“If I have to clean, I clean my own shop”: Migrant entrepreneurship as a form of emplacement in times of crisis: The example of Italy

Ethnicities ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 414-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Lintner

This article analyses the relation between European economic crisis and immigration. It does so by analysing the establishment of migrants’ entrepreneurship activities in Italy, and by looking at how these activities unravel subjects’ agency in confronting constraining socioeconomic conditions and restrictive immigration laws. In this perspective, entrepreneurship should be understood as a possibility for transforming a person’s own incorporated cultural capital into a resource and, consequently, into an opportunity for self-created work performance. Interpreting entrepreneurship as a personal response of migrants to the economic recession offers a new perspective in the existing literature on migrant entrepreneurship. Crisis, in this paper, is not seen as an abstract and supernatural phenomenon leading and controlling the capacity of individuals to act, but is understood as a constructed set of meanings comprising social interactions and relationships and consolidated within public discourses. This study is based on a qualitative-explorative research approach and was carried out in South Tyrol, Italy. For the data collection, different qualitative methods were used: narrative interviews, informal discussions and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was based on the coding processes described within the Grounded Theory. As the results show, crisis as such represents, on the one hand, a critical moment of transition or transformation of normality and the constituted ways of acting and thinking and, on the other hand, it is perceived as a new opportunity to change individual behaviour and to initiate innovative counter-strategies that will maintain a person’s capacity to act even in critical personal and structural situations. Nevertheless, showing resilience, which is powerful and leads to change, depends not only on personal motivational forces but also to given opportunity structures.

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-271
Author(s):  
Claudia Lintner

This article analyses the relationship between migrant entrepreneurship, marginalisation and social innovation. It does so, by looking how their ‘otherness’ is used on the one hand to reproduce their marginalised situation in society and on the other to develop new living and working arrangements promoting social innovation in society. The paper is based on a qualitative study, which was carried out from March 2014- 2016. In this period, twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with migrant entrepreneurs and experts. As the results show, migrant entrepreneurs are characterised by a false dichotomy of “native weakness” in economic self-organisation against the “classical strength” of majority entrepreneurs. It is shown that new possibilities of acting in the context of migrant entrepreneurship are mostly organised in close relation to the lifeworlds and specific needs deriving from this sphere. Social innovation processes initiated by migrant entrepreneurs through their economic activities thus develop on a micro level and are hence less apparent. Supportive networks are missing on a structural level, so it becomes difficult for single innovative initiatives to be long-lasting.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-703
Author(s):  
Priya Kizhakkethil

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to look at memory making and the documenting of memories, as a part of the document and information experience of women belonging to the Indian diaspora in a leisure context.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative research approach was inspired by institutional ethnography, and data are collected through semi-structured interviews and by collecting comments posted on five fan fiction blogs.FindingsEarly observations show that memory making and documenting of those memories is a part of the document experience of the research participants. It also points to the role of social interactions in that experience as well as the recording of one's document experience in the making or deriving of document meaning.Originality/valueThis study aims to contribute toward conceptual growth in the area of information and document experience. It also aims to address a gap in the literature that looks at cultural memory evocation and how it is documented, as well as looking at the interplay between affordances of new media, memory making and documentary practices especially with respect to virtual communities. And when looked at through the prism of migration and leisure, it can be even more interesting.


2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Mellman ◽  
Laura S. DeThorne ◽  
Julie A. Hengst

Abstract The present qualitative study was designed to examine augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) practices, particularly surrounding speech-generating devices (SGDs), in the classroom setting. We focused on three key child participants, their classroom teachers, and associated speech-language pathologists across three different schools. In addition to semi-structured interviews of all participants, six classroom observations per child were completed. Data were coded according to both pre-established and emergent themes. Four broad themes emerged: message-focused AAC use, social interactions within the classroom community, barriers to successful AAC-SGD use, and missed opportunities. Findings revealed a lack of SGD use in the classroom for two children as well as limited social interaction across all cases. We conclude by highlighting the pervasive sense of missed opportunities across these classroom observations and yet, at the same time, the striking resiliency of communicative effort in these cases.


Mousaion ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samson Mutsagondo ◽  
Getrude Maduyu ◽  
Godfrey Tsvuura

This paper discusses the challenges of records management that arise from the use of adapted buildings as records centres in Zimbabwe, despite the advantages of using such buildings. A qualitative research approach was used as well as a case study research design. Data were collected from seven officers of the Gweru Records Centre through semi-structured interviews. Personal observation was used to triangulate findings from interviews. It was found that the use of adapted buildings as records centres was a cheaper and quicker way of establishing records centres throughout the country. However, a number of preservation, security and management challenges cropped up as the conditions of the buildings and the environment of the adapted buildings were not conducive to the proper and professional management of records. This study is important in that it explores the prospects and challenges of using adapted buildings as records centres in Zimbabwe, an area that has not been researched by many authors. This provokes archival authorities and the government to seriously consider establishing purpose-built records and archival centres.


2018 ◽  
pp. 13-38
Author(s):  
N. Ceramella

The article considers two versions of D. H. Lawrence’s essay The Theatre: the one which appeared in the English Review in September 1913 and the other one which Lawrence published in his first travel book Twilight in Italy (1916). The latter, considerably revised and expanded, contains a number of new observations and gives a more detailed account of Lawrence’s ideas.Lawrence brings to life the atmosphere inside and outside the theatre in Gargnano, presenting vividly the social structure of this small northern Italian town. He depicts the theatre as a multi-storey stage, combining the interpretation of the plays by Shakespeare, D’Annunzio and Ibsen with psychological portraits of the actors and a presentation of the spectators and their responses to the plays as distinct social groups.Lawrence’s views on the theatre are contextualised by his insights into cinema and its growing popularity.What makes this research original is the fact that it offers a new perspective, aiming to illustrate the social situation inside and outside the theatre whichLawrenceobserved. The author uses the material that has never been published or discussed before such as the handwritten lists of box-holders in Gargnano Theatre, which was offered to Lawrence and his wife Frieda by Mr. Pietro Comboni, and the photographs of the box-panels that decorated the theatre inLawrence’s time.


Author(s):  
D. Hugh Whittaker ◽  
Timothy Sturgeon ◽  
Toshie Okita ◽  
Tianbiao Zhu

This book highlights the importance of time and timing in economic and social development. ‘Compressed development’ consists of two key features and their interaction: the tendency for development processes to unfold more rapidly (compression) and the institution-shaping influences of major periods of change and growth, especially when countries become integrated into the global economy (era). Using an interdisciplinary conceptual framework of state–market and organization–technology co-evolution, the authors contrast the experiences of ‘early’ and ‘late’ developers such as the United Kingdom and Japan, with countries–most notably China–which have become more deeply integrated with the global economy since the 1990s. Compressed developers experience ‘thin industrialization’, layered types of employment, and ‘double burdens’ or challenges in social development. National development strategies must accommodate global value chains and powerful international actors on the one hand, and decentralization on the other. To cope, and thrive, states must remain developmental, whilst being increasingly engaged and adaptive in multiple levels of governance. Compressed Development explores the historical and contemporary features of economic and social development at the intersection of development studies and studies of globalization. By bringing a new perspective on the ‘middle-income trap’, as well as the emerging digital economy, and the state–market and geopolitical tensions that are currently upending conventional wisdoms, the book offers timely insights that will be useful, not only for students of development, but for policymakers, business, and labour organization seeking to navigate the rushing currents of contemporary capitalism.


Author(s):  
Vered Noam

In attempting to characterize Second Temple legends of the Hasmoneans, the concluding chapter identifies several distinct genres: fragments from Aramaic chronicles, priestly temple legends, Pharisaic legends, and theodicean legends explaining the fall of the Hasmonean dynasty. The chapter then examines, by generation, how Josephus on the one hand, and the rabbis on the other, reworked these embedded stories. The Josephan treatment aimed to reduce the hostility of the early traditions toward the Hasmoneans by imposing a contrasting accusatory framework that blames the Pharisees and justifies the Hasmonean ruler. The rabbinic treatment of the last three generations exemplifies the processes of rabbinization and the creation of archetypal figures. With respect to the first generation, the deliberate erasure of Judas Maccabeus’s name from the tradition of Nicanor’s defeat indicates that they chose to celebrate the Hasmonean victory but concealed its protagonists, the Maccabees, simply because no way was found to bring them into the rabbinic camp.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110250
Author(s):  
Julie Schweitzer ◽  
Tamara L Mix

Employing the example of France’s civil nuclear program, we connect political opportunity structures (POSs) to mechanisms of knowledge production, identifying how opposing stakeholders generate knowledge about a controversial technology. A history of nuclear dependence in France creates a context that praises, normalizes, and rationalizes nuclear energy while stigmatizing attempts to question or contest the nuclear industry’s dominant position. Integrating Bond’s knowledge-shaping process with Coy and colleagues’ concept of oppositional knowledge, we consider how the broader social, political, and economic context influences opposing stakeholder assessments of nuclear energy. Employing qualitative semi-structured interviews, we offer unique insight into the French nuclear debate, discussing the role of POS in shaping knowledge production.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089202062199967
Author(s):  
Josephine Marchant

Drawing on data from 116 survey responses by School Business Managers, and 7 semi-structured interviews with education professionals carried out between October 2017 and February 2018, this article reports on findings from a research project focussing on the opportunities and constraints for career progression into leadership roles for School Business Managers (SBMs) in the state sector in England. The article considers the differing roles and responsibilities of SBMs, how leadership is perceived in schools, the visibility of the SBM role, career aspirations of the SBMs who were surveyed, and the perceived constraints to progression to leadership roles. Analysis of the data was carried out using an inductive research approach using mixed methods. Snowballing was used to obtain a meaningful sample size for survey responses. Interviewees were chosen on the basis of judgement sampling. The sampling design for the survey and the interviews was one of non-probability. Findings suggest that leadership roles for SBMs do exist but that there are considerable constraints to these being achieved, not least the lack of appetite amongst SBMs to do so.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie Sciurba

Abstract This study examines the ways in which a pair of identical-looking fraternal twins – first-generation Indian-American adolescent male students at a private all-boys school – construct personal meaning, or textual relevance, as readers. Semi-structured interviews with the two young men were conducted to determine the degrees to which their connections to literature were influenced by a) their racial/ethnic/cultural identities, b) their gender identities, and/or c) other aspects of their identities. The brothers’ responses, which differ significantly from one another’s and demonstrate the complexities of constructing meaning from texts, provide new perspective on how to best reach individual students – particularly students from nondominant groups. The data indicates that educators would benefit significantly from including young people’s perspectives in attempts to represent them and their identities within literacy education contexts. Ultimately, this study calls for a broadened theory of reader response – one that accounts for student diversity, within and across groups, and encourages young people to share how their worlds impact their readings of the word.


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