scholarly journals The challenges of anthropological research among sex workers and victims of domestic violence in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 198 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 252-255
Author(s):  
Raphaella Câmara ◽  
Marcos Silva

This essay reflects our doctoral research experiences at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. It aims to understand the new challenges and measures adopted in relation to fieldwork with sex workers and victims of domestic violence in Covid-19 times. Our work includes ethnography and participant observation in prostitution houses, LGBTQI+ institutions and spaces of support for the victims of domestic violence. We seek to reflect on the possibilities and limitations of conducting anthropological research during the pandemic.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36
Author(s):  
Anushree Nagpal ◽  
Atiqua Tajdar ◽  
Masood Ahsan Siddiqui ◽  
Mohammad Hassan ◽  
Suman Gaur ◽  
...  

The term ‘sex workers’ refers to those involved in prostitution. This particular term is preferred as it does not have the derogatory, sexist connotation that the term ‘prostitute’ has. Belonging to a highly stigmatized profession with no financial and familial support forthcoming, the latter years of the lives of destitute female sex workers are spent in abject misery and poverty. Effort has been made to study the socio economic status and the ways adopted by these women, post active prostitution period, to support themselves and their families. This paper is based on the field study conducted in central Delhi red light area during August-September, 2016. Direct interviews with the respondents using questionnaires as well as participant observation techniques were used to collect the data. The study indicate that destitute female sex workers, once out of active prostitution, start working as domestic helpers, work with local voluntary organizations, or as helpers in brothels. The income earned is very meager with hardly any amount left to be saved. Most of the women live in one room rented accommodations. Their access to medical facilities was found to be extremely restricted.


Social Change ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-482
Author(s):  
Zoya Hasan

The recent spread of the delta variant of the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, though uneven, has once again set alarm bells ringing throughout the world. Nearly two years have passed since the onset of this pandemic: vaccines have been developed and vaccination is underway, but the end of the campaign against the pandemic is nowhere in sight. This drive has merely attempted to adjust and readjust, with or without success, to the various fresh challenges that have kept emerging from time to time. The pandemic’s persistence and its handling by the governments both have had implications for citizens’/peoples’ rights as well as for the systems which were in place before the pandemic. In this symposium domain experts investigate, with a sharp focus on India, the interface between the COVID-19 pandemic and democracy, health, education and social sciences. These contributions are notable for their nuanced and insightful examination of the impact of the pandemic on crucial social development issues with special attention to the exacerbated plight of society’s marginalised sections. In India, as in several other countries, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected democracy. The health crisis came at a moment when India was already experiencing democratic backsliding. The pandemic came in handy in imposing greater restrictions on democratic rights, public discussion and political opposition. This note provides an analysis and commentary on how the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted governance, at times undermining human rights and democratic processes, and posing a range of new challenges to democracy.


Author(s):  
Wojciech Łukowski

Spatial and social mobility in an increasingly globalized world is associated with new challenges for social sciences, including political science. This also applies to methods and methodology. The article aims to reveal the cognitive potential that lies in the use of multi–sited ethnography for research on politics and on the study of political behaviors (das Politische). The utility of this approach is illustrated on the basis of the research on social and spatial mobility of small town residents conducted with the use of this method.


1979 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Browner ◽  
Michael Chibnik

An important function anthropologists can serve in industry is to provide planners with information to which they do not otherwise have access. Trained to "explain" social phenomena, our tendency is to provide "holistic" interpretations of the relations between different components of the institutions we observe. From the pragmatic perspective of the industrial specialist; however, such theorizing may be of considerably less interest than hard data on what people actually do and how they do it. Participant-observation, the traditional cornerstone of anthropological research, can be an especially useful way to obtain such information.


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Ramesha , ◽  
A. Y. Asundi ◽  
B. B. Chand ◽  
A. M. Chaithra

This chapter presents current research insights into various forms and representations of the results of self-as-subject data analyses from both expert and doctoral research experiences. Distinctions between heuristic inquiry and autoethnography are highlighted as well as differences between self-as-subject data analysis approaches when compared with convention methods used within other forms of qualitative research. In self-as-subject research, data representation and data interpretation are often also simultaneous or overlap in presentation to illustrate key findings and insights into the phenomenon of inquiry.


Most experts consider that society has entered in a Fourth Industrial Revolution that implies ubiquitous changes characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines that differentiate physical, digital, and biological spheres. This implies to open a door to important changes in the teaching and learning of the social sciences, geography, and history. Regarding this, it is necessary that both citizens and organizations develop new skills. Artificial intelligence as education technology is possible due to digital and online tools. Adaptive learning, meanwhile, is related to artificial intelligence, personalizing the learning and offering contents adapted to students. New challenges in the teaching of social sciences extends beyond the learning of facts and events. As a result of changes in society of Fourth Industrial Revolution, thinking-based learning (TBL) with the support of learning and knowledge technologies (LKT), creativity, critical thinking, and cooperation are some of the essential learning goals to participate in society.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin R Weiss

Abstract Despite constructions of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking as discrete forms of violence, research shows that violence often co-occurs. Victims experiencing multiple forms of violence require different interventions from victims experiencing only one. Service providers’ understandings of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking as discrete, then, potentially undermine their goal of effective intervention. Drawing on 26 months of participant observation in an anti-gender-based violence nonprofit organization, I explore how advocates construct each form of violence as independent from the others. Results show that both organizational features, such as training curricula and organizational jurisdictions, and rhetorical strategies, such as an under-emphasis on co-occurring violence, contribute to the construction of each type of violence as discrete. This paper is of interest to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers committed to designing and implementing effective responses to gender-based violence. I also advance social problems theory, showing that organizational features, not just interactional processes, contribute to typification.


Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136346072094459
Author(s):  
Lena Näre ◽  
Anastasia Diatlova

This article analyses how sex and elder-care workers negotiate intimacy and ageing in their work. We find surprising similarities between sex and care work that derive from the ways in which Eastern European migrant women are sexualised in the sites of our studies: Italy and Finland. The bodywork and intimate labour conducted by the women is defined in part by the social status of their work in society, in part by the ageing bodies upon whom the work is done, and in part by the ways in which the bodies of the workers are gendered, sexualised and racialised. The article draws on interview and participant observation data collected during two ethnographic research projects with female migrants from post-socialist countries working as eldercare workers in Italy and in sex workers in Finland.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document