Culture, or the Meaning of Meaning Making

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ian Borer
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Do So

The exploration and investigation of culture is nothing short of complex since the term itself is used in many ways by both academics and lay publics. Symbolic interactionists and “fellow travelers” tend to approach the study of culture from the position of those who experience and practice it. That is, they focus on the cultural context of practices and interaction and often do so by illuminating the activities of individuals and groups in everyday life. The meanings that people give to their actions and interactions are of utmost importance for scholars interested in the culture as a social forces and a shared collection of beliefs and practices.

Reframing everyday life. Implications of social distancing in Italy

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Pronzato ◽  
Elisabetta Risi
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Primary Concern ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Qualitative Research Design ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how the measures of social distancing and home confinement have been perceived and experienced in the Italian socio-cultural context, how they reshaped everyday life and which are their social implications.Design/methodology/approachThe study was exploratory and interpretative in nature and a qualitative research design was adopted accordingly. A total of 60 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted.FindingsResearch findings highlight the fact that the boundaries of everyday practices have been completely reframed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Italy. Informants show that scarcity of personal spaces, intertwined with the collapse of the boundaries between private and professional life, and also the lack of physical contact, resulted in a complex management of different social roles and in a stress overload.Originality/valueThere are no prior studies that critically analyse the lived experiences of individuals during the lockdown and the impact of home confinement on their meaning-making processes. This paper sheds light on the reframing of everyday life, thereby enhancing our understanding of a novel issue that is of primary concern for social scientists.

Collaborative Remembering in Dementia: A Focus on Joint Activities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars-Christer Hydén ◽  
Mattias Forsblad
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Needs ◽  
Joint Activities ◽  
Do So ◽  
Dementia Diseases

In this chapter we consider collaborative remembering and joint activates in everyday life in the case of people living with dementia. First, we review past research of practices that scaffolds the participation of persons with dementia in everyday chores under different stages of dementia diseases. We do so by suggesting three analytical types of scaffolding: when the scaffolding practices (i) frame the activity, (ii) guide actions, or (iii) are part of repair activities. Second, we review two aspects of collaborative remembering that are especially important in the case of dementia: training of scaffolding practices, and the sustaining and presentation of identities through collaborative storytelling. Finally, theoretical and methodological tendencies of the research field are summarized and future research needs are formulated.

scholarly journals Asexuals negotiate the ‘onslaught of the heteronormative’

Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072199338
Author(s):  
Tiina Vares
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Research Gap

Although theorizing and research about asexuality have increased in the past decade, there has been minimal attention given to the emotional impact that living in a hetero- and amato-normative cultural context has on those who identify as asexual. In this paper, I address this research gap through an exploration of the ‘work that emotions do’ (Sara Ahmed) in the everyday lives of asexuals. The study is based on 15 individual interviews with self-identified asexuals living in Aotearoa New Zealand. One participant in the study used the phrase, ‘the onslaught of the heteronormative’ to describe how he experienced living as an aromantic identified asexual in a hetero- and amato-normative society. In this paper I consider what it means and feels like to experience aspects of everyday life as an ‘onslaught’. In particular, I look at some participants’ talk about experiencing sadness, loss, anger and/or shame as responses to/effects of hetero- and amato-normativity. However, I suggest that these are not only ‘negative’ emotional responses but that they might also be productive in terms of rethinking and disrupting hetero- and amato-normativity.

Recollections of emerging hybrid ethnic identities in Soviet Central Asia: the case of Uzbekistan

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 1026-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timur Dadabaev
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Senior Citizens ◽  
Adaptive Strategies ◽  
Ethnic Identities ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Soviet Central Asia ◽  
Ethnic Policy ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Do So

This paper is a contribution to the debate about how people in Central Asia recall Soviet ethnic policies and their vision of how these policies have shaped the identities of their peers and contemporaries. In order to do so, this paper utilizes the outcomes of in-depth interviews about everyday Soviet life in Uzbekistan conducted with 75 senior citizens between 2006 and 2009. These narratives demonstrate that people do not explain Soviet ethnic policies simply through the “modernization” or “victimization” dichotomy but place their experiences in between these discourses. Their recollections also highlight the pragmatic flexibility of the public's adaptive strategies to Soviet ethnic policies. This paper also argues that Soviet ethnic policy produced complicated hybrid units of identities and multiple social strata. Among those who succeeded in adapting to the Soviet realities, a new group emerged, known asRussi assimilados(Russian-speaking Sovietophiles). However, in everyday life, relations between theassimiladosand their “indigenous” or “nativist” countrymen are reported to have been complicated, with clear divisions between these two groups and separate social spaces of their own for each of these strata.

Racial Socialization and Racism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. Hagerman
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Young People ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Racial Socialization ◽  
Symbolic Interactionism ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Theoretical Principle ◽  
Shared Meaning ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Interpretive Process

This chapter illustrates key connections between the traditional field of symbolic interactionism and the study of racial socialization and racism. When researching and writing about racial socialization and racism from a micro-level perspective, it is important to not lose sight of the mutually sustaining relationship between the shared meaning making processes that unfold in everyday life and the big, broad structures that shape and reinforce those meanings. This is particularly true when thinking about theories of how the newest members of a society, through an interpretive process, come to understand the concept of race. Understanding how children learn about race requires taking into account how this learning process is shaped by both micro-level meaning making and macro-level structures. And this is a key theoretical principle of symbolic interactionism. The chapter then explores how race as a concept develops for young people through processes of social interaction within particular contexts.

scholarly journals Film as medium for meaning making: A practical theological reflection

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita L. Cloete
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Practical Theological

The reflection on film will be situated within the framework of popular culture and livedreligion as recognised themes within the discipline of practical theology. It is argued that theperspective of viewers is of importance within the process of meaning-making. By focusing onthe experience and meaning-making through the act of film-watching the emphasis is not somuch on the message that the producer wishes to convey but rather on the experience that iscreated within the viewer. Experience is not viewed as only emotional, but rather that, at least,both the cognitive and emotional are key in the act of watching a film. It is therefore arguedthat this experience that is seldom reflected on by viewers could serve as a fruitful platform formeaning-making by the viewer. In a context where there seems to be a decline in institutionalisedforms of religion, it is important to investigate emerging forms of religion. Furthermore, theturn to the self also makes people’s experiences and practices in everyday life valuableresources for theological reflection. This reflection could provide a theoretical framework forespecially empirical research on how film as specific form of media serves as a religiousresource and plays a role in the construction of meaning and religious identity.

The terroir of bureaucratic practice: Everyday life and scholarly method in the study of policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merje Kuus
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Cultural Geography ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Policy Studies ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Michel De Certeau ◽  
Do So

This article seeks to connect political geographic scholarship on institutions and policy more firmly to the experience of everyday life. Empirically, I foreground the ambiguous and indeterminate character of institutional decision-making and I underscore the need to closely consider the sensory texture of place and milieu in our analyses of it. My examples come from the study of diplomatic practice in Brussels, the capital of the European Union. Conceptually and methodologically, I use these examples to accentuate lived experience as an essential part of research, especially in the seemingly dry bureaucratic settings. I do so in particular through engaging with the work of Michel de Certeau, whose ideas enjoy considerable traction in cultural geography but are seldom used in political geography and policy studies. An accent on the texture and feel of policy practice necessarily highlights the role of place in that practice. This, in turn, may help us with communicating geographical research beyond our own discipline.

scholarly journals An Investigative Look at Healthcare Beliefs and Practices During the Sen Dynasty

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Dave Beine
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Dark Ages ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Late Fifteenth ◽  
Do So

There is not much known about Nepal during the historical period sometimes referred to as Nepal’s dark ages (750-1750 C.E.). And even less is known about the healthcare practices of the Sen Dynasty of Palpa, Nepal, which found its inception over 500 years ago, during the late fifteenth century. For this reason, anyone endeavoring to intelligently write on the subject must, much like an archaeologist, use a bit of educated conjecture to piece together a speculative, but historically plausible, picture of the healing practices likely employed during that period. In order to do so, this paper examines several pieces of evidence, both historic and contemporary, in order to infer what the healthcare practices of the populace of Palpa might have looked like at that time. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v6i0.8479 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 6, 2012 61-74

scholarly journals Multimodal metaphors: from language as a condition to text to the notion of texture as a meaning-making semiotic resource

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 893
Author(s):  
Clarice Gualberto ◽  
Záira Santos ◽  
Ana Clara Meira
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Semiotics ◽  
Concepts And Categories ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Do So

Abstract: In this paper, we attempt to provide some ways of thinking about text, relating it to the concept of metaphors, multimodality and texture. Our aim is to develop new insights in meaning making and communication more generally, by bringing examples of memes; a relatively new genre, often seen on social media posts. To do so, we discuss the notion of text (HALLIDAY; HASAN, 2002; BEAUGRANDE, 1997; KRESS, 2010) and then, we discuss texture as a semiotic resource for the production of texts and its metaphors (DJONOV; VAN LEEUWEN, 2011). To exemplify some concepts and categories, we explore memes, seeking to understand their constitution as well as their qualities and potential meanings of visual textures deployed in the text to make meaning material through multimodal metaphors.Keywords: text; texture; social semiotics; multimodal metaphors.Resumo: Neste artigo, pretendemos propor algumas maneiras para se pensar a noção de texto, relacionando-a aos conceitos de metáfora, multimodalidade e textura. Nosso objetivo é desenvolver novos insights a respeito da produção de sentido e da comunicação de forma geral. Como exemplo, trazemos  memes com o bordão “É verdade esse bilete”. Como esse gênero é relativamente novo e frequentemente visto em posts nas redes sociais, discutimos a noção de texto (HALLIDAY; HASAN, 2002; BEAUGRANDE, 1997; KRESS, 2010) e de textura como um recurso semiótico para a produção de textos e suas metáforas (DJONOV; VAN LEEUWEN, 2011). Para exemplificar algumas noções e categorias, exploramos os memes, buscando compreender como eles se constituem, assim como suas qualidades e seus possíveis sentidos de texturas visuais utilizadas para produção de metáforas multimodais.Palavras-chave: texto; textura; semiótica social; metáforas multimodais.

Intersections of Gender, Sex, and Power

2017 ◽  
pp. 1746-1764
Author(s):  
Lubna Ferdowsi
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Cultural Ideologies ◽  
Intersectional Analysis ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
British Bangladeshi

This chapter highlights the dilemma of being immigrant diasporic women in a British cultural context by focusing on the everyday life of British Bangladeshi women who are being controlled in the private sphere based on empirical research. Particularly, the chapter shows how cultural ideologies are intersecting with patriarchal norms to gain control over women bodies and sexuality. Finally, the chapter discusses the process and system of differentiation and domination through an intersectional analysis to understand how women ostensibly belonging to the same ethnic group may have different and competing experiences of migration and Diaspora.

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