Anticonsumption as Tactical Response to Institutionalized Subordination: The Case of Materially Deprived Anticonsumers

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hélène Cherrier ◽  
Ronald Paul Hill
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Homeless Services ◽  
The Status

Whereas most anticonsumption research focuses on middle- to upper-class consumers who reduce, avoid, or control consumption, this study analyzes anticonsumption among materially deprived consumers. Such an anticonsumption focus runs contrary to the conventional subordination of homeless people to the status of inferior and deficient, whose survival is dependent on social housing support and food charities. Findings from an ethnographic study in Australia show that materially deprived consumers avoid social housing and food charities as a tactical response against institutionalized subordination, which specialized homeless services reinforce. In this context, anticonsumption is thus not about projecting a self-affirming identity or generating a collective force to change consumer culture. Rather, anticonsumption among materially deprived consumers aims at overcoming institutionalized subordination and represents tactics of survival rather than strategies for illusionary emancipation.

Why do crowds cause trouble? Exploring affective instability in collectivity

2021 ◽  
pp. 147059312110349
Author(s):  
Maíra Magalhães Lopes ◽  
Joel Hietanen ◽  
Jacob Ostberg
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Urban Activism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Expression ◽  
Affective Instability ◽  
Being And Becoming

Through our ethnographic study of urban activism collectives in São Paulo, we propose another approach for exploring the process of collective formations and their longevity. Rather than seeking out the representational meanings of individualized communities, we approach collectivity from the perspective of crowds. Crowds are affective. Crowds are contagious. By adopting affect-based theorizing, we discuss affective intensities that bring about collectivity before the individuals awaken to narrate their meaning-makings. In our ethnographic context, collectives resist manifestations of gentrification (i.e., consumer culture in itself) and offer us a multifaceted site of being and becoming with the crowds. We explore how connections and disconnections affectively rekindle the social expression of collective bodies in consumer culture. This way, we add new dimensions to extant theorizing of consumer collectivity that tends to focus on individualized meaning, stability, and harmony.

scholarly journals (Trans)Formative Trajectories of Decisions: An Analysis from The Translation Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-391
Author(s):  
Eduardo Guedes Villar ◽  
Karina De Deá Róglio ◽  
Natália Rese
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Enterprise ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Organizational Decision Making ◽  
The Status ◽  
Process Perspective

Motivated by an agenda for empirical research on decisions, we seek to understand how an issue or idea is labelled as a "decision". Based on the relational ontology, we used the Actor-Network Theory as a theoretical frame, and particularly the translation perspective. In order to understand the "process of formation and stabilization of decisions" focused on what makes actors act, we conducted an ethnographic study in a social enterprise for 30 months. Through narrative analysis, we propose the (trans)formative trajectories of decisions in which we describe the trajectory of these hybrid entities achieving the status of relative fixity labelled as "the decision". We understand the trajectory as an ongoing translation journey; thus, we tracked decisions in their trajectories of translation, packaging and legitimation. The elements of the organizational decision-making are re-signified as performative texts, which enter the network of relations. Therefore, decisions are (trans)formed on a journey of mediation among multiple actants. When objectified as crystallized texts, the decisions become performative, because they start to organize and participate in the constitution of the ongoing reality. This theoretical framework allowed us to extend the processual understanding of decision-making aligned with the relational ontology and the time-process perspective.

scholarly journals Delivering Social Housing: An Overview of the Housing Crisis in Dublin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valesca Lima
Keyword(s):  
Affordable Housing ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Rapid Decline ◽  
Housing Supply ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Family Homelessness ◽  
Housing Policies ◽  
Direct Construction ◽  
The Social

This paper explores the responses to the housing crisis in Dublin, Ireland, by analysing recent housing policies promoted to prevent family homelessness. I argue that private rental market subsides have played an increasing role in the provision of social housing in Ireland. Instead of policies that facilitate the construction of affordable housing or the direct construction of social housing, current housing policies have addressed the social housing crisis by encouraging and relying excessively on the private market to deliver housing. The housing crisis has challenged governments to increase the social housing supply, but the implementation of a larger plan to deliver social housing has not been effective, as is evidenced by the rapid decline of both private and social housing supply and the increasing number of homeless people in Dublin.

scholarly journals A Bridge to Portugal: Language and Identity in Bridgeport, CT

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Fabio Scetti
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
American English ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Language And Identity ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Status

Here I present the results of BridgePORT, an ethnographic study I carried out in 2018 within the Portuguese community of Bridgeport, CT (USA). I describe language use and representation among Portuguese speakers within the community, and I investigate the integration of these speakers into the dominant American English speech community. Through my fieldwork, I observe mixing practices in day-to-day interaction, while I also consider the evolution of the Portuguese language in light of language contact and speakers’ discourse as this relates to ideologies about the status of Portuguese within the community. My findings rely on questionnaires, participant observation of verbal interaction, and semi-structured interviews. My aim is to show how verbal practice shapes the process of identity construction and how ideas of linguistic “purity” mediate the maintenance of a link to Portugal and Portuguese identity.

scholarly journals Ethnographic study on homeless people in a big urban center

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguir Terezinha Vieccelli Donoso ◽  
Marisa Antonini Ribeiro Bastos ◽  
Camila Rodrigues de Faria ◽  
Aurelino Alves Costa
Keyword(s):  
Homeless People ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Center

scholarly journals A MÍDIA COMO INSTRUMENTO PARA A CONSTRUÇÃO DE CONSENSOS (THE MEDIA AS INSTRUMENT FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONSENSUS) - Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5212/OlharProfr.v.11i2.253273

2009 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Índia Mara Aparecida Dalavia de Souza Holleben ◽  
Marlene Lucia Siebert Sapelli
Keyword(s):  
Status Quo ◽  
The Other ◽  
Media Education ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Educative Process ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Media

A educação acontece em diferentes espaços. A mídia também é um desses espaços. Por isso, neste artigo, propusemo-nos a analisar algumas questões, que consideramos relevantes e que, em geral, ocultam a hegemonia de uma classe sobre a outra. No processo educativo que acontece por meio da mídia, há uma contribuição para fortalecer tal hegemonia. Isso comprova a não neutralidade da educação. A mídia tem se mostrado como partido ideológico da elite, e o poder que exerce neste espaço social pode ser definido como poder simbólico, atrelado intimamente ao poder econômico, político e, em alguns casos, até coercitivo. Para discutirmos a mídia como instrumento educativo, em favor da manutenção do status quo, optamos em fazê-lo apresentando como duas temáticas que são por ela tratadas: Gênero e o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra.   Palavras-chave: Mídia. Educação. Consenso. Hegemonia. Gênero. Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra.   Education is settled in different places and the media is also one of these places. Therefore, in this article we propose to analyze some relevant questions that can usually hide the hegemony of a class on the other. In the educative process intermediated by the media, we can notice a contribution to empower this hegemony. This put in evidence the education no neutrality position. The media can be understood as an ideological political organization of the upper class and its power can be defined as a symbolic one, linked to the economic and politician forces and even acting, in some cases, as a coercion element. To discuss the media as an educative instrument, in favor of the of the status quo maintenance, we present two thematic that have been followed: Gender and Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (The Movement of the Agricultural Workers With No Land).   Keywords: Media. Education. Consensus. Hegemony. Gender. Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra.

The pandemic and homeless people in the Turin area: the level of housing adequacy shapes experiences and well-being

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Leonardi ◽  
Silvia Stefani
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Homeless Services ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose Considering the case study presented, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the pandemic in local services for homeless people. Drawing from the concept of ontological security, it will be discussed how different services’ levels of “housing adequacy” shaped remarkably different experiences of the pandemic for homeless people and social workers in terms of health protection and agency. Design/methodology/approach This paper focuses on a case study concerning homeless services for people during the COVID-19 pandemic in the metropolitan and suburban area of Turin, in Northern Italy. In-depth interviews with social workers and participant observation during online meetings of workers from the shelters constitute the empirical data that have been collected during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy. Findings According to the findings, the pandemic showed shelters as unsafe places that reduce homeless people’s decision power and separate them from the rest of the citizenship. Instead, Housing First projects emerged as imore inclusive and safermore inclusive and safer spaces, able to enhance people’s power over their own lives. The pandemic did not create emerging issues in the homeless services system or discontinuities: rather, it amplified pre-existing problematic aspects. Originality/value The case study presented provides empirical insights to recognise at the political and organisational level the importance of housing as a measure of individual and collective security, calling for an intervention to tackle homelessness in terms of housing policies rather than exclusively social and emergency treatment.

“You’re sitting on a hot soccer field drinking Gatorade…I’m sitting in a yacht club just enjoying the view, enjoying the drinks”: Parental reproduction of social class through school sport sailing

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1005
Author(s):  
Anne Schmitt ◽  
Matthew Atencio ◽  
Gaëlle Sempé
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Dominant Class ◽  
School Sport ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Tactical Decision ◽  
Class Status ◽  
Teachers And Parents

This paper examines the utilisation of light sailing within school sport programmes in Western France and California. Sailing has been identified as a key activity for upper class participation in both France and the USA because it heavily involves intellectual skills, including preparation, tactical decision making, leadership and problem solving. Following on from this, we develop the social class concepts of Pierre Bourdieu (1979) to demonstrate how cultural and economic capitals are sought after and reproduced in comparative school sailing environments to maintain upper class social values and positions. We highlight interview commentary and field observations from a 1.5-year comparative ethnographic study of youth sailors and supporting adults, including coaches, teachers and parents. Our findings indicate that Western French and Californian upper class student sailors and their adult supporters are differentiated from each other in terms of how they prioritise either economic or cultural capital acquisition. This finding aligns with Bourdieusian conceptual distinctions of culturally dominant class and economically dominant class values and membership. Upper class status reinforcement and capital reproduction in these divergent ways reflects distinctive national cultures as well as social and economic structures underpinning youth/school sport and educational participation.

Culture Mavens: Feeling at Home in America

Jews at Home ◽  
2010 ◽  
pp. 287-292
Author(s):  
Jenna Weissman Joselit
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
American Culture ◽  
American Jews ◽  
American Jewry ◽  
Jewish Experience ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Feeling At Home ◽  
At Home

This chapter reviews recent museum exhibitions and guides to cultural Jewishness to pose the question of whether a new emotional concept of Jews at home is apparent in American culture. Considering the status of American Jewry as the largest diaspora population in the world, one must wonder if it constitutes a decided rupture with the past, an entirely new calibration of matters Jewish, or simply an expression of tradition in a new register. It laments the difficulty of studying the American Jewry, especially when compared with the Jewish populations in other countries — to say nothing of contemporary Israeli society. The American Jews' fluid and simultaneous embrace of consumer culture and liturgical tradition, of ‘kosher cellphones’ and gay weddings, of Chinese food and ‘heirloom talitot’ (prayer shawls) that embed a photograph of a beloved ancestor in their folds — makes for a culture that defies easy description. Yet the chapter surmises that there is something about the modern American Jewish experience circa 2009 that seems downright revolutionary rather than evolutionary.

scholarly journals Impact Evaluation of the Provision of Social Housing on the Use of Social Services by Homeless People in the Czech Republic

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 10184
Author(s):  
Katerina Glumbikova ◽  
Pavel Rusnok ◽  
Marek Mikulec
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Housing ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Homeless People ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Research Survey ◽  
The Impact

The Czech Republic has recently experienced a growing number of homeless people, which leads to the need to evaluate the impact of social housing on the living conditions of its users. At present, there is no existing law on social housing in the Czech Republic and the agenda of assistance to the homeless is thus carried out mainly by social services. For these reasons, the paper intends to evaluate the impact of social housing on the homeless in the Czech Republic in a specific area of the use of social services. Based on a quantitative research survey of 147 social housing dwellers after moving in and after 12 months, the impact of social housing on the use of social services was determined, which was put into context with the trend of using social work services in social housing. Research results show that the provision of social housing leads to an overall decrease of the social work utilization and (possible) increase in client self-sufficiency, which can result in strong economic impacts of social housing in the form of savings on social work provision.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document