scholarly journals Coming out of the closet "six feet under": textual silences and the social construction of the family stage in the obituary genres

2006 ◽  
pp. 67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Corona Marzol
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Textual Description ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Social Explanation ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis ◽  
Constant Element

The 'Family' stage -the lines devoted to the surviving members of the deceased's family- is a 'constant element' (Hasan 1985) in obituaries. The present study is built up around the structural analysis of genres as developed by Bhatia (1993, 2004), Hasan (1985), Martin (1985, 1992), and Swales (1990). The purpose of this study is to bring a social explanation or understanding to bear on the textual description of the 'Family' stage from a corpus of obituaries published in more than two hundred American and British newspapers collected over a period of three years. The research process has developed two more steps. First, following Huckin's (2004) notion of content analysis, quantitative and qualitative modes have been applied, trying to identify the content which is not manifest. Secondly, the identification of 'textual silences' (Huckin 2002) is followed by an exploratory ethnographic analysis (Scollon 1998) on two case studies. This multi-staged analysis is aimed at a more comprehensive account of the obituary genre as a social process (Kress 1993). It shall be argued that the 'Family' stage encapsulates one of the most controversial topics of our time.

Entanglements between Agency and Vulnerability in the Phenomenon of Birth. Reflections on Children’s Expressions about ‘Being Born’

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2-2020) ◽  
pp. 135-146
Author(s):  
Catrin Heite ◽  
Veronika Magyar-Haas
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Living Environment ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Cultural Embeddedness

Analogously to the works in the field of new social studies of childhood, this contribution deals with the concept of childhood as a social construction, in which children are considered as social actors in their own living environment, engaged in interpretive reproduction of the social. In this perspective the concept of agency is strongly stressed, and the vulnerability of children is not sufficiently taken into account. But in combining vulnerability and agency lies the possibility to consider the perspective of the subjects in the context of their social, political and cultural embeddedness. In this paper we show that what children say, what is important to them in general and for their well-being, is shaped by the care experiences within the family and by their social contexts. The argumentation for the intertwining of vulnerability and agency is exemplified by the expressions of an interviewed girl about her birth and by reference to philosophical concepts about birth and natality.

Acute Loss and the Social Construction of Blame

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
African American Parents ◽  
Disenfranchised Grief ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
The Social ◽  
Murdered Children ◽  
Middle Class Blacks

Using interview and observation data from white and African-American parents of murdered children, this article explores a primary social process accompanying acute loss: the social construction of blame. Findings reveal that race and class are primary forces that shape not only the experience of loss, but also attributions of cause, designations of blame, and the construction of post-mortem identities. While poor Black informants encountered avoidance strategies on the part of authorities (e.g., police) when their child was murdered, whites and upper middle-class Blacks received emotional support. This differential treatment by authorities led to either legitimate or disenfranchised grief, both of which were addressed by the strategy of “sanctification,” a form of emotion work.

Sociological Perspectives on Deaf Identities

2019 ◽  
pp. 27-52
Author(s):  
Leala Holcomb ◽  
Thomas P. Horejes ◽  
Oscar Ocuto ◽  
Joseph Santini
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Deaf Community ◽  
Human History ◽  
Community Influences ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
The Impact

This chapter delineates three foundational social questions covering identity and its confluence with society. The authors, deaf academics, use these foundational questions as a framework to examine sociological perceptions of deaf identities. These questions guide the reader to an understanding of the structure of the deaf community, where it stands in human history, and who succeeds in the greater context of society in general. The authors integrate their own personal experiences within an academic framework grounded in sociology to explore the impact of social institutions, including the family, medical and educational systems, and the community influences on the social construction of deaf identities.

La Santa Muerte in Mexico City: The Cult and its Ambiguities

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
REGNAR ALBÆK KRISTENSEN
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Santa Muerte ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

AbstractThis article explores the worship of La Santa Muerte through a geo-mapping of street altars in Mexico City followed by an ethnographic analysis of the devotees' relationships with the saint. I find that this saint has gained momentum among the fast-growing prison population over the last two decades. In contrast to studies that emphasise the desertification of mass incarceration elsewhere, this study finds that La Santa Muerte connects families across the social abyss of imprisonment. I suggest that the family-like relationships that devotees maintain with this saint are crucial to understanding her success. Rather than a one-dimensional sacred defender of criminals and police she is adopted by prisoners, prison officers, police and their families as a capricious ‘family member’, embracing the same ambivalence as the forces she helps to navigate.

Sport, Physical Education, and Islam: Muslim Independent Schooling and the Social Construction of Masculinities

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samaya Farooq ◽  
Andrew Parker
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Independent School ◽  
Symbolic Interactionist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interactionist Perspective ◽  
Religious Ideals ◽  
Ethnographic Analysis

This qualitative study of a British Islamic independent school explores the construction of religious masculinities within the lives of a cohort of Muslim adolescent males. An ethnographic analysis is presented whereby boys’ physical education is located as a strategic site for the development of Muslim masculine identities. Adopting a symbolic interactionist perspective, the article discusses the representation of pupil masculinities within the school and the specific role that Islam, sport, and physical education played in respondent lives. Findings highlight how religion provided a central mechanism through which pupils sought to construct and negotiate their masculine selves. In turn, physical education served as an avenue through which respondents could embrace and embody their sense of self and express a series of broader religious ideals.

scholarly journals Bride kidnapping in Northern Kyrgyzstan as the initial stage of subjectivity-forming process Bride kidnapping in Northern

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylwia Pietrowiak
Keyword(s):  
Young Woman ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Collective Agency ◽  
Kyrgyz Republic ◽  
Female Subjectivity ◽  
Forming Process ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family

Kyz ala kachuu (Kyrgyz: кыз ала качуу) translated as “to take a young woman and run away” is a form of women kidnapping for marriage purposes in Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic). This term applies to either of the performed actions: kidnapping with permission from the future wife, and without her consent. In this article, I propose an anthropological interpretation of bride kidnapping, using the concept of ‘person-making’. In my analysis, I go beyond the act of kidnapping itself, which I present as part of a wider social process. Drawing on my fieldwork in Northern Kyrgyzstan, I show that marriage through kidnapping is the first stage in the social process of building female subjectivity and the way ofreproduction of Kyrgyz families. The reproduction takes place through the acquisition, familiarization, and constitution of subjectivity resulting from the collective agency of all the family members.

The Structure of Creativity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clayton Childress
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Research Process ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Artistic Creation ◽  
Her Family ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
And Training

This chapter examines how Jarrettsville came to be, and how even its title was eventually derived, by tracing the social life of artistic creation within it. Between 1998 and 2004, Cornelia Nixon was working on a novel titled Martha's Version, the story of Jarrettsville based entirely from Martha Jane Cairnes's first-person perspective. Nixon was sixteen years old on a cross-country flight when her mother first told her the family story that would become her inspiration for writing Jarrettsville. The chapter first narrates the true events that Nixon fictionalized in Jarrettsville before discussing her education, writing style, and literary influences; her family and personal life as raw materials for the novel; and the research process for Jarrettsville. It also considers how the practice of writing is influenced by things such as background experiences and training, and the field of creation by social interactions. Finally, it explains how Jarrettsville came to be called Jarrettsville.

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