Showing papers in "Journal of Contemporary Ethnography in 1996"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the various ways that counselors deliver advice to clients and the ways that clients respond to that advice in pretest counseling sessions for HIV and AIDS patients.
Abstract: Advice can be highly problematic interactionally, especially in pretest counseling sessions for HIV and AIDS where the advice concerns the already highly charged topic of sexual behavior. However, there is surprisingly little research examining the delivery and receipt of advice. Using detailed transcripts obtained during twenty-five pretest counseling sessions in a clinic that tests for HIV, this study examines the various ways that counselors deliver advice to clients and the ways that clients respond to that advice. Analysis concerns structures of advice giving that are collaboratively produced to maintain an ambiguity between the giving of advice and the giving of information. Implications of these findings both for counseling and for ethnography and conversation analysis are discussed.
117 citations
67 citations
TL;DR: This article found that first-year medical students described the lab in very positive terms after going through it, and that this change in attitude stems from the ability of students to neutralize the moral dirty work of "dog lab".
Abstract: Forty-one first-year medical school students were interviewed regarding their expectations of and experience in a physiology laboratory where live, anesthetized dogs were injected with drugs and surgically manipulated before being killed. Before going into lab, there was widespread uneasiness among most students regarding the moral implications of their anticipated use of dogs as experimental tools. However, students described the lab in very positive terms after going through it. The findings suggest that this change in attitude stems from the ability of students to neutralize the moral dirty work of “dog lab.” The authors argue that this is possible because the students learn absolutions that permit denial of responsibility and wrongdoing.
47 citations
46 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make a methodological plea for the utility of transcribing in field research, arguing that despite much recent talk of the mutual relevance of ethnography and conversation analysis, transcribing has not been addressed as a topic in its own right.
Abstract: In this article, I make a methodological plea for the utility of transcribing in field research. I begin by noting that, despite much recent talk of the mutual relevance of ethnography and conversation analysis, transcribing has not been addressed as a topic in its own right. I consider the goals of transcribing from a conversation analytic perspective and compare these with the aims of producing field notes. Then, I explicate the process of transcribing, calling attention to problems that arise from conventional procedures for representing talk in texts. Consideration of the difficulties many ethnographers face in attempting to introduce audio and video tape recorders into their field sites leads me to examine the analytical advantages of transcribing with—and without—tape-recorded data.
44 citations
TL;DR: A vast and growing literature in game theory shows that a wide variety of human conflicts and competitions can be modeled as games as mentioned in this paper, and this work is done through deductive logic, mathematical m...
Abstract: A vast and growing literature in game theory shows that a wide variety of human conflicts and competitions can be modeled as games. Most of this work is done through deductive logic, mathematical m...
44 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored how a particular social form, going-with, shapes the experiences of early adolescents as they begin their adolescent life and found that it is an especially rich and complex theme in American culture.
Abstract: Romance is an especially rich and complex theme in American culture. This article explores how a particular social form, going-with, shapes the experiences of early adolescents as they begin their ...
28 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the social dynamics of life inside a public shelter for homeless men in New York City and show how distinctive forms of association, in particular, a ganglike body of elite re...
Abstract: This article examines the social dynamics of life inside a public shelter for homeless men in New York City. It shows how distinctive forms of association—in particular, a ganglike body of elite re...
27 citations
24 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present observational and interview data from a local parish that show how parish members and officials interpreted the policy of active participation as it pertained to the ritual celebration of first holy communion.
Abstract: This article addresses the processes of change that were put into motion by the Second Vatican Council. Our focus is on the central liturgical Vatican II principle of the “full, active, conscious participation of the faithful.” This tenet changed the terms through which community was to be enacted. Our inquiry focuses on the consequences of this policy, and we approach our concern with the Weberian and Pragmatist assumptions that all human affairs must be worked out in processes of social action. We specifically follow Hall and Estes and Edmonds in conceptualizing policy as a set of intentions. We present observational and interview data from a local parish that show how parish members and officials interpreted the policy of active participation as it pertained to the ritual celebration of first holy communion. We then discuss issues of segmentation and the changing church in contemporary America.
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the behavior of pickup basketball players in two gyms was compared, one having one basketball court, while the other having eighteen, in two different cities, one being the Richmond YMCA and the other being the Babylon Tower.
Abstract: This ethnography compares the behavior of pickup basketball players in two gyms. One gym, the Richmond YMCA, had one basketball court, while the other, the Babylon Tower, had eighteen. Through the ...
TL;DR: In this article, a situation that involved racism, and in which the author participated, is described, where the author questions the conditions that allowed one person to make a racist comment, and the lack of response.
Abstract: Scholars are increasingly using autoethnography to combine social analysis and researcher implication. Such a combination can be especially useful when the ethnographer is critiquing unjust cultural practices from which he or she benefits. This article is based on a situation that involved racism, and in which the author participated. Following a Saturday night in an apartment during which the author was socializing with four White friends, the author questions the conditions that allowed one person to make a racist comment, and the lack of response. The article continues by addressing the construction and perpetuation of racial stereotypes, the process and act of interrupting such discourse, and the connection of that Saturday night to broader social realities concerning race/ism and White people.
TL;DR: The authors compare the meaning of neighborhood crime watch for white and African American participants and conclude that race-based difference in the meaning is due to differences in perceptions of danger and memories of what community was like in the past.
Abstract: This article compares the meaning of neighborhood crime watch for White and African American participants. Both Whites and African Americans from crime watch groups to improve security and enhance neighborhood solidarity. They seek to accomplish these goals by becoming the “eyes and ears of the police.” African Americans, however, also form crime watch groups to restore the roles of “othermothers” and “old heads.” This race-based difference in the meaning of crime watch stems from differences in perceptions of danger and memories of what community was like in the past.
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that women's integration crossed not only an occupational boundary but also a temporal one in that their husbands would be working night shifts with other women, and that wives shared with their husbands a concern about the effects of women's inclusion on job equity, especially fairness of assignment and safety.
Abstract: Based on in-depth interview questions with security guards and their wives in the U.S. Air Force, this article looks at attitudes toward women's integration into a male career field prior to the occurrence. For men, the impending integration of women into this work setting poses two challenges: one threatens the solidarity of the work culture where the influx of outsiders would dilute, if not eradicate, the trust and camaraderie that helps the men get through the shift; the other threatens the content of the culture, especially a distinct orientation to an alliance of equality (among men) and dominance (of men over women). Although wives shared with their husbands a concern about the effects of women's integration on job equity—especially fairness of assignment and safety, wives' concerns went beyond the workplace. They feared that women's integration crossed not only an occupational boundary but a temporal one in that their husbands would be working night shifts with other women. The possibility of chall...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the gendered artistic ambition of adolescent girls as it is constructed in two divergent Israeli communities: religious Zionist and kibbutz, listening to the voices of two young women who relate their experiences, hopes, desires, and conflicts, they deduce how each reproduces, struggles with, and resists conceptions of gender, sexuality, and artistic performance that prevail in her community.
Abstract: This article explores the gendered artistic ambition of adolescent girls as it is constructed in two divergent Israeli communities: religious Zionist and kibbutz. Listening to the voices of two young women who relate their experiences, hopes, desires, and conflicts, the authors deduce how each reproduces, struggles with, and resists conceptions of gender, sexuality, and artistic performance that prevail in her community. Although the girls share a romantic view of the modern girl/woman, divorced from implications of gender and sexuality, their experiences and interpretations of womanhood and self-realization diverge dramatically. By exploring these individual worlds of artistic ambition, anchored in two local cultural settings, the authors contribute to the growing understanding of girlhood in context.
Journal Article•