Not in our name: collective identity of the Serbian Women in Black

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (04) ◽  
pp. 607-623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bojan Bilić
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Activist Group ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Strategic Options ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
Cross Fertilization

The Belgrade-based activist groupWomen in Blackhas been for twenty years now articulating a feminist anti-war stance in an inimical socio-political climate. The operation of this anti-patriarchal and anti-militarist organization, which has resisted numerous instances of repression, has not been until now systematically approached from a social movement perspective. This paper draws upon a range of empirical methods, comprising life-story interviews, documentary analysis and participant observation, to address the question as to how it was possible for this small circle of activists to remain on the Serbian/post-Yugoslav civic scene for the last two decades. My central argument is that a consistent collective identity, which informs the group's resource mobilization and strategic options, holds the key to the surprising survival of this activist organization. I apply recent theoretical advances on collective identity to the case of the BelgradeWomen in Blackwith the view of promoting a potentially fruitful cross-fertilization between non-Western activism and the Western conceptual apparatus for studying civic engagement.

Mid-life Chinese women’s understandings of sporting pain and injury: A non-Western cultural analysis via the Confucian concept of ‘ren’

2020 ◽  
pp. 101269022090638
Author(s):  
Lucen Liu ◽  
Richard Pringle
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Table Tennis ◽  
Observation Study ◽  
Tennis Players ◽  
Gender Culture ◽  
Immigrant Identity ◽  
Confucian Philosophy ◽  
Life Story Interviews

This study explored middle-aged Chinese female table tennis players’ experiences of pain and injuries in the context of life in a foreign country (New Zealand). Data were collected in two table tennis clubs via a year-long participant observation study and through life-story interviews. The Confucian concept of ren, which has similarities to new-materialist theorising, was drawn upon to frame our interpretations of the participants’ experiences of pain and injury. The concept encourages individuals who have been raised in Chinese communities to value social connections, have sympathy for others and strive for harmony. Our study correspondingly examined how aspects of age, gender, culture, immigrant identity and Confucian philosophy interlink to shape experiences of table tennis pain and injury. Results illustrated that our participants were willing to tolerate moderate pain during participation as they were motivated to enhance community solidarity. In contrast to studies that have examined ageing athletes from western countries, our participants did not tolerate pain with the desire to prove one’s individual capability. This study contributes to a non-Western cultural reading of sports pain and injury to illustrate how broader cultural dynamics shape such experiences.

scholarly journals We are what we tell: an enquiry into NGOs' organizational identity and accountability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Pianezzi
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Over Time

PurposeThis study offers a critical inquiry into accountability vis-à-vis organizational identity formation. It investigates how accountability evolves in the transformation of an NGO operating in the field of migration management from an informal grassroots group into a fully-fledged organization.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is the outcome of a participatory action research project on Welcome Refugees (WR), a UK-based NGO. The project involved documentary analysis, focus group and semi-structured interviews, field notes, and participant observation. The analysis draws from poststructuralist theorization to explain the interplay between organizational identity and different forms of NGO accountability over time.FindingsThe study shows how different forms of accountability became salient over time and were experienced differently by organizational members, thus leading to competing collective identity narratives. Organizational members felt accountable to beneficiaries in different ways, and this was reflected in their identification with the organization. Some advocated a rights-based approach that partially resonated with the accountability demands of external donors, while others aimed at enacting their feelings of accountability by preserving their closeness with beneficiaries and using a need-based approach. These differences led to an identity struggle that was ultimately solved through the silencing of marginalized narratives and the adoption of an adaptive regime of accountability.Practical implicationsThe findings of the case are of practical relevance to quasi-organizations that struggle to form and maintain organizational identity in their first years of operation. Their survival depends not only on their ability to accommodate and/or resist a multiplicity of accountability demands but also on their ability to develop a shared and common understanding of identity accountability.Originality/valueThe paper problematizes rather than takes for granted the process through which organizations acquire a viable identity and the role of accountability within them.

scholarly journals Transnational Involvement: Reading Quantitative Studies in Light of Qualitative Data

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Erlend Paasche ◽  
Katrine Fangen
Keyword(s):  
Feedback Loop ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Qualitative Case Studies ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Adult Immigrants

Studies of migrant transnationalism are dominated by qualitative case studies. To take the field further, there is a need for more quantitative studies and for connecting quantitative and qualitative studies through a reiterative feedback loop. In order to contribute to this, we take two refined and original quantitative studies, one by Snel et al. and one by Portes et al., as a vantage point, commenting on the authors’ organization of analytical categories and their operationalization of key concepts, in light of our own, qualitative data. These data come from a research project, EUMARGINS, where we analyze processes of inclusion and exclusion of young adult immigrants and descendants in seven European countries, using participant observation and life-story interviews in combination with statistical data. We conclude that the process whereby young migrants identify themselves in terms of ethnicity and belonging is context-specific, multidimensional, and hard to study quantitatively.

scholarly journals Telling migrant stories in collaborative photography research: Photographic practices and the mediation of migrant voices

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 643-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Vincent A Cabañes
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Observation Data ◽  
Subject Selection ◽  
Personal Stories ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
Selection Practices

This article examines how photographic practices in collaborative research might mediate migrant voices. It looks at the case of Shutter Stories, a collaborative photography project featuring images by Indian and Korean migrants in Manila, the Philippines. Drawing on life-story interviews and participant observation data, I identify two ways that the photographic selection practices in the project mediated the migrants’ photo essays. One is how subject selection practices led the participants to use both strategic and ‘medium’ essentialism in choosing their topics. The second is how technique selection practices enabled the participants to express vernacular creativity in crafting their images. I argue that the mediation instantiated by Shutter Stories fostered the participants’ ability to use photo essays to articulate voices that simultaneously conveyed their personal stories and engaged the viewing public. However, I also identify the limits of this mediation, indicating how future projects can better enable migrant voices.

scholarly journals Pastoreo extensivo en un pueblo de Soria: Etnografía de un mundo en extinción

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-56
Author(s):  
Anna Mata Romeu
Keyword(s):  
Life Story ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Cultivation Systems ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Historia De Vida ◽  
The Impact

El artículo ofrece datos sobre el pastoreo extensivo y sobre los sistemas de cultivo y las formas de vida hasta los años 70 en Torreandaluz, un pueblo del suroeste soriano. Se fundamenta en una etnografía llevada a cabo entre mediados de 2015 y la actualidad. Está basada en la observación participante, la historia de vida de un pastor de Torreandaluz y entrevistas informales a agricultores y pastores jubilados del lugar. Pretende ofrecer una visión sobre el impacto que sobre las formas de agricultura y ganadería ovina extensiva, así como sobre las formas de vida, tuvo la llegada de las técnicas de la llamada Revolución Verde. The article offers data on extensive shepherding, cultivation systems and lifestyles up to the 1970s, in Torreandaluz, a village in the southwest of Soria province. It is based on an ethnography carried out from the middle of 2015 until today. The participant observation, the life story of a shepherd of Torreandaluz and informal interviews with farmers and retired shepherds of the place made up this study. It intends to offer a vision about the impact that the arrival of the techniques of the so-called Green Revolution had on agriculture and extensive sheep farming, as well as on forms of life.

Creating Transnational Solidarity: The Use of Narrative in the U.S.-Central America Peace Movement

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon Nepstad
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Peace Movement ◽  
Central American ◽  
Transnational Social Movements ◽  
The Social ◽  
Transnational Solidarity ◽  
The U.S

As social problems become increasingly global, activists are working across state boundaries and forming transnational social movements. However, there is little information that illuminates how groups are able to overcome ethnic, class, ideological and cultural differences that could be obstacles to collaboration. Through an analysis of the story of Salvadoran martyr Archbishop Romero, I demonstrate how this narrative fostered solidarity between the progressive Central American church and U.S. Christians. By symbolically mirroring the social ontology of Christianity and melodramatically presenting the Salvadoran conflict with moral clarity, Romero's life story facilitated the construction of a transnational collective identity and provided a model of action. The moral credibility of the narrators, and the context in which Romero's story was told, influenced many Christians' decision to prioritize this religious identity over their national allegiance.

Struggle for Inclusion

2016 ◽  
pp. 282-295
Author(s):  
Ambreen Shahriar
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
At Home

The chapter explores the struggle for inclusion at home and society faced by four young people when they quit the religion they inherited from their parents. Using life-story interviews, it discusses reactions of their families about their decision to quit religion. Furthermore, the chapter sheds light on the ways these young individuals coped with the social problems that they faced after they made a difficult, socially unacceptable choice of switching from their inherited religion. The promotion of symbolic violence in the field and its use by the agents around the participants of this study is discussed through Bourdieu's concepts of habitus and field. The chapter aims to understand and highlight the dilemma faced by the participants due to their decision of conversion in a society which is still not ready for this.

The Return of the “Soviet” through the “National” in Post-Soviet Russia

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Culturally Based ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Significant Achievement ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Homo Sovieticus

The first chapter examines the phenomenon of a visible return of Soviet practices and institutions in “post-Crimea” Russia, along with the rising public support and approval for Joseph Stalin. Arguing against culturally based explanations that focus on the legacy of the Soviet man (homo sovieticus), it views these recent trends as a sign of strengthening of the Russian nationals’ sense of collective identity that is argued to be the most socially and politically significant achievement of Vladimir Putin’s leadership. This chapter presents the central argument of the book and the analytical approach that builds on social identity theory to explain “mature Putinism.”

What oral historians and historians of science can learn from each other

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 673-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL MERCHANT
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
The Other ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Life ◽  
Life Story Interviews ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the use of interviews with scientists by members of two disciplinary communities: oral historians and historians of science. It examines the disparity between the way in which historians of science approach autobiographies and biographies of scientists on the one hand, and the way in which they approach interviews with scientists on the other. It also examines the tension in the work of oral historians between a long-standing ambition to record forms of past experience and more recent concerns with narrative and personal ‘composure’. Drawing on extended life story interviews with scientists, recorded by National Life Stories at the British Library between 2011 and 2016, it points to two ways in which the communities might learn from each other. First, engagement with certain theoretical innovations in the discipline of oral history from the 1980s might encourage historians of science to extend their already well-developed critical analysis of written autobiography and biography to interviews with scientists. Second, the keen interest of historians of science in using interviews to reconstruct details of past events and experience might encourage oral historians to continue to value this use of oral history even after their theoretical turn.

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