{"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":"52 1","pages":"163 - 191"},"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":"52 1","pages":"664 - 690"},"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":"52 1","pages":"607 - 632"},"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}
{"title":"Music for Mental Health: An Autoethnography of the Rory Gallagher Instagram Fan Community","authors":"L. O’Hagan","doi":"10.1177/08912416231162077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231162077","url":null,"abstract":"Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there has been a major increase in anxiety and depression. For many, online music fandoms have offered an important platform to combat loneliness and aid well-being. In this study, I use autoethnography, supported by psychosocial theory on recovery and sociological theory on music fandoms, to track my personal journey of recovery (2020–2022) from a mental health crisis through the support of the Rory Gallagher Instagram fan community. Specifically, I investigate how the community acts as a positive support mechanism for well-being, how my relationship with Rory and his music has changed since joining the community, and how knowledge of Rory’s own personal struggles, coupled with my own experiences, have empowered me to become a mental health advocate. Overall, the study brings attention to the importance of online music communities as informal, holistic regulating agents for mental health conditions and offers alternative ways for health services to approach mental health care.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"633 - 663"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42755140","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":"Helping Mom Die: An Auto-ethnographic Account of Preparing for Death","authors":"D. Wysocki","doi":"10.1177/08912416231160776","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231160776","url":null,"abstract":"This article is about a journey that I took with my mother as she left us. It is an article using an autoethnographic approach which allows me, the writer, to use both my personal pain and thoughts as a way to give peace, understanding, and perspective of the time before my mom’s death. This article is also about giving a framework for those who will also go through the same experience with an aging parent, to both take away the stigma of death and to help the reader be present in a tough situation. For me, it was an honor to be with the woman who brought me into this world and to be able to be alone with her as she left.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"584 - 603"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41940446","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":"Weeding Out the Weak: Labor, Gender, and Disability in a U.S. Fossil Fuel Boomtown","authors":"C. Labuski","doi":"10.1177/08912416231153059","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416231153059","url":null,"abstract":"COVID-19 has radically reshaped the labor dreams of many U.S. workers. This essay uses pre-pandemic fieldwork in an oil and gas “boomtown” to consider post-work imaginaries in the wake and midst of COVID-19. I use feminist and disability studies perspectives to argue that economic analyses must not only move beyond the discourse of “jobs” but must also attend to gender-based and ableist modes of discrimination that persist even in so-called booming economies. I posit the figure of the economically productive worker, asking how routine practices of identity-shaped discrimination undermine the capacities of some to embody this figure. My interview-derived and ethnographic data suggest that economic self-sufficiency is a woefully inadequate model for meeting the material needs of people, and that labor innovations such as a universal basic income are necessary to achieve the kinds of flourishing sought by those participating in the “great resignation.”","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"559 - 583"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49624403","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":"“He’s Agonal”: An Insider’s Look into the Impact of Moral Injury Suffered While Policing on the Westside of Chicago","authors":"Patrick J. Burke","doi":"10.1177/08912416221087362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221087362","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, I seek to contribute to the literature on self-change and moral injury by providing an autoethnographic account of the processes through which I incurred “moral injury” while giving first aid to gunshot victims as a police officer on the Westside of Chicago. In particular, I aim to address the causes and consequences of failing to find a new identity that would allow me to adjust to repeated trauma. The second aim focuses on illustrating why many police officers working in extremely violent neighborhoods tend to disassociate from victims and potential victims. The analysis of the narratives I present on providing first aid to shooting victims shows that my religiously based moral norms were particularly transgressed by several key mechanisms. In the conclusion, I discuss how future research on moral injury can benefit from incorporating the theory of self-change. I also encourage future research on moral injury to focus on police officers working in extremely violent neighborhoods and consider using autoethnographic methods to pursue such research.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"3 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45506385","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":"Addressing the Methodological Challenges that Cloaked Profiles Pose to Digital Observations","authors":"Thea Rabe","doi":"10.1177/08912416221135498","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221135498","url":null,"abstract":"Although digital ethnographic studies concerned with online misinformation have focused on analyzing the contents shared by “cloaked” profiles (concealed or fake identities), less attention has been given to the epistemological and ontological dilemmas that cloaked profiles pose to digital ethnography. This article deals with these issues by asking: how can digital ethnographers determine who and what we are observing? And how can we conduct online observations when confronted with cloaked profiles? Drawing on field research, this article argues that researchers would benefit from including more critical reflections on the presence of cloaked profiles and learning how to apply digital skills for how to unveil cloaked profiles. Such practices will challenge a commonly accepted ontology that online profiles represent human behavior and enhance researchers’ digital literacy and ability to recognize cloaked profiles. Finally, applying techniques to unveil cloaked profiles will arguably strengthen the hermeneutic process of knowledge production in digital observations.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"537 - 558"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49428489","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":"Mujeres Guerreras: Negotiating Women’s Empowerment in Colombia","authors":"Zareen Thomas","doi":"10.1177/08912416221126519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221126519","url":null,"abstract":"This research is based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork with a formalized youth hip-hop organization in Colombia whose broad work with youth included a mission of women’s and girls’ empowerment. Throughout this article, I show how young women, through their affiliation with this professionalized organization, utilized city spaces to articulate opposition to gender-based inequalities and marginalization, within a larger context of protracted armed conflict and everyday violence. In these spaces, women configured themselves as hip-hop “guerreras” (warriors) and “luchadoras,” (fighters) to convey their fortitude while minimizing risk. I argue that they balanced “uncivic” modalities of hip-hop with a civic language of empowerment to garner support for their labor and causes. By examining women’s NGO affiliations and their creative performances, I show how women simultaneously reinforced sanctioned rhetoric of empowerment while strategically carving spaces to craft media intended to challenge dominant ideologies.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"514 - 536"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47316386","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 Moral Discourse of Free Speech: A Virtual Ethnographic Study","authors":"Julia Goldman-Hasbun","doi":"10.1177/08912416221129880","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416221129880","url":null,"abstract":"Freedom of speech has long been considered an essential value in democracies. However, its boundaries concerning hate speech continue to be contested across many social and political spheres, including governments, social media websites, and university campuses. Despite the recent growth of so-called free speech communities online and offline, little empirical research has examined how individuals embedded in these communities make moral sense of free speech and its limits. Examining these perspectives is important for understanding the growing involvement and polarization around this issue. Using a digital ethnographic approach, I address this gap by analyzing discussions in a rapidly growing online forum dedicated to free speech (r/FreeSpeech subreddit). I find that most users on the forum understand free speech in an absolutist sense (i.e., it should be free from legal, institutional, material, and even social censorship or consequences), but that users differ in their arguments and justifications concerning hate speech. Some downplay the harms of hate speech, while others acknowledge its harms but either focus on its epistemic subjectivity or on the moral threats of censorship and authoritarianism. Further, the forum appears to have become more polarized and right-wing-dominated over time, rife with ideological tensions between members and between moderators and members. Overall, this study highlights the variation in free speech discourse within online spaces and calls for further research on free speech that focuses on first-hand perspectives.","PeriodicalId":47675,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Ethnography","volume":"52 1","pages":"463 - 492"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46786695","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}