Showing papers in "Qualitative sociology review in 2021"

Illuminating Existential Meaning: A New Approach in the Study of Retirement

Abstract: Current discussions on the importance of retirement are largely built on statistical analyses of longitudinal data showing that well-being seldom changes from before to after entering retirement, b ...

Post-Foucauldian Discourse and Dispositif Analysis in the Post-Socialist Field of Research: Methodological Remarks

Abstract: Post-Foucauldian discourse and dispositif analysis, a methodological approach inspired by the work of Michel Foucault and developed in Western Europe, over the last decade has gained an increasing amount of attention from Eastern European researchers. Yet, this interest has not been accompanied by sufficient reflection on the post-Foucauldian perspective’s adequacy for studying power, governance, and subjectification in post-socialist societies. In particular, there is little criticism that would take into account the current discussion on Foucault’s ambivalent attitude towards neoliberalism. The goal of this article is to examine this line of criticism of Foucault’s late works and to point to its importance for dispositif analysis carried out in Eastern and Central European societies (e.g., Poland) in comparison to analyses carried out in Western Europe (e.g., Germany). I propose a number of methodological recommendations that aim at adapting post-Foucauldian research instruments to facilitate analyzing power relations in the post-socialist context; these include: an interdisciplinary combination of discourse analysis and an analysis of macroeconomic and macrosocial factors; an analysis of the practices of normalization in post-socialist societies with reference to the Center-Periphery relationship; introducing elements of semiology, anthropology of the contemporary and cultural identity analysis to dispositif analysis.

Fighting for Their Future: An Exploratory Study of Online Community Building in the Youth Climate Change Movement

Abstract: While offline iterations of the climate activism movement have spanned decades, today online involvement of youth through social media platforms has transformed the landscape of this social movement. Our research considers how youth climate activists utilize social media platforms to create and direct social movement communities towards greater collective action. Our project analyzes narrative framing and linguistic conventions to better understand how youth climate activists utilized Twitter to build community and mobilize followers around their movement. Our project identifies three emergent strategies, used by youth climate activists, that appear effective in engaging activist communities on Twitter. These strategies demonstrate the power of digital culture, and youth culture, in creating a collective identity within a diverse generation. This fusion of digital and physical resistance is an essential component of the youth climate activist strategy and may play a role in the future of emerging social movements.

Between Political Myths, Dormant Resentments, and Redefinition of the Recent History: A Case Study of Serbian National Identity

Abstract: The subject of the article concerns the issue of constructing and reconstructing national identity. The object of interest here is a sociological case study of Serbian national identity. It includes reconstruction and interpretation of in-depth interviews conducted in Serbia with the representatives of Serbian symbolic elites. The concept of symbolic elites is approached in the discussed research from Teun van Dijk’s perspective. Thus, they are individuals and groups directly involved in the production of public opinion, who have an impact on the content of publicly available knowledge, and the creation and legitimization of public discourse. The work is embedded in the methodological framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and is based on the assumptions of the Discourse‐Historical Approach (DHA). In this optics, the most important thing is the historical and social context of the studied process of the discursive construction of national identity. Therefore, the conclusions also touch upon the historical, political, and social perspective of the formation of Serbian national identity. The reflection also aims at presenting the analysis from the contemporary perspective (mainly in 2008-2020). Thus, paying attention to the political divisions in Serbia and the country’s road to democratization and European integration, the discussed research study shows the comprehensive specifics of the studied national identity.

Archaeological, Alethurgical, and Dispositif Analysis: Discourse Studies on Higher Education in Poland from a Post-Foucauldian Perspective

Abstract: At the present stage of the reception of Foucault’s ideas, various theoretical and methodological trends coexist, within which the concepts of Michel Foucault are used fruitfully in empirical research One of them is discourse studies understood as an inter- and transdisciplinary research area This article distinguishes and describes three post-Foucauldian strategies of discourse analysis, the combined use of which in one research project is a proposal to integrate concepts scattered in Foucault’s various works The strategies distinguished (archaeological, alethurgical, and dispositif) are characterized by the different analytical categories, understanding of discourse, and its relations with knowledge and power The article presents selected results of the complementary use of concepts such as knowledge formation, alethurgy, confession, or the dispositif in the empirical research on the reform of higher education in Poland

Writing Tales of the Future: Five “Balancing Acts” for Globographers

Abstract: Since the early 1990s much has been written about how ethnographers should do fieldwork of the local in a globalizing world. The challenge of communicating their analyses authentically in a world of information overload is much less debated. To rectify this situation, I argue in this paper that five balancing acts are crucial to those who do ethnographies of the global, or “globographers,” in their writing. Emerging from a review of the history of fieldwork and writing, these balancing acts constitute a template of how a communicative consciousness may assist qualitative researchers in achieving ethnographic integrity.

A penile implant: Embodying medical technology

Abstract: This article situates the experiences of having penile implant surgery between medical interventions and privately understood meanings and practices. Using my own experiences, supplemented with information from online sources, I document the changes that occur in the meanings and the practices that implant surgery enables. My analysis derives from the concepts of habitus and the looking glass body, and it begins with a diagnosis of impotence and moves through the various considerations that lead to surgery and its aftermaths. I suggest that understanding how medical technology interacts with everyday meanings contributes to a wider application of the concept of habitus while expanding a symbolic interactionist perspective of the body.

Continuing Social Constraints in Education Agency: The School Choices and Experiences of Middle- Class African American Families in Albany, NY

Abstract: This paper explores the experiences of middle-class African American parents who have enrolled their children in a central-city public school district and the factors that inform and contribute to their school enrollment decisions. Data come from nineteen in-depth interviews with middle-class African American parents in Albany, New York. The paper uses the conceptual framework of empowerment and agency to explore and analyze the findings. Findings suggest that middle-class African American parents possess some measure of empowerment based on their human capital and positive childhood experiences in public schools. The latter denotes the salience of emotions in intergenerational education transmission. Parents’ empowerment, however, does not fully extend to agency. Most parents’ school choices have been structured and narrowed by racial segregation in residence and by the real and perceived racial exclusion in private school settings. Therefore, even for highly-educated, middle-income African Americans, anxieties over racial exclusion act as a strong social constraint on parents’ community and school choices.

Archeology as a Metaphor in Contemporary Culture

Abstract: The scientific discipline of archeology has gone through various stages of its development and improvement of research methods First, it was combined with ancient history and the history of art In the mid-nineteenth century, the base of its chronology was on biblical events Modernist archeology of the twentieth century focused on classifying monuments and reconstructing cultural processes In the second half of the twentieth century, archeology inspired other disciplines of culture and science to “stratigraphically” look at their own history In this way, the stratification of scientific thought (archeology of knowledge), the history of photography (archeology of photography), and the media (archeology of media) began to be analyzed Archeology has become a cognitive metaphor in contemporary culture Lack of knowledge of the theoretical and methodological achievements worked out by archaeologists may, after some time, lead to the trivialization and petrification of the archaeological metaphor, although today it still seems fresh and innovative for “archeology of media,” “archeology of photography,” or “archeology of modernism”

Governmentality without Truth: An Essay on the Role of Foucauldian Thinking in a Post- Truth Society

Abstract: Considering the issue of power in Foucault will always lead to comments on the issue of knowledge and vice versa. What I suggest in this paper, however, is to look into both topics presented in the work by Foucault separately, at least to a certain extent. I believe that the evolution of these two threads in his works allows us to evaluate their suitability differently as far as their relevance to contemporary culture is concerned. Foucault’s approach to the issue of power and its evolution towards so-called governmentality is evidence of how accurately he sensed the direction of changes to the Zeitgeist of Western civilizations, a fact which cannot be said about the evolution of Foucault’s approach to the issue of knowledge, leaning towards the question of truth and truth-telling. The aim of this paper is to substantiate the outlined and differentiated evaluation of Foucault’s oeuvre while, at the same time, highlighting the predominant features of contemporary culture. Special attention will be paid to the role of sociology in governmentality.

Paradoxes of Doctoral Studies in Education Sciences in the Czech Republic

Abstract: Adequate staffing of university studies with qualified academics was completed thanks to the reimplementation of three-stage university education during the post-socialist restoration of higher education in the Czech Republic Thus, the doctoral degree of education has been attained by more than four-fifths of academic staff, with over two-fifths of them being aged 50+ The current course of university studies, including doctoral study programs, is influenced by their focus on educational and research strategy With regards to the regulations for graduating in doctoral studies, doctoral candidates act as homo oeconomicus following neo-liberal educational policy The conditions for doctoral studies, namely, those in educational sciences, thus lead to paradoxes caused by the current higher educational policy The objective of the paper is to analyze the neoliberal set-up of the higher education policy of the Czech Republic in the field of doctoral studies in educational sciences in particular and its possible impacts in the area of labor-market integration of graduates and university training of academics

The Activation and Restoration of Shame in an Intimate Relationship: A First-Hand Account of Self-Injury

Abstract: This paper is grounded in a first-hand account of my own experiences with self-injury and shame. By using my personal diary entries as support for this account and a sociological framework of shame, I explore the process of shame and shame reactions in an intimate relationship. I illustrate how shame was activated by my internalized critical other, how the shame cycle de-stabilized my relationship, and, finally, how shame was restored through the other’s validation and acceptance, or how it led to more shame managed by self-injury. However, this account is not simply about self-analysis, or a need to indulge in my pain; rather, it is an inner dialogue that rests on the commitment to develop a richer understanding of the personal and interpersonal experiences of self-injury and shame. Today, I finally understand how shame works and this has helped me to not get caught up in my emotions. So, although shame may take a hold of me at times, I am no longer, like before, controlled by my shame.

Life Strategies of the Parents of Children with Intellectual Disabilities in the Context of Mixed Social Situations

Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the phenomenon of the managing of the stigma of a child’s disability by their parents. Using the concept of stigma by Erving Goffman, I point to its usefulness in understanding the management of stigma by parents of children with intellectual disabilities in the context of mixed social situations. The research utilizes qualitative techniques with special emphasis on unstructured interviews. The data analysis was performed following the procedures of the grounded theory. As studies have shown, parents of children with disabilities adopt various strategies and tactics during the encounters with other persons and institutions while dealing with everyday hardships.

The Driving Lesson as a Socio-Technical Situation. A Case Study on the Interaction between Learner Driver, Driving Instructor, and the Motor Car

Abstract: A micro-sociological examination of the driving lesson raises the following question: How is the interaction between learner driver and driving instructor structured in this technical setting, and what meaning can be ascribed in this threefold constellation to the vehicle with its various technical elements? This case study examines the orientation patterns which exist between the learner driver, the driving instructor, and the car, which together constitute a socio-technical triangle, and what actions the learner driver needs to learn to enable them to drive the car safely. The theoretical background to the study is provided by interactionist theories, which have been broadened to include a greater sensitivity for the body and technology, and a sociological reading of postphenomenology. Using a method based on this theoretical background and informed by workplace studies, this study observed and made audiovisual recordings of driving lessons. This approach made it possible to undertake a detailed analysis of the situations, reveal how the human body interacts with technology, and how a person’s attention responds to technical information. In these situations, the driving instructor takes on the role of the translator by mediating between various situational definitions—one’s own, that of the inexperienced learner driver, other motorists, and the driver assistance systems in the car. The driving instructor represents the driving school as an institution that is responsible for creating an intersubjectively arranged understanding of how to deal with technology and socio-technical situations.

Temporary Employment, Permanent Stigma? Perceptions of Temporary Agency Workers Across Low- and High-Skilled Jobs

Abstract: Research on temporary agency work emphasizes that temporary agency workers (TAWs), particularly those in low-skilled jobs associated with precariousness and low social prestige, are likely to be exposed to poor treatment, as well as stigmatization. On the contrary, stigmatization of TAWs in high-skilled jobs has not been treated in much detail in previous studies. Literature provides an incomplete picture of stigmatization within the broader field of temporary employment regarding the focus on low-skilled jobs. Hence, the present qualitative study is based on data from interviews of a heterogeneous sample of TAWs employed in low- and high-skilled jobs in Germany. By using and modifying Boyce and colleagues’ (2007) model of stigmatization, the study shows that stigmatizing treatment towards TAWs occurs across all skill levels, although the intensity and form of those experiences, as well as coping strategies, differ. Thereby, this study contributes to a more differentiated and skill level-specific understanding of how TAWs perceive and cope with stigmatization linked to their employment status. It also provides an important opportunity to advance Boyce and colleagues’ (2007) complex model of TAW stigmatization with empirical underpinnings.

“You Have to Accept the Pain”: Body Callusing and Body Capital in Circus Aerialism

Abstract: Little sociological research has examined the work of circus aerialists. Drawing from interviews with 31 circus aerialists in Canada, we explore what aerialists say about their bodies. Circus aerialism is an intense form of physical work, and aerialists endure intense pain during training and performance. Engaging with sociologies of the body and injury, we examine how body capital is generated, maintained, and lost in the career of the aerialist, as well as how injury accelerates this process. Injury and “aging out” of the circus are prominent themes in what aerialists say about their bodies. Arguing that circus aerialism is an undervalued form of work in which risk accumulates in aerialist bodies, we explore how aerialist bodies provide tacit cues about how to avoid injury and when to consider retirement. In the conclusion, we explain how this work contributes to sociologies of the body and circus.

Mooring in the Homeless City. A Practice Theoretical Account of Homeless Urban Dwelling and Emplacement

Abstract: Taking a practice theoretical approach and building on the research conducted with a group of people who live their lives on the streets of two Polish cities, this paper provides an account of the homeless city dwellers’ mode of emplacement. It offers the terms licensed, invisible, motile, material, relational, affective, and ad hoc mooring to describe how homeless people establish a place of and for various activities that make up their everyday practice of inhabiting the city. While highlighting the accomplishments of homeless places, the paper also underscores their tentativeness and instability. It situates the homeless mode of emplacement within a wider landscape of normative urban geography, against which the ways homeless people establish themselves in place are often judged out-of-place. It attends to the role that this transgressive potential plays in limiting homeless dwellers’ capabilities for mooring and considers how they might be enhanced.

The “Illusion” of Social Research/ Action. Reflections on Neo-Colonial Pedagogy

Abstract: In the text, the author demonstrated that regardless of the prevailing regime, the State, by relying on separate laws for people with disabilities (or any other minority group), has created and continues to create colonies of sorts. In the first part of the article, the author presented the difference between postcolonialism and neo-colonialism in relation to people with disabilities and in Disability Studies. Afterward, he highlighted the illusory nature of research and, above all, educational activities in favor of people with disabilities. He argues that in the case of this group of people, we are dealing with neo-colonial pedagogy rather than a postcolonial one.

Deadly Disease vs. Chronic Illness: Competing Understandings of HIV in the HIV Non-Disclosure Debate

Abstract: Over the past several decades, understandings of what it means to have contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have shifted so that an infection once viewed as deadly and ultimately terminal is now largely regarded as chronic and manageable, at least in the West. Yet, the shift has not been complete. There are arenas of discourse where understandings of what health implications HIV carries with it are contested. One such space is the debate concerning the appropriate response to cases of HIV non-disclosure, that is, situations where individuals who are HIV-positive do not disclose their health status to intimate partners. This paper examines the competing constructions of HIV found within this debate, particularly as it has unfolded in Canada. Those who oppose the criminalization of non-disclosure tend to construct HIV as an infection that is chronic and manageable for those who have contracted it, not unlike diabetes. Those who support criminalization have mobilized a discourse that frames the infection as harmful and deadly. We use the case of the HIV non-disclosure debate to make the argument that representations of health conditions can become mired in larger social problems debates in ways that lead to contests over how to understand the fundamental nature of those conditions.

Reframing Patient’s Autonomy in End-of-Life Care Decision-Making: Constructions of Agency in Interviews with Physicians

Abstract: In the research literature, critical viewpoints question the idea of patient autonomy as a robust basis for approaching end-of-life treatments. Yet physicians express distinctly positive attitudes towards patient autonomy and advance directives in questionnaire studies. In this article, we unravel taken-for-granted assumptions about the agency that physicians use when evaluating patient autonomy in end-of-life care. We use Goffmanian frame analysis to analyze semi-structured interviews with eight Finnish physicians. Instead of measuring standardized responses, we explore in detail how distinct evaluations of patient autonomy are made through approving or reserved stand-taking. The results show that the interviewees reframed patient autonomy with the help of biological, medical, ethical, and interaction frames. Through such reframing, the patient’s agency was constructed as vulnerable and weak in contrast to the medical expert with the legitimated capacity to act as an agent for the patient. Further, end-of-life treatment decisions by the patient, as well as the patient’s interests appeared as relationally defined in interactions and negotiations managed by the physician, instead of attesting the sovereign agency of an autonomous actor.

The Social Marginalization of People Living with a Mentally Ill Label–Family, Friends, and Work

Abstract: This paper is based on qualitative research among people diagnosed with a mental illness who voluntarily attend a mental health center. Such individuals are given a degrading “mentally ill” label, which transforms them into a “new” person. This study showed that—due to their label—research participants are often socially marginalized—not only in the public but also in the private sphere. As members of an “organized deviant group” (the mental health center), they follow a “deviant career” and find a job outside the regular job market. Their marginalization is not only caused by their health problems (by their impairment), but they are also disabled through social reactions to these problems. Psychiatry based on the biological model of the disease cannot, therefore, help them without the cooperation of social science approaches dealing with social marginalization.

“You Are First a Chinese Citizen, Then A Consumer”: Presenting and Balancing Identities Online as Chinese International Tourists

Abstract: This paper is based on the analysis of 261 video and word posts collected from four popular social media sites on which Chinese tourists shared their consumption-related experiences during and after the trip. It investigates Chinese international tourists’ diverse presentations of self to a broad audience online through explaining their shopping experiences and product reviews. Tourists are expected to balance multiple identities carefully when they project themselves online as consumers—on the one hand, they present themselves as global consumers and trendsetters who are strategic and savvy; while on the other hand, they still need to preserve and even emphasize their national identity as Chinese patriots. Providing the much-lacking qualitative insight, this study enhances our understanding of international tourists and their consumption behaviors, the construction and presentation of a digital self, and how globalization operates at the micro-level.

Mobilities, Individuation, and Agencies: An Analysis Based on Young Migrants’ Biographical Narratives in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract: Social studies point out the unequal conditions for moving or staying, internally or internationally, that young people from different social sectors face in their biographies. In this article, we analyze the migratory experiences of young people from popular sectors of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. To do that, we put into dialogue recent studies on migration and proposals of the sociology of individuation and the new mobility paradigm. We approach the individuation processes of these young people through the qualitative analysis of their biographical narratives in which their migration experiences emerged as turning points in their lives. The article argues that young migrants from popular sectors draft their agencies and shape themselves as individuals by mobilizing material and symbolic supports and accessing different social shock-absorbers that allow them to cope with three major social challenges in their migratory processes: the socio-labor trial; the family trial, and the identity trial. By identifying the discontinuities and the common evidence present in the migratory experiences of these young people and their families, the paper ends highlighting the articulations among coercions, elasticities, and strategies that these youth migrant mobilize, individually and collectively, around themselves and others, through border-links to create shelters and deal with such challenges.

Organizational Challenges in the Public Sector. A Qualitative Study of the Swedish Armed Forces and Elderly Care

Abstract: Society is continuously impacted by accelerating technical and social changes that challenge individuals, organizations, and societies. This appears to lead to the emergence of negative organizational behavior patterns that impose high levels of demands on employees. Firstly, the purpose of this study is to qualitatively examine how three organizational challenges—organizational anorexia, organizational greed, and organizational narcissism—are expressed in the Swedish public sector. Secondly, the Swedish Armed Forces and the field of elderly care are compared to discover additional organizational challenges by carrying out comparisons. The sample of organizations used is described in the Methods section. The study’s main findings show that these three organizational challenges have been experienced in different ways in these organizations. A new organizational challenge has appeared, organizational temporality, describing participants’ perceptions of time when carrying out their assigned tasks.

Researching Masculinity and Men’s Sexual Health in Bangladesh: Methodological Reflections

Abstract: Sex and sexuality are deemed “sensitive” issues in relatively conservative, predominantly Muslim countries. Men’s sex and sexualities research within such cultural contexts confronts certain challenges and raises important methodological issues. This paper reflects on some of the methodological issues and challenges encountered when carrying out a study in Bangladesh. It reports on a male researcher’s qualitative study of men’s sexual health and masculinity in Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country where sexuality is largely constituted as a taboo subject. The researcher faced challenges in gaining access and in discussing sex and sexuality issues in interview settings. Moreover, the interview context emerged as a site for expressing, negotiating, challenging men and masculinities. Drawing upon experiences in navigating the “field” in Bangladesh, some of the useful ways of researching “sensitive” issues such as sex, sexuality, and masculinity within these settings are suggested, highlighting what works when researching men’s sexual health and masculinity.

An Exploratory Study on American- Born Imams: Negotiating Pastoral Responsibilities and Expectations

Abstract: Symbolic interactionism, applied in the context of Muslim clerics, suggests that society is constructed based on lived experiences and shared symbolic meanings where people see themselves and the social environment through the eyes of others. For this study, data collected from in-depth interviews were examined to investigate the viewpoints and occupational pathways of American born imams. Thus, this study explored the responsibilities assigned to imams and their communal objectives. Overall, this study found several challenges that imams experienced, professional and organizational. Utilizing symbolic interactionism, these issues were explicated, and the following overarching themes were generated: imams received inadequate training as religious leaders in their communities, relationships between the mosque board and an imam can directly reinforce or mitigate a challenging work environment, and it is most advantageous for American communities to hire American-born imams over foreign-born imams. The findings indicate that organizational support extended to imams from mosque boards leads to not only an amicable relationship but more productive community engagement.

Mechanisms of Identity Construction among Members of Pyramid Schemes in Iran: A Critical Ethnography

Abstract: Whereas the emergence of pyramid schemes exerted considerable impacts on people’s lives, up to now, far too little attention has been paid to the experiences of members from the sociological perspective, particularly in non-Western contexts. Therefore, this study illuminates social processes underlying participation in such schemes in a less studied social setting, Iran. This article also critically traces the social and psychological consequences of membership in pyramid schemes. We adapted a critical ethnographic approach, including participant observation of local branch offices, followed by 16 in-depth interviews with the former members of schemes. Our findings suggest that the practices deployed by the schemes lead to the building of social identity, namely, “superhuman,” mainly based on the misinterpretation of the real world. Finding the reality surrounded deliberately contrasted with the firms’ promises, the constructed identity fails, and members lose their social capital.

Supporting the President in a #NotMyPresident Context: Experiences of College-Aged Trump Supporters at a Southern University

Abstract: In light of sexual misconduct allegations involving the former president of the United States, this study analyzes the reasons some university students provide for their continued support of Donald Trump. Relying on ten semi-structured qualitative interviews with college students who align with the president, this paper identifies three interrelated stages making up a model of support. First, students identify their conservative worldviews as helping to explain their initial support of Trump. Second, given the numerous accusations leveled against the president in the media, students readily use neutralization tactics to counter these narratives and rationalize their continued support. Finally, they feel vilified at their university and elsewhere for supporting Trump, and they find it necessary to conceal their opinions. Such experiences do not contribute to them questioning their beliefs. On the contrary, they lead to more entrenched and rigid support of the president. By identifying this three-stage process and applying neutralization theory to better understand it, this paper contributes to the existing sociological literature on the persistence of conservatism in the United States today.