (Portugal). Based on a dense ethnography of a peripheral neighborhood of this Southern European city, I follow the trail left by how public power uses the commodification of street art as an instrument for urban regeneration, touristification, and management of inequalities. The different meanings and interests around this policy are examined in street art festivals and tours, focused on the participation of young people as local guides. This urban policy has changed the negative public image of the neighborhood, with street art being combined with a multicultural experience commodified in guided tours for tourists. However, by ignoring the opinions of the residents on the interventions, this policy follows a top-down approach in which street art aesthetics operate as a device of subjugation and maintenance of the subaltern, beautifying processes of exclusion.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45374272","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":"“SHE CAN GET A VISA”: How Nationality and Class Shape Decision Making at a Kenyan NGO","authors":"Shaquilla Harrigan","doi":"10.1177/08912416231160778","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231160778","url":null,"abstract":"Prior studies show how race, class, and gender matter for worker identities within organizations, but there is an opportunity to focus on worker nationality and class background within nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Using evidence from ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and organizational documents at a small NGO in Kenya, I show how nationality and class mediate how NGO workers assign and accomplish organizational tasks. My results suggest that a process of elastic transnational stratification determines how nationality and class distribute tasks and decision-making power in relation to the location and organizational domain in which they must act. While both nationality and class are used as proxies for one’s proximity to power and influence, there are instances where less privileged identities are more strategic to deploy. Nationality and class shape access to various development spaces, the amount and type of resources one can attain on behalf of the organization, and legitimacy locally and at the global level.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47469200","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":"It’s Understandable If It Destroys You, Right?—Grades, Students’ Self-Images, and Quantification","authors":"Noëlle Rohde","doi":"10.1177/08912416231157369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231157369","url":null,"abstract":"Human life is increasingly quantified. From blood pressure to body mass index, from likes and retweets to performance metrics at work, from IQ results to facial attractiveness scores issued by smartphone apps. Many of these numbers have the potential to substantially shape how individuals view themselves, and yet the link between quantification and self-image is to date not well understood. My window into this phenomenon is one of the most ubiquitous and influential metrics worldwide: the school grade. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a German comprehensive school, I explore how students’ self-images are shaped by their numbers. Comparing students’ official and unofficial remarks reveals a striking contrast between a seemingly detached stance toward marks and a powerful feeling of being defined by them—notably with regards to “intelligence.” Nevertheless, rather than passively identifying with their grades, especially low-performing students draw on a wide range of strategies in an effort to negotiate their self-image in light of their numbers.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47241225","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}