scholarly journals Winning a battle against the odds: A cleaners’ campaign

2021 ◽  
pp. 0143831X2110603
Author(s):  
Elisa Pannini
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Core Business ◽  
Power Resources ◽  
Mobilization Theory ◽  
Independent Union

This article analyses a campaign urging a British university to re-establish in-house cleaning services after years of outsourcing. The small independent union leading the campaign began from an extremely low level of power resources and managed to build enough associational and societal power to win the dispute on cleaners’ working conditions. The study is based on participant observation of the union’s activities, document analysis and interviews. The article argues that the strategy emerging from the study, centred around three key strategies (collectivization of individual grievances, education, and disruption of core business activities), can be articulated in a process following the main categories of Mobilization Theory: organization, mobilization and collective action. Additionally, the union managed to conciliate servicing and organizing strategies, as well as attention to class-oriented and migrant-specific issues.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trude Fonneland
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Rare Opportunity

In the introduction, the outline of the chapters is presented, and the context for the study of contemporary shamanisms in Norway is drawn. The chapter provides an outline for why I have chosen to examine the field of shamanism in Norway through interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. I argue that the project, although obviously not exhaustive, nor even representative of the contemporary setting, represents a rare opportunity to study a late modern religious tradition in the process of evolution.

scholarly journals A luta do povo Puruborá pela escola: resistências e conquistas / The Puruborá people's struggle for school: resistence and achievements

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 100
Author(s):  
Anatália Daiane de Oliveira ◽  
Marli Lúcia Tonatto Zibetti
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
School Education ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Political Processes

O texto descreve e analisa os processos históricos e políticos na conquista da escola do povo Puruborá na Aldeia Aperoi, em Seringueiras - Rondônia. A pesquisa de tipo etnográfico fez uso de observação participante registrada em diário de campo, análise documental e entrevistas. Os dados foram analisados por meio de triangulação dos resultados, em diálogo com trabalhos de investigação que discutem a temática da educação escolar indígena, nos aspectos históricos e condições atuais de desenvolvimento. Os resultados indicam que a implantação da escola na referida aldeia é resultado da luta do resistente povo Puruborá.Palavras-chave: Povo Puruborá; Educação escolar indígena; Resistência; Pesquisa etnográfica. ABSTRACT: The text describes and analyzes the historical and political processes in the conquest of the Puruborá people’s school in the Aperoi Village in Seringueiras - Rondônia. The ethnographic research used the participant observation registered in a field diary, document analysis and interviews. The data were analyzed by triangulation of the results, in dialogue with research papers that discuss the thematic of the indigenous education, the historical aspects and current conditions of development. The results indicate that the establishment of the school in that village is the result of the struggle of the resistant Puruborá People.Keywords: Puruporá People; Indigenous school education; Resistance. Ethnographic research.

scholarly journals Tracking Work from the Wrist: The Surveillance of Ethiopian Women Athletes for Capital

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Borenstein
Keyword(s):  
Women Athletes ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
The Body ◽  
European American ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tracking Devices ◽  
Paper Address

This paper considers the ways in which these new GPS watches becoming commonplace among Ethiopian athletes are changing how women professional athletes in Ethiopia (who have the potential to bring in substantial earnings in Ethiopia) are monitored by husbands, coaches, agents, and sponsors. In the past 2-3 years, however, digital self-tracking devices (DSTDs) have come close to replacing shoes as the most sought after training aid. Watches – that track pacing, kilometers, miles, steps, caloric output, elevation gain, and heart rate – are bought and brought home from international competitions and gifted by agents, managers, and fans from abroad. Some sponsored athletes’ data are even instantaneously transferred to Nike laboratories in Portland after they finish practice in Addis Ababa. Drawing on participant observation and interviews, the paper address the new pressures and working conditions that this type of monitoring can introduce by considering how husbands, brothers, coaches, and agents – all men (Ethiopian, European, American, etc.) –  monitor these devices and reflect or change existing the gendered dynamics of working in elite sport. It asks: What are the working implications of this new kind of monitoring? How do they intersect and contest gendered norms that exist through and outside of sport and surveillance studies? And how does this impact conceptions of the body both within and outside of professional athletics?

Discipline and Nurture: Living in a girls’ madrasa, living in community

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-450
Author(s):  
USHA SANYAL ◽  
SUMBUL FARAH
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
North India ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Class Status ◽  
Potential Impact

AbstractThis article presents an ethnography of a contemporary residential madrasa for teenage Muslim girls in a North Indian town undertaken by a team of two researchers. We focused on different aspects of the overall study, with Sanyal conducting participant observation within the madrasa and Farah interviewing a select number of graduates and former students in their home environments. The result is a comprehensive picture of the madrasa's transformative role in the socio-religious lives of its students, which highlights the importance of the connections between the madrasa and the home.Of significance are the religious and denominational orientation of the madrasa—Barelwi Sunni Muslim—as well as the working-class status of the girls and their parents’ low level of education. With limited resources, the madrasa inculcates in the students, and by extension their neighbourhoods and wider communities, a new awareness of religious duties and mutual obligations, and gives its students confidence and a voice within both their families and communities. The long-term potential impact of madrasas such as this one appears to be significant in contemporary North India.

Managing Contentious Collective Action

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Calla Hummel
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Street Vendor ◽  
La Paz ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Many ◽  
The City

Chapter 5 develops an ethnography of street vendors, their organizations, and the city officials who they interact with in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. The chapter is based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the city over four research trips in 2012, 2014 to 2015, 2018, and 2019 as well as administrative data on 31,906 street vending licenses in the city. Fieldwork included interviews, participant observation at dozens of meetings between bureaucrats and organized vendors, ride-alongs with the Municipal Guard, a street vendor survey, working as a street vendor in a clothing market, and selling wedding services with a street vendor cooperative. The theory’s observable implications are illustrated with ethnographic evidence, survey results, and license data from La Paz. I discuss how street vending has changed in the city and how officials have intervened in collective action decisions as the informal sector grew. The chapter demonstrates that officials increased benefits to organized vendors as the costs of regulating markets increased. Additionally, the leaders that take advantage of these offers tend to have more resources than their colleagues, and as the offers increased, so did the level of organization among the city’s street vendors. The chapter also discusses the many trade-offs that officials make in implementing different policies, and how officials manage the often combative organizations that they encourage.

Strategic Knowledge Sharing for Improved Public Service Delivery

2003 ◽  
pp. 187-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Wright ◽  
Andrew Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Economic Sector ◽  
Potential Barriers ◽  
Innovative Culture ◽  
Published Research

This chapter considers inter-organizational knowledge sharing in the delivery of public services. While public services represent a significant economic sector in most countries, there is little published research of its implementation of knowledge sharing to improve service performance. The chapter highlights potential barriers to effective knowledge sharing in public service partnerships and introduces a second-order regression model to guide managers in their development of an effective knowledge sharing environment. Based on research incorporating participant observation, document analysis, 30 interviews and a survey (n=132), the chapter identifies six antecedent factors to effective knowledge sharing, the most significant of which is an innovative culture.

The Fathers' Rights Movement

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 592-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARL BERTOIA ◽  
JANICE DRAKICH
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Public Image ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
New Social Movement ◽  
Equitable Treatment

Family law reforms brought about a new social movement and lobby group—fathers' rights. This article, based on a 2-year study involving participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and document analysis examines the contradictions between the public and private rhetoric of fathers rightists. Thirty-two members from four fathers' rights groups were interviewed about their postdivorce parenting experiences, their personal troubles with family law practices, and their posturing on the fathers' rights' platform. The fatherhood project of family law reform, although viewed as serving all fathers, is primarily driven by fathers' personal stake in the issues and the hope of changing their current situation. The fathers in this study presented a uniform voice in support of the fathers' rights' public image of caring fathers who want men to be recognized as fathers and who are requesting equitable treatment in matters of child custody, support, and access. However, the interviews revealed that individual members did not support the full application of the concept of equality in postdivorce parenting, child care, and responsibilities.

Philosophies of Qualitative Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svend Brinkmann
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Separate Section ◽  
Research Theme ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Do So

This book is about the different philosophical paradigms and ideas that influence qualitative research. Its aim is to discuss and evaluate the ways that philosophical positions inform qualitative research as currently practiced. Unlike other contributions to the field, this book takes a historical perspective and shows how the philosophical ideas have evolved and influenced qualitative research in previous times and today. Today, qualitative researchers often report on their philosophical commitments (if they do so at all) in a separate section of their papers, but this book is written from the perspective that philosophical ideas influence everything in the research process from the first formulation of a research theme to the final reporting of the results. Therefore, it is preferable to highlight how this happens. Philosophy should thus not be thought of as a purely abstract discipline, disconnected from the practicalities of research, but rather as a concrete and pervasive aspect of all qualitative research practices. This book does not provide in-depth treatments of qualitative methods and techniques such as interviewing, document analysis, or participant observation, but rather aims to introduce and discuss the philosophical issues that are relevant regardless of the specific methods employed by qualitative researchers.

scholarly journals In abundance: Networked participatory practices as scholarship

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie E Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Ethnographic Methods ◽  
Cultural System ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Participatory Practices

<p>In an era of knowledge abundance, scholars have the capacity to distribute and share ideas and artifacts via digital networks, yet networked scholarship often remains unrecognized within institutional spheres of influence. Using ethnographic methods including participant observation, interviews, and document analysis, this study investigates networks as sites of scholarship. Its purpose is to situate networked practices within Boyer’s (1990) four components of scholarship – discovery, integration, application, and teaching – and to explore them as a techno-cultural system of scholarship suited to an era of knowledge abundance. Not only does the paper find that networked engagement both aligns with and exceeds Boyer’s model for scholarship, it suggests that networked scholarship may enact Boyer’s initial aim of broadening scholarship itself through fostering extensive cross-disciplinary, public ties and rewarding connection, collaboration, and curation between individuals rather than roles or institutions.</p>

scholarly journals Youth Activism in Political Squats between Centri Sociali and Case Occupate

Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Genova
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Virtual Space ◽  
Youth Activism ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
Collective Narratives ◽  
The City

Nowadays a lot of research describes most young people as barely interested in politics, expressing little trust in political institutions and far from any forms of institutional political participation. Moreover, most of the engaged youth are involved in forms of participation described as more civic and social than political, weakly ideological, more and more often digital and developed in virtual space, and usually experienced as one among several components of everyday personal lives. The article explores youth activism in political squats because it is a form of participation which, in countertendency, is political and radical in its aims and strategies, explicitly ideologically inspired, strongly rooted in physical places, and often quite central in everyday personal lives. The text is based on research conducted in the city of Turin (Italy) by means of qualitative interviews, participant observation and document analysis. Four main interconnected thematic dimensions are considered: Individuals’ biographical paths and meanings of activism; distinctive lifestyles and cultural sensitivities among the activists; collective narratives about contemporary society and possibilities of social change; patterns of intervention and forms of organization. On the basis of these analyses, the article maintains that this form of activism can be usefully interpreted as a real lifestyle, which has an explicit and intense political sense, but which young activists also connect with a much wider, more differentiated set of meanings.

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