Objects, Frozen Actions, and Identity: A Multimodal (Inter)action Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Norris ◽  
Boonyalakha Makboon
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Action Analysis ◽  
Identity Production

AbstractIn this article, we take a multimodal (inter)action analytical approach, showing how objects in everyday life are identity telling. As social actors surround themselves with objects, multiple actions from producing the objects to acquiring and placing them in the environment are embedded within. Here, we investigate examples from two different ethnographic studies, using the notion of frozen actions. One of our examples comes from a 5-month-long ethnographic study on identity production of three vegetarians in Thailand (

scholarly journals Concepts in multimodal discourse analysis with examples from video conferencing

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Norris
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Focused Attention ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Multimodal Discourse ◽  
Modal Density ◽  
Action Analysis ◽  
Micro Analysis

Abstract This article presents theoretical concepts and methodological tools from multimodal (inter)action analysis that allow the reader to gain new insight into the study of discourse and interaction. The data for this article comes from a video ethnographic study (with emphasis on the video data) of 17 New Zealand families (inter)acting with family members via skype or facetime across the globe. In all, 84 social actors participated in the study, ranging in age from infant to 84 years old. The analysis part of the project, with data collected between December 2014 and December 2015, is ongoing. The data presented here was collected in December 2014 and has gone through various stages of analysis, ranging from general, intermediate to micro analysis. Using the various methodological tools and emphasising the notion of mediation, the article demonstrates how a New Zealand participant first pays focused attention to his engagement in the research project. He then performs a semantic/pragmatic means, indicating a shift in his focused attention. Here, it is demonstrated that a new focus builds up incrementally: As the participant begins to focus on the skype (inter)action with his sister and nieces, modal density increases and he establishes an emotive closeness. At this point, the technology that mediates the interaction is only a mundane aspect, taken for granted by the participants.

Practice-based research: multimodal explorations through poetry and painting

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Norris
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Theory ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Mediated Discourse ◽  
Action Analysis ◽  
Practice Based Research ◽  
Theoretical Thinking ◽  
Identity Production

AbstractIn this article, I investigate the practice-based research project called the poetry-to-painting project that the independent German artist, Andrea Brandt, who has also been a participant in two of my ethnographic studies on identity production, and I are involved in.(Norris and Brandt, 2011) illustrates Andrea’s early to current emotive stages that she links to the lifechanging event, her divorce. Taking this project as my example, I develop some theoretical thoughts and demonstrate how a practicebased project embeds and produces theoretical thought. In order to establish this theoretical thinking, I lean on mediated discourse theory (Scollon, 1998, 2001) and multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2004, 2011a).Through this project, the notion of

scholarly journals Interactional role shift as communicative project in student teachers’ oral presentations

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Christensson
Keyword(s):  
Student Teachers ◽  
Student Teacher ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Academic Development ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Role Shift ◽  
Oral Presentations

AbstractFocusing on Swedish student teachers’ oral presentations in a rhetoric class, this article studies interactional role shift as a multimodal practice. The role shifts under scrutiny concern shifting from student teacher to teacher, thus anticipating the students’ future profession. A central feature of the article is a discussion of how role shift may be conceptualised as a communicative project, thus highlighting the different modes of communication used by the students, and consequently to examine its potential as a facilitator of students’ professional and academic development. The data was collected using an ethnographical approach, resulting in a collection of 21 video-recorded oral presentations, together with other relevant semiotic resources. The data is analysed by the employment of concepts from nexus analysis and the notion of communicative projects. Through a discourse analytical approach to social action in interaction, the analysis shows how role shifts are constructed of patterns of smaller actions that add up to three primary actions: setting the scene, changing perspective, and performing the new role. These primary actions are multimodally chained together, and the results demonstrate how social actors use instructional texts in combination with multimodal recourses in order to perform their role shifts.

scholarly journals TACTICS OF BORDER CROSSING MOVEMENT: EXPLORING THE MOBILITY OF BRAZILIANS THROUGH THE SCHENGEN AND UK AIRSPACE

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Dias
Keyword(s):  
Social Space ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Research Orientation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Embodied Practice

This paper addresses the relations between migrants, mobility, tactics, negotiation, and the contemporary definition of borders in the aftermath of 9/11.The empirical focus of this paper is how Brazilians from Alto Paranaiba journey through airports located in the Schengen area and in the British territory to London. As a main research orientation, I use the notion of journey as approached by mobility studies, where actions and skills remain an important link between the wayfarer and the social space in which s/he moves through, the embodied practice to how we grasp the world. Migrants deal and struggle against border regime, but they are not powerless social actors. They rather produce creative resistance to reinvent their journey through the surveillance apparatus, which manage and delimit places with targets and threats. In this process, I explore the notion of border crossing movement as a tactical mobility developed by migrants to overcome the border control imposed by governments in airports. The article was drawn through fieldwork conducted initially in London, between 2009 and 2013, and afterwards in Alto Paranaiba, during 2013. The ethnographic study consisted in semi-structured interviews, participant observation through snowball technique, which enabled me to access a considerable number of participants in these two regions explored. The argument that I develop is that migrants as social actors are part important in the dialogue produced between border crossing and border reinforcement.

scholarly journals “Trabalho-lazeando” e o “prédio antigo” na “esquina” do bairro de Nazaré em Belém (PA)

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (37) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosangela Marques de Britto
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Individual Memory

O artigo resulta de parte do estudo etnográfico do cotidiano e das memórias de indivíduos e grupos sociais urbanos, realizado entre 2012 até março de 2014, que priorizou compreender e interpretar as relações dos agrupamentos humanos no entorno do patrimônio musealizado, onde foi instalado, em 1984, o Museu da Universidade Federal do Pará. Estas formas e conteúdos do cotidiano se processam pelas matérias das recordações dos quatro interlocutores acerca dos usos do espaço social-urbano da rua, situados nas calçadas da “esquina” do entorno do museu localizado no bairro de Nazaré, na cidade de Belém. Pretendo descrever as narrativas destes interlocutores a partir da “etnografia de rua” de suas representações e práticas espaciais de trabalhar nas ruas. Ao final, descreverei as perspectivas êmicas destes trabalhadores de rua em relação à circulação das pessoas no “dentro” e no “fora” do muro (jardim) do museu, e sobre as mudanças e permanências daquela paisagem urbana e o significado de seus ofícios/trabalhos.Palavras-chave: Espaço urbano e social. Práticas de sociabilidade na rua. Memória Individual e Coletiva. “Etnografia de rua”. Patrimônio histórico musealizado."Work-leisuring" and the "old building" on the "corner" of Nazaré neighborhood in Belém (PA)AbstractThe article results from part of the ethnographic study of everyday life and memories of individuals and urban social groups, conducted between 2012 until March 2014, which prioritized understand and interpret the relationships of human groups surround of musealized heritage, where it was installed in 1984 Museum of the Federal University of Pará. These forms and contents of the memories materials are processed daily for four interlocutors, about the uses of social-urban street spot located on the sidewalks of the "corner" surround of the museum located in the Nazaré neighborhood, in Belém. Intend to describe the narratives of these interlocutors from the "street ethnography" of your representations and spatial practices of work on the streets. At the end describe the emic perspectives of these four street workers in relation to the movement of people "inside" and "outside" the wall (garden) of the museum, and on the changes and continuities of the landscape of the streets and the meaning of their crafts / jobs.Key-words: Social and urban spot. Practices of sociability on the streets. Collective and individual memory. "Street ethnography". Historic heritage musealized.

‘Feeling Brazilian’: The search for authenticity in drum kit playing

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-226
Author(s):  
Daniel Marcondes Gohn
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Percussion Instruments ◽  
Online Searches ◽  
And Performance

The influence of Brazilian rhythms is pervasive in modern drum kit practices. Information about them can be accessed through drumming books or online searches, with ostinatos for the feet and sticking combinations for the hands, which usually are adaptations from patterns traditionally played with hand percussion instruments. Those patterns instruct drummers on what to play; however, the discussion on how to play them to sound authentic is scarce. This article explores this topic and suggests that timing nuances and performance gestures are fundamental for its comprehension. In that sense, an exclusively analytical approach to the rhythmic nuances, in which grooves are described in terms of milliseconds, is not considered sufficient. In order to fully grasp the ‘Brazilian feel’, it is suggested that a broader spectrum of elements of expression should be observed, as dancing, religion, spoken language and other aspects of everyday life might have effects on musical outcomes.

scholarly journals Commoning beyond ‘commons’: The case of the Russian ‘obshcheye’

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-340
Author(s):  
Liubov Chernysheva ◽  
Olga Sezneva
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Network ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Analysis ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Communal Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Commons

How do the semantic logics that different words accommodate in different languages map onto studies of social realities internationally and interdisciplinarily? This article is an ethnographic study of obshcheye – a corpus of phenomena pertaining to communal life in Russia. Similar to the English term ‘commons’, it marks the zone of the public – that which is shared and collective. In contrast to the commons, it displays greater semantic polyphony, bringing together social, discursive and affective qualities. Our analysis demonstrates that various semantic subsets of obshcheye sensitize research differently from the commons by indexing different societal concerns. They tune us into a wide set of concerns – with time (not wanting to be ‘Soviet’), ownership (worrying about what is ‘no one’s’), affective connectivity (one sits and waits for a conversation), and the act of caring for people and for spaces. Each word and each relationship in the semantic network reflects what is important to social actors as they go about ordering their lives together. The article concludes that obshcheye is so definitively a semantic network that expunging its conceptual heterogeneity and narrowing the multiple logics to encompass one in particular would amount to analytical reductionism and the impoverishment of social analysis.

scholarly journals Studying robots outside the lab: HRI as ethnography

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lasse Blond
Keyword(s):  
Elderly Care ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Assistive Robot ◽  
Socially Assistive Robot

Abstract As more and more robots enter our social world, there is a strong need for further field studies of humanrobot interaction. Based on a two-year ethnographic study of the implementation of a South Korean socially assistive robot in Danish elderly care, this paper argues that empirical and ethnographic studies will enhance the understanding of the adaptation of robots in real-life settings. Furthermore, the paper emphasizes how users and the context of use matters to this adaptation, as it is shown that roboticists are unable to control how their designs are implemented and how the sociality of social robots is inscribed by its users in practice. This paper can be seen as a contribution to long-term studies of HRI. It presents the challenges of robot adaptation in practice and discusses the limitations of the present conceptual understanding of human-robot relations. The ethnographic data presented herein encourage a move away from static and linear descriptions of the implementation process toward more contextual and relational accounts of HRI.

scholarly journals “I Need Child Care!”: Using Funds of Knowledge, Addressing Challenges, and Developing Literacies With a Classroom Community of Adult ESL Learners

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 334-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aijuan Cun ◽  
Mary B. McVee ◽  
Christopher Vasquez
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Funds Of Knowledge ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Life Challenge ◽  
Esl Learners

Many immigrants and refugees in the United States must confront different linguistic and cultural contexts in their everyday life. As part of a larger ethnographic study related to refugee families and literacy, this qualitative study explores how adult English as a second language (ESL) students help their classmate Htoo Eh find ways to deal with an everyday life challenge. This study utilized two supporting theoretical frameworks: funds of knowledge and literacy as a social practice. Data sources included field notes, transcripts of video recording, artifacts, as well as conservations with the teacher and welfare coordinators. Findings demonstrate that community members utilized two funds of knowledge in particular: social network and life experience to help the focal participant. Findings also showed that adult ESL students assisted their classmates in developing three types of literacies, which were finding and obtaining childcare, knowing how the system works, and communicating with the caseworker in order to deal with an everyday life challenge. These findings suggest that educators should recognize and value adult ESL learners’ funds of knowledge as well as incorporate the knowledge into instruction. Educators also should open up space for these learners to develop literacies together as a community.

scholarly journals Social Construction of Cyanobacteria Blooms in Quebec

SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401769736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geneviève Brisson ◽  
Karine Dubé ◽  
Sabrina Doyon ◽  
Benoît Lévesque
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Cyanobacteria Blooms ◽  
Public Health Officials

Using a political ecology perspective, this research examines the social issues of cyanobacteria. In Québec (Canada), public health officials issue warnings concerning water-related activities and water consumption. An ethnographic study was undertaken with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the attitudes of citizens toward cyanobacteria and public health measures. It enabled us to identify both the meanings attached to this phenomenon and the other driving forces behind the attitudes and, in particular, toward compliance with measures prescribed by the authorities. Focus groups and semidirected individual interviews involving several groups of social actors were conducted in 2009 and 2010 on three communities. This study points to the importance of considering natural phenomena such as the proliferation of cyanobacteria as sociocultural constructs, because this approach can be applied to address the impacts of such phenomena from a different perspective and therefore improve management practices to reduce these impacts.

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