scholarly journals Enduring or Crossing Distance for Love? Negotiating Love and Distance in the Lives of Mixed Transnational Couples

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Chiyoko King-O'Riain
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Intercultural Couples ◽  
Globalization Studies

Within the field of transnationalism and globalization, studies have tended to focus on the flow of people, ideas and goods ( Giddens 2003 , Beck 2011 , Fitzgerald 2008 ). Within the field of migration this has meant importantly an increasing focus on studies of gender, migration and emotion ( Brooks and Simpson 2013 ; Svasek and Skrbis 2007 , Baldassar 2008 ). However, these studies tend to focus on the context of migration and how that shapes decisions around migration and belonging without focusing on the effect of migration on emotions themselves. Through ethnographic narrative interviews with 36 mixed transnational couples, this article analyses how the emotion of love is understood and practiced within some ‘global families’ ( Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2014 ). The article finds that for the mixed intercultural couples interviewed here, distance played a role in defining and confirming love (love at a distance) and was often seen as a reason to migrate or move (crossing distance for love) as a test or proof that love was real. These different cultural meanings of love show how distance could increasingly play a role in how we define and practice love today.

scholarly journals One at a Time: LGBTQ Polyamory and Relational Citizenship in the 21st Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-725
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Santos
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Southern Europe ◽  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Intellectual Engagement

Drawing on biographic narrative interviews with self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and/or queer polyamorous people in Portugal, this article explores the contradictions and opportunities involved in living as a relationally diverse LGBTQ intimate citizen in Southern Europe. The article starts by unpacking citizenship in relation to dominant sociolegal expectations around monogamy. In this section, it is suggested that the mononormative underpinnings of law and social policy restrain intimate citizenship. The second part of the article explores the legal and cultural meanings attached to coupledom, suggesting the notion of relational performativity as an analytical tool for interpreting cultural norms and expectations around partnering. The last section discusses citizenship and coupledom in light of the biographic narratives produced by LGBTQ polyamorous participants in the INTIMATE study in Portugal. Based on thematic analysis of these narratives, it is argued that the framework of intimate citizenship is not fixed, and the notion of relational citizenship is offered. Arguably, relational citizenship enables a gradual detachment from the strictly monogamous underpinnings of citizenship studies, hence offering an opportunity for further intellectual engagement with intimacy and diversity in the 21st century.

Der Alltag pflegender Angehöriger – Was sie während des Spitalaufenthalts ihres Familienmitglieds beschäftigt im Hinblick auf den Austritt und was sie diesbezüglich für sich benötigen: eine qualitative Studie

Pflege ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Küttel ◽  
Petra Schäfer-Keller ◽  
Corinne Brunner ◽  
Antoinette Conca ◽  
Philipp Schütz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pflegende Angehörige ◽  
Qualitative Studie ◽  
Narrative Interviews

Hintergrund: Pflegende Angehörige tragen eine große Verantwortung bei der Betreuung ihres älteren kranken Familienmitglieds. Sie sind nach einem Spitalaufenthalt des kranken Familienmitglieds oft ungenügend über den Gesundheitszustand, Prognosen, Komplikationen sowie Pflege- und Betreuungsmaßnahmen informiert. Unbekannt ist, was sie hinsichtlich ihres Alltags nach der Entlassung beschäftigt und welche Bedürfnisse sie diesbezüglich für sich haben. Ziel: Mit der Studie wurde untersucht, was pflegende Angehörige in ihrer Lebenssituation vor der Entlassung ihres Familienmitglieds beschäftigte und was sie für sich benötigten. Methode: Es wurden acht narrative Interviews mit Angehörigen von pflegebedürftigen älteren Patient(inn)en geführt und mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse nach Mayring ausgewertet. Ergebnisse: Die pflegenden Angehörigen beschäftigten sich mit dem Erhalten eines funktionierenden Alltags. Dazu gehörten Pflege- und Haushaltsarbeiten und das Bedürfnis nach persönlichem Freiraum. Die Hoffnung half, die Realität des sich verschlechternden Gesundheitszustands des Familienmitglieds auszuhalten. Die Art der familiären Bindung beeinflusste den funktionierenden Alltag. Die pflegenden Angehörigen hatten unterschiedliche Erwartungen an ein Eingebunden sein im Spital. Schlussfolgerung: Um pflegende Angehörige in ihrer Lebenssituation zu unterstützen ist es wichtig, die funktionierende Alltagsroutine zu erfassen, sowie das Bedürfnis nach Freiraum und den Edukationsbedarf bezüglich Krankheitsverlauf, Unterstützungsangeboten und Symptommanagement zu erkennen. Es braucht Untersuchungen, wie pflegende Angehörige im Entlassungsprozess ihre Verantwortung einbringen und welche Aufgaben sie übernehmen können.

Forced migration and psychosocial health: meaning-making through autobiographical narratives in the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Psoinos
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
Autobiographical Narratives ◽  
Narrative Interviews ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Autobiographical Narrative

This paper explores how refugees in the UK perceive the relation between their experience of migration and their psychosocial health. Autobiographical narrative interviews were carried out with fifteen refugees residing in the UK. The findings reveal a contrast between the negative stereotypes concerning refugees’ psychosocial health and the participants’ own perceptions. Two of the three emerging narratives suggest a more balanced view of refugees’ psychosocial health, since- in contrast to the stereotypes- most participants did not perceive this through the lens of ‘vulnerability’. The third narrative revealed that a hostile social context can negatively shape refugees’ perceptions of their psychosocial health. This runs counter to the stereotype of refugees as being exclusively responsible for their ‘passiveness’ and therefore for the problems they face. 

Weighing Ourselves Down

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Hodges
Keyword(s):  
Weight Loss ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Canonical Narratives

Bodyweight—the number on the scale—has been constructed as an objective measure of health, and weight loss as synonymous with healthier. Weight has been used as a way of classifying and controlling people, ignoring the embodied, relational, and cultural meanings attached to health and weight. Instead, these subjective experiences are lumped into a numerical category. Our society's obsession with weight is weighing us down and most of us should toss out our scales. Scale stories offer a departure from canonical narratives about physical health and body image by emphasizing emotions and lived experiences instead of bodyweight and numerical categories.

The End of the Word as We Know It

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 165-184
Author(s):  
Timothy Beal
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Cultural Icon ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Material Objectivity ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Relationship

This essay attends to a distinction that requires closer examination and theorization in our discourse on iconic books and other scriptures: the difference between iconic object and cultural icon. How do we conceive of relations between the particular, ritualized iconicities of particular scriptures in particular religious contexts and the cultural iconicities of scriptures in general, such as “the Bible” or “the Quran,” whose visual and material objectivity is highly ambiguous? How if at all are the iconic cultural meanings of the ideas of such books related to the particular iconic textual objects more or less instantiate them? These questions are explored through particular focus on the relationship between the particular iconicities of particular print Bibles, as iconic objects, and the general iconicity of the cultural icon of the Bible.

Tshivenda Female Attire: A Socio-cultural Significance

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matodzi Rebecca Raphalalani ◽  
Mashudu Churchill Mashige
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Dress Codes ◽  
Verbal Meaning

This study investigated, through observation of the Tshivenḓa female dress codes, the socio-cultural significance of such dress codes as a means of non-verbal communication. The non-verbal meaning embedded in different items of dresses conveys messages from the wearers to observers. The study adopted  a qualitative  design, since it used  document analysis and literature review as a means to adduce evidence that Tshivenḓa dress codes not only communicate socio-cultural meanings to the observer, but also signify gender, age group, rank, authority, status, and identity, as well as power relations—including the supernatural and the sacred. The study also revealed that there are dress codes that are specifically worn during initiation ceremonies among the Vhavenḓa people. In conclusion, we recommend that knowledge of Tshivenḓa dress codes should form part of the overall indigenous knowledge that needs to be studied in institutions of basic and higher education, and that for the sake of preserving this valuable information, communities need to be proactive in disseminating it to the younger generation.

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