The limits of a part-time political ethnographer

Author(s):  
John Heathershaw

In this ethnographic vignette the researcher reflects upon his experiences exploring ‘new settlement’ communities on the margins of Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. It centres on two moments of self-organization in one settlement, which took place without the knowledge or involvement of the leadership, and which were interpreted by the fieldworker as examples of the role of uncertainty, self-organization and nonviolence in successful protest. Consideration of the period of research enables self-reflections on the risks and limits of the fieldwork, and the privileges and partialities of the part-time political ethnographer himself.

2018 ◽  
pp. 1060-1068
Author(s):  
Galina A. Dvoenosova ◽  

The article assesses synergetic theory of document as a new development in document science. In information society the social role of document grows, as information involves all members of society in the process of documentation. The transformation of document under the influence of modern information technologies increases its interest to representatives of different sciences. Interdisciplinary nature of document as an object of research leads to an ambiguous interpretation of its nature and social role. The article expresses and contends the author's views on this issue. In her opinion, social role of document is incidental to its being a main social tool regulating the life of civilized society. Thus, the study aims to create a scientific theory of document, explaining its nature and social role as a tool of social (goal-oriented) action and social self-organization. Substantiation of this idea is based on application of synergetics (i.e., universal theory of self-organization) to scientific study of document. In the synergetic paradigm, social and historical development is seen as the change of phases of chaos and order, and document is considered a main tool that regulates social relations. Unlike other theories of document, synergetic theory studies document not as a carrier and means of information transfer, but as a unique social phenomenon and universal social tool. For the first time, the study of document steps out of traditional frameworks of office, archive, and library. The document is placed on the scales with society as a global social system with its functional subsystems of politics, economy, culture, and personality. For the first time, the methods of social sciences and modern sociological theories are applied to scientific study of document. This methodology provided a basis for theoretical vindication of nature and social role of document as a tool of social (goal-oriented) action and social self-organization. The study frames a synergetic theory of document with methodological foundations and basic concepts, synergetic model of document, laws of development and effectiveness of document in the social continuum. At the present stage of development of science, it can be considered the highest form of theoretical knowledge of document and its scientific explanatory theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-109
Author(s):  
Heba Aziz ◽  
Osman El-Said ◽  
Marike Bontenbal

The objective of this study was to measure the level of cruise tourists' satisfaction as well as the relationship between satisfaction, recommendation, return intention, and expenditure. Also, the impact of factors such as nationality, length of the visit, and age on the level of expenditure was measured. An empirical approach for data collection was followed and a total of 152 questionnaires were collected from cruise tourists visiting the capital city of Oman, Muscat, as cruise liners anchor at Sultan Qaboos Port. Results of the regression analysis supported the existence of a causal relationship between satisfaction with destination attributes, overall satisfaction, recommendation, return intention, and expenditure. It was found that the average expenditure varies according to age and length of the visit. Recommendations for policy makers were suggested on how to increase the role of cruise tourism in strengthening the economy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110064
Author(s):  
Caroline Fisher ◽  
Sora Park ◽  
Jee Young Lee ◽  
Kate Holland ◽  
Emma John

Social isolation has become a growing issue, particularly among older citizens. The ‘digital divide’ has been identified as one of the contributing factors leaving many older citizens behind. While increasing digital literacy among seniors has been identified as one of the remedies, less attention has been paid to the role of news media on the wellbeing and connectedness of older people. Through the lens of the uses and gratifications theory, this article reports on the findings of a survey of 562 news consumers aged 50 years and above who live in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The analysis highlights the important role of news in reducing feelings of social isolation, particularly for those who spend more time alone and older people with cognitive impairment. Older participants who had difficulty concentrating and learning new tasks were also more dependent on news. We suggest this is due to the habitual, predictable and concise nature of news. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of news in the wellbeing of older people and point to the need for policymakers and those in the aged care sector to ensure access to news for older citizens to improve the quality of life.


2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Bowie

AbstractDespite a growing literature revealing the presence of millenarian movements in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist societies, scholars have been remarkably reluctant to consider the role of messianic beliefs in Buddhist societies. Khruubaa Srivichai (1878–1938) is the most famous monk of northern Thailand and is widely revered as atonbun, or saint. Althoughtonbunhas been depoliticized in the modern context, the term also refers to a savior who is an incarnation of the coming Maitreya Buddha. In 1920 Srivichai was sent under arrest to the capital city of Bangkok to face eight charges. This essay focuses on the charge that he claimed to possess the god Indra's sword. Although this charge has been widely ignored, it was in fact a charge of treason. In this essay, I argue that the treason charge should be understood within the context of Buddhist millenarianism. I note the saint/savior tropes in Srivichai's mytho-biography, describe the prevalence of millenarianism in the region, and detail the political economy of the decade of the 1910s prior to Srivichai's detention. I present evidence to show that the decade was characterized by famine, dislocation, disease, and other disasters of both natural and social causes. Such hardships would have been consistent with apocalyptic omens in the Buddhist repertoire portending the advent of Maitreya. Understanding Srivichai in this millenarian context helps to explain both the hopes of the populace and the fears of the state during that tumultuous decade.


2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. P. Napartovich ◽  
N. N. Elkin ◽  
V. N. Troshchieva ◽  
D. V. Vysotsky

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110012
Author(s):  
Valeria Insarauto

This article studies women’s vulnerability to the economic crisis of 2008 through the lens of part-time work in Spain. It posits that part-time work made the female employment position more fragile by acting as a transmission mechanism of traditional gender norms that establish women as secondary workers. This argument is tested through an analysis of Labour Force Survey data from 2007 to 2014 that examines the influence of the employment situation of the household on women’s part-time employment patterns. The results expose the limited take-up of part-time work but also persistent patterns of involuntariness and underemployment corresponding to negative household employment situations, highlighting the constraining role of gender norms borne by the relative position of part-time work in the configuration of employment structures. The article concludes that, during the crisis, part-time work participated in the re-establishment of women as a family dependent and flexible labour supply, increasing their vulnerability.


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Guodong Yang ◽  
Yingwei Ji ◽  
Qiumeng Xu

Zhongyong, as a typical Confucian thinking model, is related to employees' voice behavior. In this research we explored the relationship between Zhongyong thinking and employees' voice behavior, and examined the mediating effect of psychological safety in this relationship. Survey data were collected from 218 part-time Master of Business Administration students from two Chinese universities. The structural equation modeling results demonstrate that Zhongyong thinking was positively related to psychological safety, and that psychological safety was positively related to voice behavior. Further, psychological safety mediated the Zhongyong thinking–voice behavior relationship. These results suggest that organizations can encourage voice behavior by enhancing employees' Zhongyong thinking and by boosting their perception of psychological safety in the workplace.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Paul Allain ◽  
Osman El-Atwani ◽  
Alex Cimaroli ◽  
Daniel L. Rokusek ◽  
Sami Ortoleva ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTIon-beam sputtering (IBS) has been studied as a means for scalable, mask-less nanopatterning of surfaces. Patterning at the nanoscale has been achieved for numerous types of materials including: semiconductors, metals and insulators. Although much work has been focused on tailoring nanopatterning by systematic ion-beam parameter manipulation, limited work has addressed elucidating on the underlying mechanisms for self-organization of multi-component surfaces. In particular there has been little attention to correlate the surface chemistry variation during ion irradiation with the evolution of surface morphology and nanoscale self-organization. Moreover the role of surface impurities on patterning is not well known and characterization during the time-scale of modification remains challenging. This work summarizes an in-situ approach to characterize the evolution of surface chemistry during irradiation and its correlation to surface nanopatterning for a variety of multi-components surfaces. The work highlights the importance and role of surface impurities in nanopatterning of a surface during low-energy ion irradiation. In particular, it shows the importance of irradiation-driven mechanisms in GaSb(100) nanopatterning by low-energy ions and how the study of these systems can be impacted by oxide formation.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Plaček ◽  
David Špaček ◽  
František Ochrana

PurposeThis paper discusses the role of public leadership and the strategic response of local governments to the external shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors examine the typical Czech response with regard to how the leadership of municipalities in the Czech Republic responded to this extremely negative external stimulus.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use qualitative research methods for this investigation. They have chosen the case study method (see Yin, 2009; Stake, 1995; Klonoski, 2013). The general case is the Czech Republic. Mini-cases consist of municipalities from the Znojmo region, municipalities of the Central Bohemian region and the municipal districts in the capital city of Prague. Furthermore, the method of participant observation was used.FindingsThe authors’ analysis of the problem of local government responses to the pandemic crisis shows that municipal leaders responded with a variety of (non-)adaptation strategies. It appears that certain framework factors influenced the various local governments' behavior.Originality/valueThe article examines the strategic behavior of Czech municipal leaders regarding the pandemic crisis based on the observation of the reactions of local governments in the Czech Republic to the pandemic crisis and strives to define their basic strategies.


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