Exploring Township Youth Perceptions: Vulnerable Girls and Their Caregivers in Chatsworth, Durban

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-302
Author(s):  
Gerelene Jagganath
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Substance Abusers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Drug Addicts ◽  
Female Youth ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Youth Perceptions

This article is based on a longitudinal, ethnographic study conducted in 2010, 2011, and 2012 among caregivers of female youth substance abusers in Chatsworth. Together with personnel of the Anti Drug Forum (ADF), the researcher used several qualitative research techniques, including participant observation, interviews, and focus group meetings to compile in-depth case studies of a small sample of vulnerable female youth drug addicts, primarily from the perspective of their caregivers. While the research questions focused on their substance-abuse experiences and challenges, the religious perceptions and spiritual practices of the young women and their caregivers raised several pertinent debates relating to religious identity specific to Chatsworth. The article also draws on a number of studies, news articles, and community discussions to supplement a topic that has been under-researched. For the purposes of this article and the religious affiliation of the sample, a snapshot of youth perceptions on Christianity and Hinduism in the township context will be examined.

Issues Arising from an Ethnographic Investigation of the Religious Identity Formation of Young People in Mixed-faith Families

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-31
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Arweck ◽  
Eleanor Nesbitt
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Ethical Aspects ◽  
Research Experiences

This article documents and discusses issues arising from an ethnographic study of the religious identity formation of young people growing up in mixed-faith families. It reports and reflects on challenges to the design of our project, possible explanations for these challenges and the ways in which we addressed them. The areas where we encountered difficulties relate, firstly, to the combination of traditional ethnography with cyber-ethnography and, secondly, to sampling, interviewing and participant observation. There are implications for our project and for future empirical studies of families, especially those with particular focus on religion, culture and identity. The intention of this article is thus twofold: to make a contribution to debates regarding methodsand ethical aspects of ethnography and, through the reflections on our research experiences, to inform researchers who may face similar challenges.

Getting to Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally K. Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Growth Data ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Sense Of Identity

Getting to Church explores the ways in which congregations continue to provide an arena in which adults deepen and expand a sense of identity, connection, and growth. Data for this analysis come from three years of participant observation, focus groups, and personal interviews with clergy, current members, and prospective members in three congregations representing diverse traditions within US Christianity. Our analysis demonstrates that historic tradition or denomination as embodied in buildings and programs, as well as the specific teachings and ethos of congregations, draws men and women differently toward membership. Contrary to the generalization that women are more religious than men, we argue that women’s and men’s religious identity, experience, and practice vary in substance, direction, and breath across religious tradition. Gender shapes joining, though not in the directions or degree we might expect. For both women and men, connecting to congregations provides an opportunity to experience dimensions of personhood that are broader than the current cultural gender script. Congregations provide robust narratives of transcendence that are experienced as empowering to women, as well as narratives of community, connection, and service for men. The fact that these themes appear in congregations located at very different points across the religious field underscores the salience of formal religious affiliation in the formation of adult personhood.

Young Muslim America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muna Ali
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Cultural Citizenship ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Community Culture ◽  
Identity Studies ◽  
Anthropology Of Islam ◽  
Dominant Narratives

This book explores the identities, perspectives, and roles of the second and subsequent generations of Muslim Americans of both immigrant and convert backgrounds. As these younger Muslims come of age, and as distant as they are from historical processes that shaped their parents’ generations, how do they view themselves and each other? What role do they play in the current chapter of Islam in a post-9/11 America? Will they be able to cross intra-community divides and play a pivotal role in shaping their community? Culture figures prominently in the discussions about and among Muslims and is centered on four dominant narratives: 1) culture is thought to be the underlying cause of an alleged “identity crisis,” 2) it presumably contaminates a “pure/true” Islam, 3) it is the cause for all that divides Muslim American immigrants and converts, which could be remedied by creating an American Muslim community and culture, and 4) some Americans fear an “Islamization of America” through a Muslim cultural takeover. In this ethnographic study, Muna Ali explores these questions through these four dominant narratives, which are both part of the public discourse and themes that emerged from interviews, a survey, social and traditional media, and participant observation. Situating these questions and narratives in identity studies in a pluralistic yet racialized society, as well as in the anthropology of Islam and in the process and meaning of cultural citizenship, Ali examines how younger Muslims see themselves and their community, how they negotiate fault lines of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and religious interpretation within their communities, and how their faith informs their daily lives and how they envision a future for themselves in post-911 America.

Mass fainting in garment factories in Cambodia

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Eisenbruch
Keyword(s):  
Health Workers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Industrial Accidents ◽  
Factory Workers ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Garment Factory ◽  
Garment Factories ◽  
Garment Factory Workers

This paper reports an ethnographic study of mass fainting among garment factory workers in Cambodia. Research was undertaken in 2010–2015 in 48 factories in Phnom Penh and 8 provinces. Data were collected in Khmer using nonprobability sampling. In participant observation with monks, factory managers, health workers, and affected women, cultural understandings were explored. One or more episodes of mass fainting occurred at 34 factories, of which 9 were triggered by spirit possession. Informants viewed the causes in the domains of ill-health/toxins and supernatural activities. These included “haunting” ghosts at factory sites in the wake of Khmer Rouge atrocities or recent fatal accidents and retaliating guardian spirits at sites violated by foreign owners. Prefigurative dreams, industrial accidents, or possession of a coworker heralded the episodes. Workers witnessing a coworker fainting felt afraid and fainted. When taken to clinics, some showed signs of continued spirit influence. Afterwards, monks performed ritual ceremonies to appease spirits, extinguish bonds with ghosts, and prevent recurrence. Decoded through its cultural motifs of fear and protest, contagion, forebodings, the bloody Khmer Rouge legacy, and trespass, mass fainting in Cambodia becomes less enigmatic.

scholarly journals Contingent authority and youth influence: When youth councils can wield influence in public institutions

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 537
Author(s):  
Angela Booker
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Youth Development ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Advisory Board ◽  
Sociology Of Education ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Youth Participation ◽  
Public Practice ◽  
State Education

<p class="RESUMENCURSIVA">Studies of youth public participation have dealt with varied conceptions of citizenship that emerge from literatures on human rights, civic engagement, youth development, and youth organizing and activism. Where those conceptions rely on developmental logics that limit or exclude youth participation, young people’s attempts to gain authority reveal concurrent ways they navigate these multiple conceptions of participation. Drawing on an 18-month ethnographic study, the analysis presented here focuses on a specific venue for youth participation: a student advisory board. Data includes participant observation, interviews, and artifacts including resolutions and emails. Twenty-one of 27 students, representing roughly 15 high schools in their school district, participated in the study. When students attended to paperwork like bylaws and the state education code, they gained access to contingent authority, a limited but influential form of Weberian authority. Key implications of the study indicate that while youth advisory councils can reliably produce exclusion on developmental grounds, they can also provide the parameters for establishing contingent authority. Paperwork is a key to accessing this form of bureaucratic authority, but exercising it requires sustained, public practice. This article contributes to literatures on youth studies, public participation and more broadly to sociology of education.</p>

The Portable Bullhe Shah: Biography, Categorization, and Authorship in the Study Of Punjabi Sufi Poetry

Numen ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Rinehart
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Extensive Body

AbstractThe Punjabi poet Bullhe Shah (1680-1758) is revered by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. In the extensive body of interpretive literature devoted to his life and work, scholars have contested his religious identity, characterizing Bullhe Shah in various ways, e. g. as a Sufi, a Vedantic Sufi, or a Vai ava Vedantic Sufi. This article examines the nature of the debates about Bullhe Shah's identity, and how these debates have shaped the varying portrayals of Bullhe Shah's life, the corpus of his poetry, and the characterization of his religious affiliation. I argue that a series of unexamined assumptions — about the nature of biography and its relation to the development of a worldview, about the categorization of religious identity, and about the nature of authorship — have created these conflicting portrayals of the poet and his work, making Bullhe Shah a kind of "portable" figure who is placed in widely divergent contexts. I conclude by arguing that Bullhe Shah's portability, or his placement within different contexts (for different purposes), is itself a useful topic for analysis, and provides the basis for a potentially more fruitful study not only of Bullhe Shah's life and work, but also of his audiences and their responses to him.

Pagdihon: The Art and Language of Pottery Making in Bari, Sibalom, Antique

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edbert Jay M. Cabrillos ◽  
◽  
Rowena S. Cabrillos ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Photo Documentation ◽  
Language Pattern ◽  
Art And Language

Pottery is seen as creation of ornamentals, cooking and storing materials. Yet, while economic gains are often considered from producing these materials, the artistic and linguistic aspects have been ignored. This study discusses the factors influencing the culture of pottery, the processes of pottery making, and seeks to uncover the language used in processes of pottery making in Bari, Sibalom, Antique. A qualitative research employing ethnographic study with participant observation and face to face interviews using photo documentation, video recording and open-ended questions in gathering the data was employed. There were five manugdihon, or potters, purposively selected as key informants of the study. The study revealed that environmental factors influenced the culture of pottery making in the barangay. There were seven main processes in pottery making. These included gathering and preparing of materials, mixing the needed materials, cleaning the mixed clay, forming of desired shape, detaching, drying, and polishing and varnishing. Further findings indicate that, together the other processes, the language used in poterry making was archaic Kinaray-a, the language of the province. This language pattern suggests a specialized pottery making. Ultimately, the study suggest that the manugdihon should continue their artistic talents so that the language may be preserved. The educational institutions of the province may provide ways to include pottery making in the curriculum so that the art and language of pottery making will be preserved and promoted.

Being an Addict and Healing: Narratives and Practices in A Gospel Rehabilitation Center

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
Yumeng YAO
Keyword(s):  
Drug Users ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Drug Addicts ◽  
Rehabilitation Center ◽  
Geographic Factor ◽  
Border Areas ◽  
Healing Narratives

As a social problem, addiction is especially troublesome in the southwestern border areas of China. This research explores how they became addicts and how to deal with it based on six months of ethnographic research in a gospel rehabilitation center in Yunnan. In rationality analysis and discussion, personal choices of drug users arc often held accountable. However > it is necessary to take the geographic factor and historical background into consideration when reflecting on their way of being addicted. Besides? this study would > through personal narratives of drug addicts? attempt to introduce the irrationality factor of desire to analyze from the perspective of the subjects how their drug use experience is related to the society through desires. And then, by using participant observation of their daily practices in the center, this study makes an in-depth exploration of how such desires arc handled through healing treatment at the Gospel Rehabilitation Center. And how they through healing practices to realize rebirth.

Diglossia and Local Identity: Swiss German in the Linguistic Landscape of Kleinbasel

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edina Krompák ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Written Form

The city of Basel is situated in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in the geographic triangle of three countries: France, Germany and Switzerland. Everyday urban life is characterised by the presence of Standard German and Swiss German as well as diverse migrant languages. Swiss German is ‘an umbrella term for several Alemannic dialects’ (Stepkowska 2012, 202) which differ from Standard German in terms of phonetics, semantics, lexis, and grammar and has no standard written form. Swiss German is predominantly used in oral forms, and Standard German in written communication. Furthermore, an amalgamation of bilingualism and diglossia (Stepkowska 2012, 208) distinguishes the specific linguistic situation, which indicates amongst other things the high prestige of Swiss German in everyday life. To explore the visibility and vitality of Swiss German in the public display of written language, we examined the linguistic landscape of a superdiverse neighbourhood of Basel, and investigated language power and the story beyond the sign – ‘stories about the cultural, historical, political and social backgrounds of a certain space’ (Blommaert 2013, 41). Our exploration was guided by the question: How do linguistic artefacts – such as official, commercial, and private signs – represent the diglossic situation and the relation between language and identity in Kleinbasel? Based on a longitudinal ethnographic study, a corpus was compiled comprising 300 digital images of written artefacts in Kleinbasel. Participant observation and focus group discussions about particular images were conducted and analysed using grounded theory (Charmaz 2006) and visual ethnography (Pink 2006). In our paper, we focus on signs in Swiss German and focus group discussions on these images. Initial analyses have produced two surprising findings; firstly, the visibility and the perception of Swiss German as a marker of local identity; secondly, the specific context of their display.

scholarly journals Humour in Sports Coaching: ‘It’s a Funny Old Game’

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 744-762 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nicholas Edwards ◽  
Robyn L Jones
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Ethnographic Film ◽  
The Social ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Sports Coaching

The primary purpose of this article was to investigate the use and manifestation of humour within sports coaching. This was particularly in light of the social significance of humour as a critical component in cultural creation and negotiation. Data were gathered from a 10-month ethnographic study that tracked the players and coaches of Senghenydd City Football Club (a pseudonym) over the course of a full season. Precise methods of data collection included participant observation, reflective personal field notes, and ethnographic film. The results demonstrated the dominating presence of both ‘inclusionary putdowns’ and ‘disciplinary humour’, particularly in relation to how they contributed to the production and maintenance of the social order. Finally, a reflective conclusion discusses the temporal nature of the collective understanding evident among the group at Senghenydd, and its effect on the humour evident. In doing so, the work contributes to the body of knowledge regarding the social role of humour within sports coaching.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document