Inclusive and Included? Practices of Civic Inclusivity of American Muslims in Los Angeles

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Cantori
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Civic Life ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
American Muslims ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
Civic Spaces ◽  
Majority Groups

Abstract How do American Muslims practice inclusivity and bridge religious differences in U.S. civic life? Sociological research on bridging focuses mostly on bridging efforts on the part of majority groups, leaving unanswered the timely question of if and how inclusivity is practiced by minority groups, particularly religious minorities, in U.S. civic spaces. Drawing on participant observation among two Muslim groups in Los Angeles, this paper identifies two practices of inclusivity that participants adopt to bridge religious difference: the interreligious heritage practice and the shared ethics practice. Both practices simultaneously draw and diffuse group boundaries, emphasize sameness, albeit using different sets of religious meanings, and are grounded in an understanding of civic spaces as implicitly exclusionary of minorities. I find that these practices can create tension points in the pursuit of mutual understanding and create textures of meanings that operate differently depending on the situation and the participants in the interaction.

When Art Loses its Sting: The Evolution of Protest Art in Authoritarian Contexts

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Adams
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Political Art ◽  
Art World ◽  
Class Differences ◽  
Global Institutions ◽  
Economic Developments ◽  
Made In

Change in art is an understudied topic in sociological research. This article examines protest artworks ( arpilleras) produced by shantytown women during and shortly after the dictatorship in Chile, to explore the question why political art that is for sale changes over time. This research is based on 136 semi-structured and in-depth interviews with various members of the art world in Chile, Europe, and the United States, a year's worth of participant observation of art groups in Santiago and over five hundred photographs of arpilleras, taken by the author and analyzed thematically. Political art that is for sale can change because the intermediary (the organization connecting producers and buyers) becomes less or more politically conservative, develops a precarious financial situation, grows more afraid of repression, and has the power to enforce the changes it desires; because the original buyers are replaced with new buyers with different motivations; and because new artists with new ideas begin making the art, one artist in the group produces something different and the idea spreads, artists censor themselves, and artists have new experiences or learn about new events. Through these sources of change, international social movements, local and international political and economic developments, and global institutions impact the art. Meanings attached to the art by the different parties (intermediaries, buyers, and artists) and class differences between artists and intermediaries are also important in facilitating change. These findings, based as they are on political art made in a repressive context, not only contribute to our understanding of artistic evolution but they help correct the bias in the sociology of art toward “art” made in democratic countries of the “First World.” They are not just applicable to authoritarian regimes but also to art by politicized minority groups in democratic contexts, and to other cultural products such as newspapers, magazines, documentaries, and books.

scholarly journals A Cornish revival? The nascent iconization of a post-obsolescent language

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Dunmore
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Shift ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
South West

AbstractThis article considers the case of Cornish, a Celtic language that was in decline in the south-west of Great Britain from the early medieval era until the end of the eighteenth century, when its last recorded native speakers died out. At the point when a language under pressure eventually succumbs to forces of language shift, its role in representations of a distinct sociocultural identity might be expected to die with the medium itself. Yet a sense of cohesion at the group level has been observed to endure long after a shift to another language has occurred, with the obsolescent variety retaining a role in the maintenance of group boundaries. In situations of language shift, the meanings of such social constructions can change considerably, and the obsolescent variety may retain ideological associations with the group as an iconized symbol of identity. The analysis presented in this paper is based on an examination of the historical record as well as a synthesis of recent sociological research on Cornish. Attention will be drawn specifically to the manner in which the language has functioned as an icon of identity since the nadir of its decline as a spoken vernacular, through the ‘Cornish Revival’ of the twentieth century to the present day.

A Lighter Shade of Brown? Racial Formation and Gentrification in Latino Los Angeles

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Huante
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Racial Formation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Racial Ideologies ◽  
Boyle Heights

Abstract Conventional gentrification literature has meaningfully demonstrated how economic inequality is perpetuated in urban settings, but there has been a limited understanding of how racial inequality is maintained. Drawing from participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography in the barrio of Boyle Heights in Los Angeles that were collected over five years, this study examines how gentrification functions as a racial project and supports new forms of racialization to maintain uneven development along racial lines. Examining the ways that racial formation processes unfurl at the local scale expands conventional understanding of racial formation theory and practice while, simultaneously, illustrating the centrality of place in race-making. This study finds new race and class formations are developed by casting the barrio itself and significant portions of the Mexican American population as “honorary white.” Despite colorblind and post-racial ideologies espoused in majority-minority cities like Los Angeles, this landscape fostered emerging racial formations alongside gentrification processes which have increased racial, political, and economic inequality.

scholarly journals PET VISITATION AS NARRATIVE CARE FOR OLDER ADULTS IN THERAPEUTIC SETTINGS

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S867-S867
Author(s):  
Jill Yamasaki ◽  
Kelley Murfin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Personalized Care ◽  
Healing Relationships ◽  
Therapeutic Settings

Abstract A growing body of research highlights the physiological and psychosocial benefits of pet visitation programs in therapeutic settings. These programs utilize the profound connection between humans and animals to promote holistic healing, foster greater quality of life, and influence meaningful communication between patients and providers. For older adults in hospitals or long-term care, these benefits are often correlated with moments of pleasure, comfort, relaxation, and entertainment. The current study builds on this prior knowledge by examining pet visitation programs as a novel form of narrative care that can also help preserve biographical continuity and promote the sharing of lived stories. We worked with two volunteer pet visitation programs in Houston and one in Los Angeles. Our research included a variety of ethnographic methods, including participant observation; informal interviews with providers, patients (or residents, depending on the context), and their families; semi-structured interviews with volunteers; and discourse review of organizational materials. We employed a method of constant comparison to identify and thematically analyze recurrent patterns of behavior and overarching meanings across the data. Three primary themes emerged from the data: (a) compassion, (b) connection, and (c) response. Collectively, the presence of pets prompted stories and behaviors that foster healing relationships characterized by empathy and mutual understanding between patients (or residents), family members, and providers. Pet visitation programs facilitate storied conversations, increased autonomy, and alternative ways of knowing that promote greater understandings of the patient’s (or resident’s) psychosocial context and biographical history, leading to more personalized care and improved well-being.

“Change Agents” on Two Wheels: Claiming Community and Contesting Spatial Inequalities through Cycling in Los Angeles

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 965-982
Author(s):  
Jennifer Candipan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
Communities Of Color ◽  
Urban Cycling

This study uses participant observation to examine how an all–female collective in Los Angeles uses urban cycling culture as a way to contest inequalities and advocate for social change in communities of color. Bridging the literatures on gentrification and social movements, I examine how the collective uses the bicycle as a unifying tool to draw disparate individuals together and, through the group's practices and rituals, generates a shared sense of collective identity and politicized consciousness embedded within the uneven spatial development of Los Angeles. I demonstrate how this politicized consciousness drives a collective spirit of resistance that challenges gentrification by reimagining and re–embodying space through organized actions and everyday practices. I find that organized anti–gentrification resistance is not merely reactionary, but rather entails pre–figurative action and visioning for space and community. Overall, findings speak more broadly to how communities of color facing exclusion and marginalization make claims to space and community.

La ville africaine d’après la production de langue française. Conditions économiques, migration urbaine et protestation religieuse

2011 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-68
Author(s):  
Matthieu Ollagnon
Keyword(s):  
Social Organization ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
African City ◽  
Historical Specificity ◽  
The City

African city was often a privileged mediation between colonizers and natives, either in the register of domination or in the variety of social transactions, and is now the place of massive migrations. In this fermentation, between reconstitution of new social ties and persistence of old solidarities, the emphasis is put on the issue of Christian minority groups, messianic, as agents of social protest. The Chicago school, understanding the city as a continuous process of social organization and disorganization geographically marked, appears as the most suitable matrix to investigate historical specificity and new stakes of African cities. In this perspective, C. Collantes Diez establishes a link between a review of the French production and a thought fed by participant observation.

scholarly journals Multiculturalism at Czech universities as a predictor of diversity work place. The case of students from former Soviet Union

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 325-336
Author(s):  
Martina Rašticová ◽  
Valery Senichev
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Work Place ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Stereotype Content ◽  
Majority Groups ◽  
Different Cultures

The study is focused on the problematic of spreading multiculturalism at universities in the Czech Republic. The number of immigrants mostly from regions of Eastern Europe coming to work and live in the country keeps growing. From previous research, it is apparent that success in dealing with immigrants at Universities and in the work places is conditioned by the perception of minorities and vice versa. Whereas most of the research is focused on the perception of minority groups, there is a lack of research data regarding the perception of majority groups. The current study is concerned with the perception of a majority group by foreign students from former Soviet Union studying at Czech universities. The methods were chosen to achieve the research objectives. We used free associations, which are best to explore the perception dimensions. A group of foreign students from the former Soviet Union (N = 55) studying at Czech universities were interviewed via the Internet. The research results proved the validity of Susan Fiske’s Model of Stereotype Content of inter-group perception based on agency – communion dimensions. Moreover, the findings showed how different cultures and social backgrounds change the patterns of judgment. These data are considered to be highly important for work in diversified groups. Practical applications of the research outcomes and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals Sobre la observación participante en la Escuela de Chicago: un análisis de las monografías fundacionales

2017 ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Javier Santos ◽  
Juan Ignacio Piovani ◽  
María Eugenia Rausky
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Chicago School ◽  
Technical Aspect ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
History Of

ResumenLa idea de una Escuela Sociológica de Chicago en el período de entreguerras ha resultado persistente –en el marco de una interpretación que podríamos considerar clásica– bajo el supuesto lugar privilegiado que ésta tuvo en el desarrollo de los métodos cualitativos de investigación social (en general) y de la observación participante (en particular). Sin embargo, algunos de los autores que han avanzado en la reconstrucción de la historia de los métodos de investigación sociológica han cuestionado que se trate de métodos cualitativos en el sentido actual, presentando así una interpretación revisionista de la Escuela y de sus aportes metodológicos.Teniendo en cuenta esta tensión entre interpretaciones clásicas y revisionistas, en este artículo nos proponemos caracterizar las prácticas de investigación de campo (fieldwork) desplegadas en las monografías chicaguenses (tesis doctorales) que luego serían tomadas como hitos fundacionales de la observación participante sociológica por parte de los mentores de la interpretación clásica.Estas prácticas observacionales aplicadas en la investigación empírica de Chicago son interpretadas a partir de dos dimensiones: por una parte desde el punto de vista instrumental/operativo (técnico), recurriendo a la tipología desarrollada por Gold (1958) en su célebre artículo sobre los roles de observación y participación. Por otra parte, desde el punto de vista teórico-epistemológico, teniendo en cuenta su relación con supuestos objetivistas/cientificistas o interpretativos/cualitativos.Esta doble dimensión del análisis (epistemológico/técnico) permite mediar entre las versiones clásicas y revisionistas de la Escuela de Chicago, destacando la aplicación pionera en este contexto de técnicas análogas (al menos superficialmente) a la moderna observación participante (aspecto técnico), pero fundamentadas en general a partir de postulados objetivistas y cientificistas, y no en el marco de las concepciones interpretativas que en la actualidad dan sustento a la investigación cualitativa (aspecto epistemológico).Palabras clave: Escuela de Chicago, Metodología cualitativa, Obervación ParticipanteAbstractThe idea of a Sociological School of Chicago during the interwar period has been persistent –from a perspective that could be considered classical–, under the assumption that it had a special place in the development of qualitative methods of social research (in general) and of participant observation (in particular). However, some authors that focused on the history of sociological research methods have contested the idea that it developed qualitative methods in the modern sense, presenting a revisionist interpretation of the School and its methodological contributions.Given this tension between traditional and revisionist interpretations, this paper examines the practices of field research (fieldwork) portrayed in the Chicagoans’ monographs (doctoral thesis) that were later taken as foundational landmarks of sociological participant observation by the mentors of the above-mentioned classical interpretation.These observational practices applied in empirical investigations conducted by Chicagoans are analyzed from two dimensions: on one hand from the instrumental/operational (technical) standpoint, using the typology developed by Gold (1958) in his famous article on the roles of observation and participation. On the other hand, from the theoreticalepistemological perspective, taking into account their relationship with objectivist/scientistic or either interpretive/qualitative assumptions.This double dimension of analysis (epistemological/technical) allows to mediate between the classical and revisionist versions of the Chicago School, highlighting its pioneering application of research techniques at least superficially similar to modern participant observation (technical aspect), but based on objectivist and scientistic principles, and not on the kind of interpretative concepts that currently support qualitative methodology (epistemological aspect).Key words: Chicago School, Qualitative Methodology, Participant Observation 

scholarly journals Konstruksi Makna Perkawinan Campuran Bagi Perempuan Muslim Indonesia

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-94
Author(s):  
Zikri Fachrul Nurhadi ◽  
Sheila Yandini Yandini
Keyword(s):  
Research Method ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Phenomenological Method ◽  
Foreign Nationals ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
The Face

The background of this problem is the increasing number of Indonesian citizens who perform mixed marriages, especially women who are married to foreign nationals. This, resulted in the problem starts from differences of religion or belief, culture and lifestyle are different. The purpose of this study is to find and explain the motives, meaning and experience of Indonesian Muslim women as perpetrators of intermarriage. This research method using the phenomenological method that focuses on the study of meaning in everyday life from the perspective of those who experience it. Data collection techniques used participant observation, interview and documentation study. Subjects were Indonesian Muslim women aged 30-40 years, were married to foreign nationals by purposive sampling technique. The results showed that mixed marriages have a motive "because" that is the motive trauma and interest, while the motive "for" consists of the dream motive, worship and repair descent. Likewise intermarriage experience demonstrated mutual culturally adjust, adapt to a multicultural, open and romantic attitude. While the meaning of marriage is an interesting mix, happy, merging two cultures, respect for differences, mutual understanding, complex, beautiful. Construction of meaning formed that a mixed marriage is a marriage of attractive, beautiful, full of challenges in the face of differences in terms of culture, habits and mindset in running family life.

scholarly journals France-Based Scholars Researching Minority Groups in the Field: A Symposium

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathieu Bonzom ◽  
Rim Latrache ◽  
Caroline Laurent ◽  
Yohann Le Moigne
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Indian Reservations ◽  
University Of Paris ◽  
Muslim Identities

The editors asked four French scholars specializing in American studies a series of five questions regarding their experience of conducting fieldwork, the challenges they faced, and how they met them. The following is a collaborative contribution, a discussion among the four contributors. The four authors are Yohann Le Moigne (University of Angers), who is a specialist of turf-based gang rivalries in the Los Angeles metropolitan area; Caroline Laurent (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), who does research on casinos on Indian reservations in the Midwest; Rim Latrache (University of Paris 13 Villetaneuse), who specializes on the construction and expression of Arab and Muslim identities in the United States; and Mathieu Bonzom (University of Orléans), whose work focuses on Latin immigrants and their participation in the labor movement.

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