scholarly journals ‘What is immediate and obvious feels real’: National identity and emotional vulnerabilities in the field

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 205979912110355
Author(s):  
Nelson Turgo ◽  
Helen Sampson
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Emotion Work ◽  
Methodological Issues ◽  
Emotional Vulnerability ◽  
Emotional Risk

This article provides a critical reflection on methodological issues at the interface of researcher national identity and emotional vulnerability. This aspect of social research is often neglected in discussions of positionality, primarily in relation to emotional risk in the field, and here we address this gap in the literature. Rather than reflecting on access and rapport, or issues related to the complexities of insider or outsider research, the national identity of the researcher is considered alongside emotional entanglements experienced in the field. The emotion work that is performed, and the emotional risks that are experienced by the researcher as a consequence of nationality reveal much about the complexities of identity and power relations in the field. The fieldwork informing this article was undertaken as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded study (ES/N019423/1) that examined how seafarers from different ethnic and faith backgrounds interact with each other on board and how their religious/spiritual and welfare needs are addressed ashore.

The Edwards' Report and the International Relations profession

1988 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Science Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Community

The Economic and Social Research Council recently published a Report commissioned from a committee chaired by Professor Edwards, a psychiatrist, so that the Council, and the social science community in general, might know what was good and bad in British social sciences, and where the promising future research opportunities lie over the next decade. Boldly called ‘Horizons and Opportunities in the Social Sciences’, the Report condensed the wisdom of social scientists, both British and foreign, and concludes with a broadly but not uncritically favourable picture of the British scene.

Organising: creating research worlds

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-110
Author(s):  
Paul Thompson ◽  
Ken Plummer ◽  
Neli Demireva
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
Central Statistical ◽  
Major Section

This chapter looks at how social research gradually became organized through the work of our pioneers. It starts by looking at the growth of both universities and academic disciplines (like anthropology and sociology) as key backgrounds for understanding the growth of organized research. A major section discusses a range of early research agencies — the Colonial Research Council, Political and Economic Planning (PEP), the Institute of Community Studies, the CSO (Central Statistical Office), the SSRC, Social Science Research Council, and the UK Data Archive. Some new university-based centres are also considered: medical social science at Aberdeen, methods at Surrey and the BCCS (Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies). There are brief discussions of the Banbury Study with Meg Stacey and Colin Bell; and the Affluent Worker study. The chapter closes with some pioneering work on quantitative research, longitudinal studies and the rise of computing.

scholarly journals Addressing the Implementation Crisis: Securing Reparation and Righting Wrongs

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Rachel Murray
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Multidimensional Approach ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Specific Approach ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Supranational Institutions ◽  
State Context

Abstract There has been increasing attention to the implementation of decisions of human rights bodies by scholars and by supranational institutions, states, litigants, and civil society. A project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) tracked the implementation by nine states of decisions adopted by human rights courts and commissions in the European, African and Inter-American systems and by select UN treaty bodies. This article summarizes the methodology and findings of the Project and in so doing forms an introduction to a series of articles and practice notes published in this special issue. A range of factors are identified from the research which influence implementation and stress the importance of a multifaceted, multidimensional approach to the issues. Implementation is not automatic and requires mechanisms, processes, and the involvement of actors (national and supranational) for states to comply with the reparations ordered in the decision. A case-by-case, state-by-state, context-specific approach is needed, tailored to the circumstances. This has implications for the manner in which litigants present their submissions, engage with state and supranational bodies and for the latter in terms of their roles and relationships with the various actors.

Competing myths of Czech identity

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-204
Author(s):  
Radek Chlup
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
The West ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Discourse ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article analyses the current antagonism between the Czech pro-Western liberal democratic discourse and the discourse of national sovereignty from the perspective of long-term conceptions of Czech national identity and the mythical narratives through which they have been expressed. I identify two basic mythical perspectives that have been crucial for the Czechs since the 19th century: the ‘particularist’ and the ‘universalist’. The latter originally only existed as a complement of the former, and it was not until 1968 that it was clearly expressed on its own (in its pro-Western version) in opposition to the particularist myth, eventually becoming the dominant narrative of the 1990s with their ethos of returning to the West. Once the post-revolutionary enthusiasm evaporated, however, the subsequent disillusion again came to be expressed through the particularist myth. While at present the universalist myth might seem as superior to the particularist one, from the perspective of theories of nationalism, both have their bright and dark sides, and it is only due to their present-day opposition that the particularist myth has taken the illiberal turn. A critical reflection of the limitations of both myths might allow us to soften their antagonism.

scholarly journals Youth ministry at the margins and/or centre as space of the other: Reflections on the resolutions of the Anglican dioceses in the Western Cape 2017

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Klaasen
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Youth Ministry ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Contemporary Worship ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
The Church

Youth within the context of faith-based organisations carry with them certain power relations and misconstrued connotations. These power relations and connotations can contribute to alienation and marginalisation. The resolutions taken at the recent synods of the three dioceses within the Western Cape reflect and identify the areas - both liturgical and governance - of marginalisation of youth within the Anglican Church in southern Africa. The resolutions also call on the church governing bodies and the leaders to create safe spaces for the youth to be a central part of the mission of the church. Areas such as liturgy, training and formation, contemporary worship and nurturing relationships are identified within the resolutions. Theological notions of personhood within the Anglican tradition are to be investigated as possible motivations for more acceptable power relations of the youth and leaders and governance structures. What implications do such theological formulations have for the space that the youth occupy within the margins of the church? A critical reflection of the synod resolutions answers such questions and points to some contours for sense making of the youth within the margins of the church from a faith-based organisational perspective.

Digesting the Massacre: Food Tours in Palestinian Towns in Israel

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Azri Amram
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Symbolic Boundaries ◽  
Food Tourism ◽  
To Come ◽  
Palestinians In Israel ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Multisensory Experience

Guided food tours of Israeli Jews to Palestinian towns in Israel are increasing in popularity in recent years. Indeed, the relations between Jews and Palestinians in Israel are often negotiated through the plate, and such food tours allow these relationships to be examined by both local Palestinian hosts and their Israeli-Jewish guests. In this article, I argue that food tours in Palestinian towns in Israel allow Palestinian citizens of Israel to express controversial sociopolitical messages and discuss them with Israeli-Jewish participants thanks to the unique characteristics of food tourism: a multisensory experience for tourists that creates value for the destination and its residents. I demonstrate how the practice of exploring and blurring symbolic boundaries through these tours creates a space that facilitates the delivery of explicit and implicit messages regarding civil rights issues, and even highly explosive topics such as national identity. The innocuous and ostensibly apolitical nature of food allows Israeli-Jewish tourists to come to terms, at least to a certain extent, with messages that may contradict some of the significant Zionist-Jewish narratives. This article is based on ethnography conducted from 2015–17 in Kafr Qasim, a Palestinian town in Israel. I joined “Ramadan Nights” tours that sought to present the customs of the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar in which, according to religion, Muslims fast from morning until nightfall. I show how the tour facilitates the “digestion” of messages that many Israeli Jews would otherwise find hard to accept, such as the massacre of forty-nine dwellers of Kafr Qasim by the Israeli military in 1956. I conclude by discussing the use of food and hospitality as a means of creating intimacy and challenging power relations and their role in facilitating the digestion of difficult messages.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document