Embodying the Field

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Hoel
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
Muslim Women ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Relationships ◽  
Embodied Practice

This article focuses on the various ways in which research relationships evolve and are negotiated by paying particular attention to the embodied nature of ethnographic research. By drawing on my own research experience of interviewing South African Muslim women about sexual dynamics, I critically engage debates concerning power dynamics in research relationships as well as researcher positionality. I argue that researchers should pay increasing attention to the multiple ways in which doing research always is an embodied practice. I present three case studies that highlight the complex ways in which research encounters speak to notions of intimacy, vulnerability and affect. In this way I argue that research encounters forge primary human relationalities that are marked by moments of convergence, conflict and despondency.

Expressing Organisational Autonomy: A Case Study of South African Further Education and Training Colleges

Politeia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Juan ◽  
Sylvia Hannan
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Further Education ◽  
External Control ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Further Education And Training ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Training

The organisational governance of further education and training colleges in South Africa has been cited as an obstacle to the institutions’ ability to contribute to the developmental needs of the country. In response, the government has instituted major policy reforms since 1996, including a move towards granting greater organisational autonomy to these colleges, with limited success. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the causes of these governance issues by examining the effect of the organisational environment, with specific focus on the power dynamics that characterised that environment between 2010 and 2012. A qualitative research approach was adopted to answer two research questions: (i) How did the concentration of power in the external environment affect the expression of autonomy of further education and training colleges between 2010 and 2012? and (ii) How did the colleges respond to the power dynamics in the external environment? The analysis of data from case studies of two further education and training colleges revealed that the government had applied external control over the institutions, thereby constraining the overt expression of autonomy. However, the colleges were not without agency and were able to respond strategically to demands from the policy environment. Thus, this study offers a counter-narrative in South African literature on governance in vocational colleges, and the authors of this article assert that the failing governance in respect of the case studies was a result of external forces (power dynamics) rather than the internal characteristics of the colleges.

April Sizemore-Barber. Prismatic Performances: Queer South Africa and the Fragmentation of the Rainbow Nation

Modern Drama ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-390
Author(s):  
Hershini Young
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
South African ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Historical Contextualization

A series of fascinating case studies, April Sizemore-Barber’s Prismatic Performances contributes to the growing field of South African performance studies. While in need of greater theoretical and historical contextualization, this is a well-written and engaging text, based on meticulous ethnographic research.

Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trude Fonneland
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
Local Manifestation

This book examines Sámi shamanism in Norway as a uniquely distinctive local manifestation of a global new religious phenomenon. It takes the diversity and hybridity within shamanic practices seriously through case studies from a Norwegian setting and highlights the ethnic dimension of these currents, through a particular focus on Sámi versions of shamanism. The book’s thesis is that the construction of a Sámi shamanistic movement makes sense from the perspective of the broader ethno-political search for a Sámi identity, with respect to connections to indigenous peoples worldwide and trans-historically. It also makes sense in economic and marketing terms. Based on more than ten years of ethnographic research, the book paints a picture of contemporary shamanism in Norway in its cultural context, relating it both to the local mainstream cultures in which it is situated and to global networks. By this, the book provides the basis for a study revealing the development of inventiveness, nuances, and polyphony that occur when a global religion of shamanism is merged in a Norwegian setting, colored by its own political and cultural circumstances.

Puzzling and powering in the city: two case studies on collaborative research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Duiveman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Urban Issues ◽  
Policy Problems ◽  
Collaborative Knowledge

Abstract Cities are turning to urban living labs and research consortia to co-create knowledge that can better enable them to address pervasive policy problems. Collaborations within such practices help researchers, officials and local stakeholders find new ways of dealing with urban issues and developing new relations with one another. Interestingly, success in the latter is often closely related to accomplishing the former. Besides of analysing this phenomenon in terms of learning—as is common—this paper also delves into the power dynamics involved in collaborative knowledge development. This perspective contributes to a better understanding of how puzzling and powering are simultaneously involved in making research relevant to policy-making. By presenting two collaborative research consortia in the Netherlands, we demonstrate how developing knowledge involves both re-structuring problems and the urban practices involved in governing such problems. Collaborative research practices are predominantly concerned with learning as long as restructuring the problem leads to research findings that are meaningful to all actors. Power becomes manifest when one actor insists on restructuring (often reproducing) problems in a manner judged unacceptable by others. Analysis of two case studies will show how the familiar three faces of power express themselves in collaborative knowledge development. It is recommended that these new practices also require methods for better orchestrating power besides a methodology for successful structuring learning through collaborative research practices.

scholarly journals Journal Club: a group of research experience

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 446-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Bover Draganov ◽  
Maria Regina Guimarães Silva ◽  
Vanessa Ribeiro Neves ◽  
Maria Cristina Sanna
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Journal Club ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Nursing Management ◽  
Health Services Administration

ABSTRACT Introduction: the Journal Club (JC) is a teaching and learning strategy developed by individuals who meet to discuss scientific articles in periodicals. Objective: to describe the experience of the JC strategy at the Group for Studies and Research in Health Services Administration and Nursing Management (Gepag). Method: case studies or scientific research demonstration mode of practical experience for the understanding and justification of facts. Results: Gepag JC emerged in 2008 and, in 2014, was computerized with the Google Drive®, in order to increase its scope and optimize the Group›s meetings. From April to May 2014, the instrument was tested and adjusted, resulting in advancements. Final considerations: the advantages involved optimizing the time of meetings, facilitation of access to publications of interest to the Group and creating the database to support future research.

scholarly journals Elite ethnography in an insecure place

Focaal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (82) ◽  
pp. 80-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosita Armytage
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Relationship

Based on ethnographic research conducted with the wealthiest and most powerful business owners and politicians in urban Pakistan from 2013 to 2015, this article examines the particular set of epistemological and interpersonal issues that arise when studying elite actors. In politically unstable contexts like Pakistan, the relationship between the researcher and the elite reveals shifting power dynamics of class, gender, and national background, which are further complicated by the prevalence of rumor and the exceptional ability of elite informants to obscure that which they would prefer remain hidden. Specifically, this article argues that the researcher’s positionality, and the inversion of traditional power dynamics between the researcher and the researched, can ameliorate, as well as exacerbate, the challenges of undertaking participant observation with society’s most powerful.

scholarly journals Creolization and the Production and Negotiation of Boundaries in Breyten Breytenbach's Recent Work

Nordlit ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Hein Viljoen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
South African ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
The Self ◽  
The South

Much of the South African poet Breyten Breytenbach's work has been concerned with borders. In this article I examine borders and creolization in three important poems from Nine landscapes of our time bequeathed to a beloved (Nege landskappe bemaak aan 'n beminde, 1993), Paper flower (Papierblom, 2002) and The wind-catcher (Die windvanger, 2007). The link between creolization and boundaries is the poet's conception of identity and freedom. As is often the case the boundaries of the self are questioned as the poet permutates the central concepts. Crossing boundaries entails entering into dialogue not only with the self but also with the mother tongue itself and with a variety of other artists and writers. In other words, in Breytenbach's work an abrogation and appropriation of the own tradition ("erfgoed") as well as of material from others, other places and other traditions occur. In these three case studies in particular it is clear how the poet stretches and deforms boundaries as part of his poetic project to concretize a dynamic freedom.

scholarly journals Social Roles in the Ethnographic Fieldwork

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desalegn Amsalu
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Global Literature ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Social

This paper investigates the concept of social roles in ethnographic fieldwork, its place in the global literature discussing qualitative research methods, and its application in the Ethiopian ethnographic fieldwork. I discuss that social roles are all about seeing one’s role and status, in this case, as researchers, in the social structure of a society or community we do the ethnographic research. Based on my own experience and the experience of other ethnographers elsewhere, I argue that a conscious use of our social roles is a <i>sin qua non</i> for successful ethnographic fieldwork. However, this concept has been given less emphasis in the literature of qualitative research methods. Social roles in the ethnographic fieldwork are especially less known in the Ethiopian ethnographic research experience. <b> </b>

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