Showing papers in "Journal of Contemporary Ethnography in 2008"

Disability and the Dedicated Wheelchair Athlete Beyond the “Supercrip” Critique

Abstract: The “supercrip” athlete is often derided as a figure that is antithetical to the interests of people with disabilities. But few researchers have questioned the assumptions of this complaint or examined it empirically. In this article I problematize the supercrip critique and argue for a more nuanced view of dedicated disabled athletes as offering both a disempowering and an empowering experience for people with disabilities. I report on the results of in-depth interviews of ballplayers and other personnel associated with a premier collegiate wheelchair basketball program, documenting the unintended social fissures that developed between elite athletes and nonathletes within this disability community, and revealing tensions between exclusionary and inclusionary aspects of the sport and between separatist and integrationist strategies of using sport for progressive social change and personal empowerment. I conclude by considering the broader implications of the study for the role of sport in the disability ...

Running the Routes Together : Corunning and Knowledge in Action

Abstract: The mundane, concrete practices of social life have remained underanalyzed, unproblematized, even taken for granted by some social theorists, despite their being constitutive of the very foundation of social life. Despite a growing corpus of ethnographic studies within the sociology of sport, little analytic attention has been devoted to the concrete practices of actually “doing” sporting activity. Based on data derived from a collaborative auto-ethnographic study of distance runners, this article analyzes the ways in which two runners jointly accomplish running-together. The article also examines and “marks” some of the knowledge in action that underpins the production of running-together, analyzed in relation to three specific areas: ground and performance, safety concerns, and “the other,” in the form of training partner(s), highlighting the importance of aural and visual components. It concludes with a call for more detailed analytic descriptions of sporting practices to better ground more abstract generalizations about sporting phenomena.

Interactions in Expert Service Work : Demonstrating Professionalism in Personal Training

Abstract: Using participant observation and in-depth interviews, the author explores the experiences of a relatively new form of semiprofessionals, personal trainers, to advance our understandings of the com...

What Is Going on?: Ethnography in Hospital Spaces

Abstract: This special issue brings together articles that focus on research into health and hospital services. Health services and hospital-based research has now built up to a strong field in its own right. This is not entirely surprising, particularly in the case of hospitals. Hospitals are distinctive institutions. Historically, hospitals had their beginnings in charitable and religious institutions that looked after the poor. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the hospital became a recognized establishment and symbol of modernity for all classes at the end of the nineteenth century with its incorporation of biomedicine as a scientific practice. At this time hospitals also became centers of medical education. They had thus evolved and expanded from being caretaker homes for the lower strata of society to impersonal institutions manned by experts, moving from “benevolence to professionalism” (Starr 1982, 148), especially with advances in anesthetic and surgical techniques that could be performed only in the context of the hospital. The transformation of hospitals and the creation of specialties and distinctive types of personnel in turn led to changes in patient-health provider relations. The communal orientation of the earlier hospitals has given way Journal of Contemporary Ethnography Volume 37 Number 2 April 2008 246-250 © 2008 Sage Publications 10.1177/0891241607313398 http://jce.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com

A “Perversion” of Choice Sex Work Offers Just Enough in Chicago's Urban Ghetto

Abstract: In an apartment building on Chicago's Southside, fifty of the seventy-five residents are sex workers. Our study uses in-depth interviews and participant observation of Chicago's sex work economy to argue that sex work is one constituent part of an overall low-wage, off-the-books economy of resource exchange among individuals in a bounded geographic setting. To an outsider, the decision to be a sex worker seems irrational; in this article we argue that specific localized conditions invert this decision and render it entirely rational. For the men and women in our study, sex work acts as a short-term solution that "satisfices" the demands of persistent poverty and instability, and it provides a meaningful option in the quest for a job that provides autonomy and personal fulfillment.

From Sombreros to Sincronizadas: Authenticity, Ethnicity, and the Mexican Restaurant Industry

Abstract: While scholars agree that performances of authenticity and ethnicity express social relations and reveal the socially constructed character of identity, we know little about how these interactions contribute to the politics of everyday life. By engaging in participant observation, drawing on open-ended interviews, and analyzing the content of available data regarding restaurant culture, the author argues that the accomplishment of Mexican authenticity is a social construction. However, despite its socially created qualities, the author contends that performances of authenticity and ethnicity affect not only how individuals understand each other, but illustrate the challenges faced by different groups of people in the commercial production and consumption of identity.

Native among the Natives Physician Anthropologist Doing Hospital Ethnography at Home

Abstract: The focus of the present article is the methodological aspects of conducting ethnography in a district level hospital in Bangladesh, the first of its kind in the country. Ethnographies in non-Western medical settings are rare. I describe the experience of gaining entry and negotiating my way through diverse gatekeepers, building rapport and trust with the doctors, the staff community, and the patients. I share the challenges of being native among the natives as my “nativity” was twofold: as a Bangladeshi doing fieldwork in the country, and as a medical doctor studying a hospital, the domain of doctors.

The Underlife of Kids' School Lunchtime Negotiating Ethnic Boundaries and Identity in Food Exchange

Abstract: While the literature on ethnic identity takes traditional “adult-centered” socialization theory for granted, this study breaks away from such a perspective, and instead uses ethnographic data on children's food exchange during lunchtime in two predominantly Korean (-American) elementary schools to explore how children use food as a symbolic resource to negotiate group boundaries in peer interaction. Following a discussion of lunchtime seating patterns, this article presents children practicing exchange of “dry food (mass-consumed)” and “wet food (homemade)” that takes three different forms—gift-giving, sharing, and trading—each of which have different relevance for marking, maintaining, and muting ethnic boundaries and other social differences. Taking a child-centered perspective, the study finds that children's ethnic identity development is by no means a universal linear process. Instead, preadolescent children, although constrained by external forces, learn to do layered and situated ethnic identity th...

Becoming a Sadomasochist: Integrating Self and Other in Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract: Based on a four-year ethnographic study of an SM community, this article blends analytic and interpretative approaches to ethnographic writing, in order to illustrate the value of incorporating subjectivity into traditional ethnographic analysis. I juxtapose field notes about my own participation in SM with stories of outsiderness among members of the community. I argue that analytical attention to my own experience of “becoming” a member of this community illuminated for me some of the discursive, psychological, and carnal processes through which SM comes to be a central and fulfilling part of participants' lives. This elucidates the intellectual reciprocity between ethnographic introspection and ethnographic understanding, and offers additional insight into an understudied community.

Constructing Hope: Dis/continuity and the Narrative Construction of Recovery in the Rehabilitation Unit

Abstract: Hope and recovery are focal narratives within rehabilitation discourse, which is characterized by its goal of returning physical functioning to individuals in a way reminiscent of their pre-impairm...

Peacekeeping and the Gender Regime: Dutch Female Peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo

Abstract: This article addresses the issue of women participation in peacekeeping missions by focusing on two North Atlantic Treaty Organization Dutch peacekeeping units in Bosnia (SFOR8) and Kosovo (KFOR2). I argue that soldiers are ambivalent toward what is perceived the “feminine” aspects of peace missions. Although peacekeeping is a new military model, it reproduces the same traditional combat-oriented mind-set of gender roles. Therefore Dutch female soldiers are limited in their ability to perform and contribute to peace missions. Both peacekeeping missions and female soldiers are confusing for the soldiers, especially for the more hypermasculine Bulldog infantry soldiers. Both represent a blurred new reality in which the comfort of the all-male unit and black-and-white combat situations are replaced by women in what were traditionally men's roles and the fuzzy environment of peacekeeping. At the same time, both are also necessary: peacekeeping, although not desirable, has become the main function for Dutch so...

Negotiating Boundaries and Roles Challenges Faced by the Nursing Home Ethnographer

Abstract: There is ambiguity in the role of the institution that tries to be a “home” and a place of physical care and protection. Many nursing home residents are constrained by physical and social isolation, their vulnerability increased by unmet social needs. Equally, there is ambiguity in the role of the volunteer ethnographer. The obligation to do no harm is rendered more salient by resident dependence and the intensity of nursing home relationships. Ambiguities are entailed in combining the roles of researcher and volunteer in attempting to maintain observer objectivity while becoming a trusted intimate of both the residents who live in the institution and the staff who work there. How does a volunteer determine how to “ration” help when the need for it is constant? The ethnographer is challenged to limit participation and to preserve enough distance to meet the responsibilities entailed in ethical and rigorous research.

Virtual (Br)others and (Re)sisters Authentic Black Fraternity and Sorority Identity on the Internet

Abstract: Recently, the Internet has become the focus of immense speculation regarding the social construction of identity and cultural “authenticity” However, examinations of virtual communities such as blogs, multiuser domains, and chat rooms have largely ignored nonwhite, especially African American, virtual communities (VCs) Through participant observation, content analysis, and personal interviews, this article analyzes a VC dedicated to members of African American fraternities and sororities, generally referred to as black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs) Findings show that BGLO virtual authenticity is accomplished via (1) the making of “brothers” and “others” based on symbolic boundaries of exclusion and inclusion and (2) the deployment of themes of resistance based on emotions of both sufferance and success Implications suggest that interrogations of how virtuality constrains and enables processes of “authentic” racial identity formation as well as configurations of racist narratives and ideologies ca

Generalizing from Workplace Ethnographies: From Induction to Theory

Abstract: Two modes of generalizing from the large set of workplace ethnographies now in existence are compared. These are the results of the Workplace Ethnography (WE) data set and holistic modeling (HM) based on a more theoretically driven project. In the treatment of specific cases, there is impressive complementarity between the two. But the WE data fail to capture some key features of leading studies, because they do not treat cases holistically. They might also be developed by including studies not included to date. A more explicit theoretical approach offers some firmer grounds for generalizing, and new directions for comparative ethnographies arise.

The Influence of Family and Peer Risk Networks on Drug Use Practices and Other Risks among Mexican American Noninjecting Heroin Users.

Abstract: Noninjecting heroin use (NIU) is spreading among social networks of young Mexican American polydrug users. This article examines the influence of family and peer networks on NIU behavior and other drug practices and risks. This study delineates the extent to which a culturally relevant modification of the “network facilitation” theoretical approach can increase both a theoretical and practical understanding of drug use and related risk behaviors. Using the methods of analytic ethnography, it identifies, describes, and explains variations in the social networks among this marginalized population and how specific aspects of Mexican American culture (familismo, and collectivismo) affects risk behaviors.

Rejecting the American Dream: Men Creating Alternative Life Goals

Abstract: This article uses ethnographic research to explore the dynamics of belief, morality, and life change within the mythopoetic men's movement. Examining the creation of local meaning within this context shows that its members have developed a significant criticism of the material values and work ethic connected to what has been called the American Dream. They are generally upper and upper middle-class white men who have come out ahead in the economic competition and yet have found it emotionally damaging and unfulfilling for themselves and their wives, children, and others in their lives. As a result, they take significant steps to change their lives, deprioritizing work and economic success in favor of emotional values and spiritual well-being. The analysis synthesizes ethnography with cultural sociology to explore this curious critique of modern culture and the corresponding efforts at microlevel social change.

Consuming the Dead: Identity and Community Building Practices in Death Rituals

Abstract: In this article, we examine processes of identity and community building in Asante death rituals where participants metaphorically consume the dead. “Consuming the Dead” refers to how the living makes meaning of death and its associated rituals toward self identification. Our data were derived primarily from participant observations of death rituals and in-depth interviews with informants in Asante, Ghana. We identify “consuming-for-community” and “consuming-for-security” as key death-ritual consumption practices that contribute to cultural reproduction. We conclude by considering some implications of these consuming practices in the production of self, community, and culture.

Public amnesia and multiple modernities in Shanghai: Narrating the postsocialist future in a former socialist "model community"

Abstract: In contemporary Shanghai, one key phenomenon that marks the disappearance of the status and benefits once promised by Maoist socialism has been the spread of consumer values among the populace. This article draws from the ethnographic observations of Cucumber Lane—an urban slum turned into a socialist “model community” in the 1960s—and the post-socialist cultural landscape of urban Shanghai to explore the different interests, agendas, and rationales of the residents in terms of multiple narrative forms that underlie the fabric of reformist China in transitioning toward a post-socialist future. The author concludes that, despite the state-led efforts to articulate a new course of transition, ostensibly by encouraging public amnesia of the socialist past, the “multiple modernities” expressed by the residents represent an “informal privatization of time” through which individuals come to lay claims on the control of their previously collectively shared future.

Can Bioethics Be Global and Local, or Must It Be Both?

Abstract: This article contributes to ethnography of bioethical practices in a developing nation by examining how doctors perceive and use them in Mexico. We ask whether principle-based bioethics can transplant to a developing nation. An analysis reveals the bioethical approaches in different hospital settings, the local nature of bioethical understanding, and a universal requirement for ethical distribution of health care. After an overview of U.S. bioethics development and of Mexican biomedical institutions, the article presents field research done on bioethical conceptualizations and practices in two Mexican government hospitals. An analysis of the bioethical dilemmas physicians face and the approaches taken within the society in different institutional venues uncovers the local character of bioethics and the universal bioethical needs, and the intersection between micro and macro processes in hospital health care. While local conditions must guide a physician's day-to-day ethical practices, a global bioethics i...

The Social Construction of “Sophisticated” Adolescents How Judges Integrate Juvenile and Criminal Justice Decision-Making Models

Abstract: This study investigates the types of decision-making models that frame people-processing decisions. An analysis of the judicial waiver hearing will be used as an example of such institutional processing. I investigate how decision makers engage in practical reasoning by exploring the methods they use to organize information about youth and accomplish their judicial duties. Observational and interview data from a case study of three juvenile courthouses in a California county are used to investigate official case processing. The study offers three important theoretical insights for research in sociology and criminology; a revised theoretical framework for understanding juvenile justice decision making that incorporates criminal justice frameworks, an analysis of how substantive factors (e.g., values, stereotypes, assumptions) can enter into decision making, and an illustration of how decision making is organizationally situated.

Reclaiming Discretion: Judicial Sanctioning Strategy in Court-Supervised Drug Treatment

Abstract: In an attempt to involve drug-related defendants in treatment, California's Proposition 36 constrains judges' discretion to restrict access to treatment and to revoke treatment. Despite its formal rule scheme, judges nevertheless develop and implement strategies to coerce and persuade defendants into treatment compliance. Proposition 36 is an unexplored setting for examining the externally and interactionally imposed limits on judicial discretion and attempts by judges to reclaim it. This article describes strategies judges use in response to defendant noncompliance and shows how the alternatives available to defendants further constrain judicial attempts at coercion. While judges would rather find a way to make treatment work, ultimately defendants can opt out of treatment by choosing incarceration. Ironically, incarceration may be preferred by defendants because it may be a less onerous alternative. This perception constitutes an important interactional impediment to the judge's treatment option and sig...

Writing Against the Image of the Monstrous Crack Mother

Abstract: Anthropologist Lila Abu Lughod's idea of "writing against culture" is the point of departure for deconstructing the image of the monstrous mother dominating portrayals of African American women who use crack cocaine. Aiming to "unsettle" the cultural stereotypes, this article presents the narrative of an African American woman who has used crack, illustrating how elements of Twelve-Step recovery discourse and Afrocentric spirituality differentially frame her story. The case shows that recovery and spirituality are as much narrative resources as they are narrative imperatives. Rather than simply reproducing either of these resources in her story, she alternatively constructs herself as a recovering addict on one hand, and a spiritually strong woman on the other, exemplifying how narrative obviates stereotypic representations.

“My Regular Spot”: Race and Territory in Urban Public Space

Abstract: Employing ethnographic data from a diverse Chicago neighborhood, this article examines how and why a group of Black men asserted exclusive claims to a street corner in explicitly racial terms. The analysis focuses on why racial-ethnic categories became the basis for social and spatial segregation in public spaces but not in a less conspicuous indoor setting. Consistent with prior research by urban ethnographers, the evidence indicates that the dynamics of interaction in public space encourage individuals to rely on categoric knowledge, which triggers stereotypes and provokes intergroup suspicions and hostilities. However, beliefs about how third parties evaluate whether or not specific interactions in visible public spaces are suspicious can also promote racially charged territorial behavior and thereby limit intergroup contact.

“I've Kept It That Way on Purpose” Adolescents' Management of Negative Parental Relationship Traits after Divorce and Separation

Abstract: Although more attention has been given in recent years to adolescents' influences on family dynamics after divorce, little is still known about the forms such agency takes, the rationales and structures that shape it, or its consequences. This study is an examination of adolescents' reports of the ways in which they manage negative aspects of their relationships with their parents. In-depth interviews with fifty adolescents from divorced or separated households are examined for emergent themes related to adolescent agency. The findings suggest that adolescents utilize a variety of relationship management strategies that both shape and are shaped by household structure. These strategies and their possible consequences are described, along with rationales that adolescents use for employing them.

Manufacturing Affinity The Fortification and Expression of Ties between Prison Officers and Crime Victims

Abstract: Since at least the 1960s, scholars have argued that public ceremonies serve important practical functions for groups and social movements: bolstering internal cohesion; expressing messages about power, group identity, etc.; and fortifying intergroup ties. This article analyzes ethnographic data on the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), the very successful and powerful labor union that represents prison officers in California. Specifically, it examines two public gatherings that the CCPOA purportedly organizes on behalf of crime victims. During these events, the CCPOA manufactures affinity with its main allies, punitive crime victims' groups which the union helped create, and communicates to various audiences that prison officers and crime victims have a natural affinity and are natural allies. By demonstrating that the CCPOA uses these events to fabricate (make "real") ties between itself and crime victims, this article contributes to our understanding of the practical uses of public ceremonies.

Outside the ward and clinic : healing the aboriginal body.

Abstract: Despite predictions in the 1970s that, with the advent of Western medicine, there would be no Aboriginal healers by the end of the twentieth century, maparn continue to be active within the Kutjungka region of the Kimberley (Western Australia). Using narrative and art from the healers themselves, the author examines their contemporary role and practice. As desert people continue to engage their healers, as also the services of the local health clinic, the author explores how two very different models of health care might better understand each other and work together to improve desert people's health.

Writing History for Eternity Lucian's (c120—200) Contributions to Pragmatist Scholarship and Ethnographic Analysis

Abstract: Whereas ethnography is generally envisioned as a nineteenth- and twentieth-century development, a text on How to Write History developed by Lucian (a Greek-speaking Syrian in the classical Roman era) provides an instructive reference point for contemporary scholarship. Envisioning history as an account of some event or developmental feature of community life, Lucian insists that these accounts will be of greatest value when written for posterity rather than “the historical moment.” While identifying a number of lesser flaws and more substantial failures in people's attempts to develop histories, Lucian also indicates how these projects might more viably be pursued. Approaching Lucian's text as an instance of transhistorical scholarship as well as a cross-cultural reference point for ethnographic analysis and building on a somewhat parallel commentary developed by Michael Schwalbe (1995), this article considers the lessons of both statements for contemporary considerations of human group life.

A Long-Neglected Mother of Contemporary Ethnography Annie Marion MacLean and the Memory of a Method

Abstract: As ethnographers look forward, we risk losing sight of the past. Short memories are common, and most sociologists have a certain “amnesia” (Gans 1992). Sometimes old scholarship is best forgotten, but this is not always the case. We argue that the neglected ethnographic work of Annie Marion MacLean— who was writing at the turn of the last century—deserves our attention despite its age. To the extent that contemporary ethnography has a metaphorical “genetic code” in common, MacLean's work has these traits, and we argue that her work speaks to contemporary concerns: it gives us perspective on the realist-postmodernist debate, it demonstrates the challenges of ethnography as a career and how it can change over the life-course, and it forces us to reflect on our short scholarly recall. Much can be learned from MacLean and other relevant but neglected ethnographers. Failing to engage these works stunts our ethnographic growth.