Anthropologists Meet the 15M: The Rise of Engaged Ethnography

1969 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-344
Author(s):  
Beltran Roca ◽  
Iban Diaz-Parra ◽  
Vanessa Gómez-Bernal
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Engaged Ethnography ◽  
Feminist Movements

In 2011 we were involved as activists in labour, 15M, and the housing and feminist movements. Part of our scientific production became intertwined with our militancy. In addition, drawing on our research and militant experiences in the cycle of struggle that started in 2011, we noticed that the process of questioning and delegitimisation was also affecting the ambit of the social sciences. Thus, we undertook a review of the scientific literature on the 15M in order to ascertain whether the epistemological perspectives and the methodological choices of these studies were related in some way to the crisis of representation that was affecting other social institutions. This is the objective of this article. First, it explains the strategy we followed in searching the literature on the 15M. Second, it introduces the findings of the literature review on this social movement, both in Spanish and in international academic journals. Third, it proposes a typology of engaged ethnographic research. Fourth, it provides a series of limitations and precautions that researchers should bear in mind when putting this research technique into practice. Fifth, it includes a final section synthesising the main conclusions of this article regarding the anthropological production of the 15M, the types of engaged ethnography, and the limitations of this technique.

Practicing Narrative Inquiry II

2020 ◽  
pp. 283-328
Author(s):  
Arthur P. Bochner ◽  
Andrew F. Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Small Story ◽  
The Life Course

Narrative inquiry provides an opportunity to humanize the human sciences, placing people, meaning, and personal identity at the center of research, inviting the development of reflexive, relational, dialogic, and interpretive methodologies, and drawing attention to the need to focus not only on the actual but also on the possible and the good. In this chapter, we focus on the intellectual, existential, empirical, and pragmatic development of the turn toward narrative. We trace the rise of narrative inquiry as it evolved in the aftermath of the crisis of representation in the social sciences. The chapter synthesizes the changing methodological orientations of qualitative researchers associated with narrative inquiry as well as their ethical commitments. In the second half of the chapter, our focus shifts to the divergent standpoints of small-story and big-story researchers; the differences between narrative analysis and narratives under analysis; and narrative practices that seek to help people form better relationships, overcome oppressive canonical identities, amplify or reclaim moral agency, and cope better with contingencies and difficulties experienced over the life course. We anticipate that narrative inquiry will continue to situate itself within an intermediate zone between art and science, healing and research, self and others, subjectivity and objectivity, and theories and stories.

scholarly journals The Social Life of the “Forever Chemical”

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Daniel Renfrew ◽  
Thomas W. Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Public ◽  
Toxic Event ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

This article examines the social life of PFAS contamination (a class of several thousand synthetic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and maps the growing research in the social sciences on the unique conundrums and complex travels of the “forever chemical.” We explore social, political, and cultural dimensions of PFAS toxicity, especially how PFAS move from unseen sites into individual bodies and into the public eye in late industrial contexts; how toxicity is comprehended, experienced, and imagined; the factors shaping regulatory action and ignorance; and how PFAS have been the subject of competing forms of knowledge production. Lastly, we highlight how people mobilize collectively, or become demobilized, in response to PFAS pollution/ toxicity. We argue that PFAS exposure experiences, perceptions, and responses move dynamically through a “toxicity continuum” spanning invisibility, suffering, resignation, and refusal. We off er the concept of the “toxic event” as a way to make sense of the contexts and conditions by which otherwise invisible pollution/toxicity turns into public, mass-mediated, and political episodes. We ground our review in our ongoing multisited ethnographic research on the PFAS exposure experience.

In Search of Respect in Criminal Justice

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-40
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Watson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
General Terms ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Simple Question ◽  
Critical Enquiry

The principal aim of the chapter is to examine the merits of respect as a concept of critical enquiry. This is an ambitious task, not least because it involves a challenge to the definitional self-evidence of respect to which criminal justice scholars and practitioners routinely subscribe. The chapter pursues three distinct lines of enquiry and reflection. What is respect? The first task is to attend to this deceptively simple question. In so doing, the chapter assembles materials on respect from philosophy and elsewhere in the social sciences. Second, having explored what respect means in general terms—though this is hotly contested—the chapter sketches and filters the most prominent classic and contemporary works into an understanding of respect for criminal justice. By initiating a dialogue with related disciplines in this way, the aim is to build a strong conceptual platform from which to engage with the substantive material on policing and imprisonment in subsequent chapters. Third, the chapter situates respect in criminal justice in contextual and methodological terms. Much of this work must be justificatory both of respect and of my own methodological choices. Having explained in some detail what respect means and why it has been selected for examination, the chapter considers why policing and imprisonment have been selected as contexts for that examination, and how an interpretive approach offers a means by which to conduct that examination.

Carl Menger's theory of invisible-hand explanations

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Haller
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Individual

Carl Menger's theory of invisible-hand explanations is rooted in his methodology of the social sciences. Contrary to his 18th-century Scottish forerunners he explains both the emergence and the persistence of unplanned social institutions exclusively by the individual pursuit of perceived self-interest. Contrary to Hayek's evolutionary functionalism, Menger's theory is not confined to the explanation of efficient or beneficial institutions. And contrary to Buchanan and Vanberg's constitutional contractualism, it does not require that people form stable preferences over rules.

scholarly journals What Can Experiments Tell Us About How to Improve Government Performance?

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel M. Gisselquist ◽  
Miguel Niño-Zarazúa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Experimental Methods ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Core Questions ◽  
Key Questions

AbstractIn recent years, experimental methods have been both highly celebrated, and roundly criticized, as a means of addressing core questions in the social sciences. They have received particular attention in the analysis of development interventions. This paper focuses on two key questions: (1) what have been the main contributions of RCTs to the study of government performance? and (2) what could be the contributions, and relatedly the limits? It draws inter alia on a new systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental studies on governance to consider both the contributions and limits of RCTs in the extant literature. A final section introduces the studies included in this symposium in light of this discussion. Collectively, the studies push beyond polarized debates over experimental methods towards a new middle ground, considering both how experimental work can better address identified weaknesses and how experimental and non-experimental techniques can be combined most fruitfully.

Compensatory Justice and Social Institutions

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph H. Carens
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Ought Implies Can ◽  
The Social ◽  
Compensatory Justice ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Moral Philosophers

Moral philosophers are fond of the dictum “ought implies can” and even deontologists normally admit the need to take account of consequences in the design of social institutions. Too often, however, philosophers fail to take advantage of the knowledge provided by the social sciences about the constraints and consequences of alternative forms of social organization. By discussing ideals in abstraction from the problems of institutionalization, they fail at least to see some of the important consequences and costs of a proposed ideal, and sometimes they fail even to understand the ideal itself.

scholarly journals Evidentiary function of systematic reviews of scientific literature: Epistemological foundations and methodological derivatives

2021 ◽  
pp. 25-40
Author(s):  
N. S. Babich
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Systematic Reviews ◽  
Selection Criteria ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Scientific Communication ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
And Migration

The author analyzes implicit epistemological assumptions of the modern systematic reviews of scientific literatures that usually are left unconsidered or problematized. The foundations for building the image of scientific communication as representative, clearly cut and easily analyzed reflection of efficient search for and spread of truth which approaching is characterized by increased explorers’ consent. Generalization of this communication brings the evidential effect to advance argument in scientific discussions. However, a series of conditions for adequate conversion and «migration» of published conclusions into the conclusions of systematic review has to be provided to preserve evidential effect in summarizing analysis. The essential components of systematic reviewing methodology comprise: setting the task of obtaining quantified results; selection criteria for unambiguous correspondence between the model of process under scientific investigation and totality of publications; representative observation of relevant publications and making conclusions based on comparative evidential effect of research and consent level achieved. The systematic reviews compliant with the above requirements make them a powerful instrument of evidence in the social sciences, biology and medicine.

scholarly journals The End-Purpose of Teaching Social Sciences and the Curricular Inclusion of Social Problems

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Delfín Ortega-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Points Of View

The most recent scientific literature on the treatment of social problems or controversial social questions in the social sciences classroom and their inclusion into curricula emphasizes the need to introduce students into large-scale social debates where different points of view exist, different interests are at stake, and where it is desirable that they construct their own opinions in that respect from a critical and reasoned perspective [...]

scholarly journals Identifications, Cultures, and ‘Groupness’: Reflecting on Culture from Ethnographic Research in Argentina

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
Soledad Balerdi
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Indigenous Community ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Buenos Aires Province ◽  
La Plata ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
Sciences Sociales

This paper reflects on the precautions to be taken into account when addressing the study, from the point of view of the social sciences, of cultures and communities. This is done through ethnographic research in a neighbourhood (barrio) of migrants from an indigenous community in the province of Chaco, in northern Argentina, who have migrated to the city of La Plata (in Buenos Aires province) and have settled on its periphery. The article starts from the idea that ethnicity comes into play, situationally, as a resource rather than as a distinct and immutable feature. Even when it is necessary to describe how notions like culture and ethnicity act in practice and what meaning they have for the actors, social researchers should not  historicize them in the specific contexts in which they are brought into play.Keywords: culture, ethnicity, indigenous community, ethnography, ArgentinaRésumé: Cet article met en évidence les précautions et les enjeux à prendre en considération en sciences sociales lorsque l’on aborde les questions culturelles dans les communautés. Cet article met en évidence un travail de terrain de type ethnographique dans un quartier (barrio) de La Plata (province de Buenor Aires) où se trouve une forte concentration de population migrante d’autochtones en provenance de la province de Chaco, dans le nord de l’Argentine. Plutôt que d’approcher l’ethnicité dans une perspective essentialiste et d’en faire une caractéristique immuable de l’identité, cet article s’inspire d’une approche relationnelle. Plutôt que de tenter de figer le sens de notions telles « ethnicité » ou «culture », cet article met en evidence l’importance de reconstruire le sens de ces notions à partir des données contextuelles et du sens qu’elles revêtent pour les acteurs.Mots clé: culture, ethnicité, communauté indigene, ethnographie, Argentine

scholarly journals An interdisciplinary perspective on the theology of masculinity

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Rybicki ◽  
Andrzej K. Jastrzębski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Identity Crisis ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
The Other ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spiritual Theology ◽  
Feminist Movements

In contemporary academic discourse, there has been a strong tendency to shape theology according to a viewpoint based on the achievements of other sciences, especially those found in philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology. This has been particularly illustrated in the issue of masculinity. In this context, a question arises as follows: does theology have something to say to the social sciences? Or, does it only have to submit to them and simply fulfil the role of a commentator? The setting of this study has been the contemporary crisis in understanding masculinity, and the theological reflection that this situation calls for. To address this challenge, we have used a historical-analytical method in which we traced the historical and philosophical underpinnings of the concept of masculinity, with a special focus on modernity, in order to clearly understand the present state of the debate around masculinity.As a result, we have proposed some direction for future theological development, demonstrating that theology may also influence and inspire the other sciences. In conclusion, we have encouraged a deeper collaboration of various sciences that have already developed a reflection on masculinity, whilst avoiding unnecessary biases and simplification; we have sought to establish a better collaboration between feminist movements and theological reflection as well as making use of theology’s potential to inspire other sciences such as psychology, sociology and anthropology in this endeavour.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Using such an interdisciplinary collaboration, theology can supply a more positive and hope-giving picture of the contemporary male human being facing an identity crisis, as is demonstrated predominantly in the social sciences. Special attention to this topic has been given in Spiritual Theology.

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