Seen But Not Heard: Personal Narratives of Systemic Failure Within the School-to-Prison Pipeline

This manuscript recounts the writing of inmates in a writing workshop project taught by the author at San Quentin State Prison. Through the process of writing personal narratives the inmates came to render new meaning from their lived experience. The process of writing bypassed rigid defenses developed in prison, and inmates were able to write and share without being left vulnerable. Writing, in this way, helped inmates who participated to escape the monotony and boredom of prison life and provided opportunity for reflection and personal growth.

Download Full-text

“Crazy Jack” and the “Gay CEO”: Visions, Entrepreneurship, and the Chinese State in the New Digital Economy

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs ◽

10.1177/1868102621991558 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 63-85

Author(s):

Marina Svensson

Keyword(s):

Social Relations ◽

Personal Narratives ◽

Digital Economy ◽

The State ◽

Business Leader ◽

Online Spaces ◽

Chinese State ◽

To Receive

This article analyses the visions, careers, and companies of Jack Ma of Alibaba and Geng Le of Blue City. Jack Ma is a well-known business leader and visionary, whereas the less well-known Geng Le only began to receive more attention since launching a successful gay dating app in 2012. The article focuses on the personal narratives and visions of these two IT entrepreneurs. It provides new perspectives on the role of individual entrepreneurs in relation to the Chinese state’s global ambitions and vision of creating a “strong internet country.” It argues that the commercialisation and platformisation of the Chinese internet, and the growing transnational nature of Chinese IT companies, serve to make them more, not less, co-dependent of the state and its visions. The internet’s emancipatory potential is today increasingly conflated with consumption, and online spaces and social relations are subject to both commodification and datafication.

Download Full-text

Bonded from Brokenness: A Collaborative Autoethnography on Maternal Bereavement

Illness Crisis & Loss ◽

10.1177/1054137320988476 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 105413732098847

Author(s):

Gina C. Whalen ◽

Tara E. Simmons

Keyword(s):

Data Analysis ◽

Data Collection ◽

Personal Narratives ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Sociocultural Context ◽

Death Of A Child ◽

Dialogue Process ◽

Constructing Meaning ◽

Maternal Grief

The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of maternal bereavement. As scholar practitioners the authors offer their personal narratives to bring awareness to the multifaceted aspects of grieving the death of a child. Using collaborative autoethnography as the study’s methodology enabled the authors to explore their connection to the sociocultural context of maternal grief. Data collection consisted of a dialogue process that took place electronically through the course of asynchronous messages. Data analysis revealed three interrelated themes: transformation, constructing meaning, and creative ways of knowing. The findings are examined in light of literature regarding maternal bereavement and the expressing of grief through writing. The study concludes with a discussion on implications and recommendations for bereaved mothers and those who serve this population.

Download Full-text

Narratives of normality: Finnish prisoners envisioning their future

Punishment & Society ◽

10.1177/14624745211007192 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146247452110071

Author(s):

Emma Villman

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Personal Narratives ◽

Normal Life ◽

Life Script ◽

Present Life

The ambition of living ‘a normal life’ appears to be common among prisoners prior to release. Besides portraying for the life desired upon release, the notion of a normal life can say something about what the persons aspiring to it thinks of their present life, what they want their life to be like in future, and what they consider attainable. This article explores the subjective and social considerations of prisoners’ desires for normality. Qualitative interviews with prisoners at low-security open prisons in Finland ( N = 45) revealed three narratives of normality: (1) nostalgic normality, balancing the disruption caused by imprisonment; (2) imagined normality, envisioning a future life script; (3) challenging views of normality, which is still desired, but whose legal and conventional norms are contested. While prison authorities and prisoners generally idealize normality in terms of conduct, prisoners’ stories reveal that they utilize the notion for a number of reasons. The personal narratives of normality can function as genuine and strategic expressions of conformity or resistance. In their narratives, the prisoners disclose the obstacles to normality that they anticipate, showing the uncertainty behind their simple wish to “just live a normal life.”

Download Full-text