Designing more just social futures or remixing the radical present?

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon M. Wargo
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Multimodal Composition ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Visual Discourse ◽  
Communicative Practice ◽  
Entry Points ◽  
Interviewing Techniques ◽  
Cultural Justice

Purpose Plugging into the multimodal aesthetics of youth lifestreaming, this article examines how three lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer (LGBTQ) youths use digital media production as an activist practice toward cultural justice work. Focusing on the queer rhetorical dimensions of multimodal (counter)storytelling, the communicative practice used to (re)name, remix and challenge epistemic notions of objective reality, this paper aims to highlight how youth worked to (de)compose and (re)author multiple identities and social relationships across online/offline contexts. Design/methodology/approach Through sustained participant observation across online/offline contexts, active interviewing techniques and visual discourse analysis, this paper illuminates how composing with digital media was leveraged by three LGBTQ youths to navigate larger systems of inequality across a multi-year connective ethnographic study. Findings By highlighting how queer rhetorical arts were used as tools to surpass and navigate social fault lines created by difference, findings highlight how Jack, Andi and Gabe, three LGBTQ youths, used multimodal (counter)storytelling to comment, correct and compose being different. Speaking across the rhetorical dimensions of logos, pathos and ethos, the author contends that a queer rhetorics lens helped highlight how youth used the affordances of multimodal (counter)storytelling to lifestream versions of activist selves. Originality/value Reading LGBTQ youths’ lifestreaming as multimodal (counter)storytelling, this paper highlights how three youths use multimodal composition as entry points into remixing the radical present and participate in cultural justice work.

Interpreting old texts with new tools: Digital multimodal composition for a high school reading assignment

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Higgs ◽  
Grace MyHyun Kim
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Multimodal Composition ◽  
Student Survey ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
School Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entry Points

Purpose Research on nonschool settings suggests young people benefit from digital multimodal composition. Less is known about how digital composing can support students as they interpret required literary class texts. To understand the potential benefits and challenges of digitally composing for literary analysis, design interviews with two high school students were conducted to examine their processes as they designed digital multimodal compositions to interpret Anglo-Saxon poems. Grounded in the social semiotic theory of multimodality, this study aims to examine how students engaged in literary analysis and interpretive digital composition within secondary ELA. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative classroom data were collected through digital means over a six-week period: a whole-class student survey, focal student semistructured design interviews, emails, field notes, analytic memos and student-created digital artifacts. Findings Students’ print-based literary engagements and digital multimodal composition processes were mutually shaped. Additionally, digital multimodal composition offered entry points into challenging print-based literary texts, resulting in understandings enacted across multiple forms of mediation. Research limitations/implications The study focused on one cycle of multimodal composition. Additional studies of students’ digital multimodal composition processes in ELA classrooms over time could be beneficial to the field. Practical implications The study identifies an approach to digital multimodal composition that may help teachers address and integrate core disciplinary objectives. Originality/value This study contributes to scholarship concerned with how “new” technologies and “old” literacies co-exist in contexts requiring students to engage in expanded communication modes alongside specific academic literacies.

“I like computers. I hate coding”: a portrait of two teens’ experiences

2019 ◽  
Vol 120 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 349-365
Author(s):  
Paulina Haduong
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Student Motivation ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Learner Motivation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Learner Identity ◽  
Novice Programmer ◽  
Block Based

Purpose Some empirical evidence suggests that historically marginalized young people may enter introductory programming experiences with skepticism or reluctance, because of negative perceptions of the computing field. This paper aims to explore how learner identity and motivation can affect their experiences in an introductory computer science (CS) experience, particularly for young people who have some prior experience with computing. In this program, learners were asked to develop digital media artifacts about civic issues using Scratch, a block-based programming language. Design/methodology/approach Through participant observation as a teacher and designer of the course, artifact analysis of student-generated computer programs and design journals, as well as with two follow-up 1-h interviews, the author used the qualitative method of portraiture to examine how two reluctant learners experienced a six-week introductory CS program. Findings These learners’ experiences illuminate the ways in which identity, community and competence can play a role in supporting learner motivation in CS education experiences. Research limitations/implications As more students have multiple introductory computing encounters, educators need to take into account not only their perceptions of the computing field more broadly but also specific prior encounters with programming. Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Researchers are encouraged to explore other contexts and examples further. Practical implications This portrait highlights the need for researchers and educators to take into account student motivation in the design of learning environments. Originality/value This portrait offers a novel examination of novice programmer experiences through the choice in method, as well as new examples of how learner identity can affect student motivation.

When hierarchy becomes collaborative

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Rice
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Relationship Building ◽  
Incident Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Collaborative Processes ◽  
Individual Actions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to expand understandings of interorganizational collaboration among high reliability organizations (HROs). It proposes that HROs face unique needs for relationship building, pre-planning, and retrospective sensemaking that do not fit within prior models of collaboration. For HROs, definitions of collaboration vary contextually based on needs that arise during emergency situations. HROs have a need for both hierarchical structure and collaborative processes and use collaboration as a sensemaking frame that allows practitioners to attend to both needs. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a case study from an ongoing ethnographic study of an emergency response collaboration. The paper uses open-ended interviews about collaboration with all key members of the incident response hierarchy, and participant observation of collaboration before, during and after a key emergency incident. Findings The paper proposes a new framework for HRO collaboration: that collaboration is a sensemaking frame for HROs used to make sense of individual actions, that HRO collaboration is more complex during pre-planning and focused on individual decision making during incidents, and that members can communicatively make sense of the need for hierarchy and collaborative action by defining these needs contextually. Research limitations/implications The paper uses an in-depth case study of an incident to explore this collaborative framework; therefore, researchers are encouraged to test this framework in additional high reliability collaborative contexts. Practical implications The paper includes implications for best communicative practices to recognize the need to be both hierarchical and flexible in high reliability organizing. Originality/value This paper fulfills a need to expand collaboration literature beyond idealized and egalitarian definitions, in order to understand how practitioners use communication to understand their actions as collaborative, especially in organizations that also require hierarchy and individual actions. This case study suggests that collaboration as a sensemaking frame creates collaborative advantages for HROs, but can also limit sensemaking about incident management.

Tensions in ethnographic observation: overt or covert?

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-195
Author(s):  
Ruth Strudwick
Keyword(s):  
Diagnostic Imaging ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Imaging Department ◽  
Ethnographic Observation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the tensions between being covert and overt during ethnographic observations. The example of an ethnographic study of the culture in a diagnostic imaging department will be used to provide examples. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a reflection on an ethnographic study, focussing on the participant observation. Findings This paper discusses the author’s reflections on the covert and overt nature of ethnographic observation. Originality/value The discussion is of value to all ethnographic researchers who experience this tension.

A collection and its many relations and contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 753-767
Author(s):  
Kathy Carbone
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Archival Collection ◽  
Object Biography ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
The City

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the results of an ethnographic study that used object biography with an archival collection of police surveillance files, the Police Historical/Archival Investigative Files, housed at the City of Portland Archives & Records Center in Portland, Oregon.Design/methodology/approachDocument analysis, participant observation, semistructured interviews, and object biography were conducted over four years, from 2013 to 2017.FindingsUsing object biography with the Police Historical/Archival Investigative Files uncovered numerous personal and public relationships that developed between people and this collection over several decades as well as how these records acquired, constructed, and changed meanings over time and space.Originality/valueThis paper argues that the biography of objects is a useful way for studying the relationships records form, the values people assign to them, and how people and records mutually inform and transform one another in shifting contexts of social lives. Recognizing records as having social histories and applying object biography to them contributes to and grows the greater biography and genealogy of the record and the archive—a genealogy important not only for discovering something about the lives of those who create, encounter, steward, and use records and archives but about our shared human experience.

Networked psychostimulants: a web-based ethnographic study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-61
Author(s):  
Caroline Robitaille
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cultural Spaces ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Human Actors

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand contemporary psychostimulant use among members of online discussion fora. Two objectives are addressed: to describe accounts of practices related to psychostimulant use, and to examine how these pharmaceuticals may shape contemporary subjectivities. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a qualitative analysis of three online discussion fora belonging to Reddit. Drawing on actor-network theory, psychostimulants are envisaged as networked actants to understand the underlying logics related to their use. Non-participant observation of r/Adderall was carried out over an 18-month period. A qualitative analysis of postings on the three selected fora was also performed. Findings For each discussion forum, a network comprised of human and non-human actors was observed: members of the forum, psychostimulants as objects and subreddits as agentic spaces. This study reveals the emergence of multiple subjectivities associated with psychostimulant use: productivity, wellness and enhancement‐related. Practical implications Findings open to a wider debate regarding public health’s and healthcare professionals’ understanding of psychostimulant use outside of the clinical setting and how this may contrast with how psychostimulant use is practiced in context. Originality/value This research shows new online socio-cultural spaces formed around psychostimulant use. Calling upon a web-based ethnographic approach, this research presents a new perspective on the contemporary use of psychostimulants.

Organizational forgetting in local governments: a study from rural India

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumyabrato Bagchi ◽  
Bhaskar Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Memory Loss ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Rural India ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Literature ◽  
Organizational Forgetting

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to develop a theory of organizational forgetting in the context of local governments from the paradigmatic lens of existing research orchestrated in management literature. The paper empirically explores how and why local governments forget and discusses the role of local politics in promoting memory loss in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors do an ethnographic study in a Village Panchayat, the lowest tier of the local government in rural India, in West Bengal, a state in eastern India. Data are collected through participant observation and informal interviews.FindingsThe paper argues that the existing framework on modes of organizational forgetting developed in the management literature is not sufficient in understanding the types of knowledge loss that occur in local governments. It shows that as a consequence of “memory decay” and “failure to capture,” local governments involuntary lose past knowledge and critical sources of expertise. The study also acknowledges the role of politics in deliberately endorsing organizational forgetting in local governments to eliminate failure and ethical lapses of elected representatives.Originality/valueBy exploring the phenomenon of organizational forgetting in local governments in the context of grassroots politics, this paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of organizational forgetting in a hitherto understudied area of how, and under what circumstances, public organizations such as local governments undergo forgetting, unlearning or loss of knowledge.

The myth of sharing publicly as 21st century literacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-103
Author(s):  
Stephanie Schmier
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
American Girl ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Digital Media Studies

Purpose This paper highlights the fluidity with which youth make decisions about engaging with digital technologies including online social media. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities that literacy curriculum that centers digital technologies can have for students from immigrant communities through tracing the case of a Bangladeshi–American girl named Sabina. Design/methodology/approach Grounded in a transliteracies frame, this qualitative case study explores the digital literacy practices of youth in an urban public secondary school in the USA. Data collection included participant observation across various spaces including an eighth grade digital media studies class, school cafeteria and hallways, participants’ homes and online communities. Further data included formal interviews, informal conversations and digital and print artifact collection. Data were analyzed through the lenses of flow and space–time path. Findings The findings of this paper highlight how Sabina made space for social networking using digital technologies on her own terms as well as how the ways that she collaborated through the use of digital technologies created opportunities for her to be an active participant in her social worlds across home and school contexts. Originality/value Analyzing Sabina’s digital literacy practices across diverse social spaces offers insights for educators to create opportunities for diverse youth to leverage digital technologies to support skills such as collaboration and civic engagement, which have been identified as defining characteristics of twenty-first century literacies. This case points to the imperative for teachers to create connected learning classrooms that offer opportunities for youth to use digital technologies to support their efforts to make change in the world on their own terms.

scholarly journals Mobilizing hegemonic practices in trajectories of conspicuous resistance

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1629-1651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mamali ◽  
Peter Nuttall
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Community Organisation ◽  
Longitudinal Approach ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose Focusing on a community organisation, the purpose of this paper is to unravel the process through which infringing contested practices that threaten or compromise the community’s sense of distinction are transformed into acceptable symbolic markers. Design/methodology/approach An ethnographic study comprising participant observation, in-depth interviews and secondary data was conducted in the context of a non-profit community cinema. Findings Taking a longitudinal approach and drawing from practice theory, this paper outlines how member-driven, customer-driven and necessity-imposed infringing practices settle in new contexts. Further, this paper demonstrates that such practices are filtered in terms of their ideological “fit” with the organisation and are, as a result, rejected, recontextualised or replaced with do-it-yourself alternatives. In this process, authority shifts from the contested practice to community members and eventually to the space as a whole, ensuring the singularisation of the cinema-going experience. Practical implications This paper addresses how the integration of hegemonic practices to an off-the-mainstream experience can provide a differentiation tool, aiding resisting organisations to compensate for their lack of resources. Originality/value While the appropriation practices that communities use to ensure distinction are well documented, there is little understanding of the journey that negatively contested practices undergo in their purification to more community-friendly forms. This paper theorises this journey by outlining how the objects, meanings and doings that comprise hegemonic practices are transformed by and transforming of resisting organisations.

Brazos Fellowship: A Case Study in Digitally Mediated Liturgical Design

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-47
Author(s):  
Adam Bajan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
Entertainment Media ◽  
Evangelical Churches ◽  
Technological Developments ◽  
Central Texas

This article examines how the liturgy in evangelical churches is influenced by digital media and digital culture. This was accomplished via an ethnographic study at a medium sized church in East Central Texas where participant observation was combined with qualitative interviews with four members of the church’s pastoral and media production team. Theorizing that decisions made about orchestrated liturgical design in churches of this type are strategic responses to social and technological developments rooted in the mediatization of society, the study revealed three key interconnected themes of significance. These are: media as intentionality, media as environment, and media as audience. A critical discourse analysis of these themes demonstrates that the unique liturgical approach in churches of this type is the result of an intentional, strategic orchestration of entertainment media and media techniques rooted in the mediatization of religion and the amplification of select elements of media logic.

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