scholarly journals An Islander’s notes

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Jeremy Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The City

Lazarus is a Cuban street musician living in Athens, Greece. This article tracks both his life history and his encounter with the author who was researching busking in the city. It is a study at the confluence of art and anthropology, an exploration of ethno-biography as a mode of representation, and a reflection on ethnographic fieldwork.

Sekolah Islam (Islamic Schools) as Symbols of Indonesia's Urban Muslim Identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Yanwar Pribadi
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Islamic Schools ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Islamic Identity ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract This article discusses the relationship between Sekolah Islam (Salafism-influenced Islamic schools) and urban middle-class Muslims. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the City of Serang (Kota Serang), near Jakarta, this paper argues that these conservative and puritan Muslims demonstrate their Islamic identity politics through their engagement with Sekolah Islam. The analysis of in-depth interviews with and close observations of parents of students and school custodians (preachers or occasionally spiritual trainers) at several Sekolah Islam reveals that they have attempted to pursue ‘true’ Islamic identity and have claimed recognition of their identity as the most appropriate. The pursuit of a ‘true’ Islamic identity has infused Islamic identity politics, and there is an oppositional relationship between local Islamic traditions and Salafism, as seen in Sekolah Islam. The relationship between Islam and identity politics becomes intricate when it is transformed into public symbols, discourses, and practices at many Sekolah Islam. This paper shows that through their understanding and activities at Sekolah Islam, these Muslims are avid actors in the contemporary landscape of Islamic identity politics in Indonesia. By taking examples from Sekolah Islam in Indonesia, this article unveils social transformations that may also take place in the larger Muslim world.

Place Management/Making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoe Su Fern
Keyword(s):  
Urban Spaces ◽  
City Centre ◽  
Governance Structures ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Place Management ◽  
Policy Documents ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The City

This chapter examines the role of the arts and artists in rejuvenating urban spaces in Singapore, where place management ideas are currently being used to rejuvenate parts of the city centre. Coexisting alongside state-driven initiatives are artist-led strategies where local art practitioners and organizations activate latent and/or under-utilized spaces. Through an analysis of policy documents and qualitative ethnographic fieldwork, this study explores the interplay between top-down aspirations and formal place management efforts, and the organic ways artists have activated and engaged with spaces. Ultimately, I argue that there is a need to balance formal governance structures with more support for artists engaging in organic, ground-up initiatives.

A new species of Stenomicra Coquillett (Diptera: Periscelididae) from the Brazilian Amazon and its life history

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4407 (4) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
ELIANE SOLAR GOMES ◽  
ROSALY ALE-ROCHA ◽  
RUTH LEILA FERREIRA KEPPLER
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
New Species ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Neotropical Region ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Forest Fragment ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species

A new species of Stenomicra is described for the Neotropical Region, from phytotelmata of Araceae at an urban forest fragment in the city of Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Morphological descriptions of the immatures and the adults (male and female) are provided, together with biological information on the life cycle of the species and its “host” plant. 

scholarly journals “Unseeing” Chinese Students in Japan: Understanding Educationally Channelled Migrant Experiences

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Coates
Keyword(s):  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Chinese Student ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
Migrant Integration ◽  
Educational Migration ◽  
The City

Chinese migrants are currently the largest group of non-Japanese nationals living in Japan. This growth is largely the result of educational migration, positioning many Chinese in Japan as student-migrants. Based on 20 months’ ethnographic fieldwork in Ikebukuro, Tokyo's unofficial Chinatown, this paper explores the ways in which the phenomenology of the city informs the desire for integration amongst young Chinese living in Japan. Discussions of migrant integration and representation often argue for greater recognition of marginalised groups. However, recognition can also intensify vulnerability for the marginalised. Chinese student-migrants’ relationship to Ikebukuro's streets shows how young mobile Chinese in Tokyo come to learn to want to be “unseen.” Largely a response to the visual dynamics of the city, constituted by economic inequality, spectacle, and surveillance, the experiences of young Chinese students complicate the ways we understand migrants’ desires for recognition and integration.

Staying out of Place

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
Simon Turner
Keyword(s):  
Refugee Camp ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
To Come ◽  
The City

Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Burundian refugees living clandestinely in Nairobi and living in a refugee camp in Tanzania, the article argues that displacement can be about staying out of place in order to find a place in the world in the future. I suggest that the term displacement describes this sense of not only being out of place but also being en route to a future. Burundians in the camp and the city are doing their best to remain out of place, in transition between a lost past and a future yet to come, and the temporary nature of their sojourn is maintained in everyday practices. Such everyday practices are policed by powerful actors in the camp and are ingrained in practices of self-discipline in Nairobi. Comparing the two settings demonstrates that remaining out of place can take on different forms, according to context.

Biography and (Global) Microhistory

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Gamsa
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Forthcoming Book ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Origin ◽  
The One ◽  
The City

AbstractThis article has two goals. It reflects on the recent developments and agenda of an approach to historical writing that is now becoming known by the name global microhistory, and it analyses the attention which this approach pays to individual lives. It also explores some of the challenges in writing the biography of a city alongside the life history of a person. The city is Harbin, a former Russian-managed railway hub in Manchuria, today a province capital in Northeast China. The person is Baron Roger Budberg (1867–1926), a physician of Baltic German origin who arrived in Harbin during the Russo-Japanese war and remained there until his death, leaving published works and unpublished correspondence in German and Russian. My forthcoming book about Budberg and Harbin challenges the distinction between writing “biography”, on the one hand, and “history”, on the other, while navigating between the “micro” and “macro” layers of historical enquiry.

scholarly journals Actually existing silk roads

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Marsden
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Zhejiang Province ◽  
Global Distribution ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Past ◽  
Trading Posts ◽  
The World ◽  
Trade And Exchange ◽  
The City

This article explores the relevance of the concept of Silk Road for understanding the patterns of trade and exchange between China, Eurasia and the Middle East. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Yiwu, in China's Zhejiang Province. Yiwu is a node in the global distribution of Chinese ‘small commodities’ and home to merchants and traders from across Asia and beyond. The article explores the role played by traders from Afghanistan in connecting the city of Yiwu to markets and trading posts in the world beyond. It seeks to bring attention to the diverse types of networks involved in such forms of trade, as well as their emergence and development over the past thirty years.

Struggles over the Use of Public Space: Exploring Moralities and Narratives of Inequality. Cartoneros and Vecinos in Buenos Aires

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 521-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
NATALIA COSACOV ◽  
MARIANO D. PERELMAN
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The City ◽  
The Way

AbstractBased on extensive and long-term ethnographic fieldwork carried out between 2002 and 2009, and by analysing the presence, use and struggles over public space of cartoneros and vecinos in middle-class and central neighbourhoods of the city of Buenos Aires, this article examines practices, moralities and narratives operating in the production and maintenance of social inequalities. Concentrating on spatialised interactions, it shows how class inequalities are reproduced and social distances are generated in the struggle over public space. For this, two social situations are addressed. First, we explore the way in which cartoneros build routes in middle-class neighbourhoods in order to carry out their task. Second, we present an analysis of the eviction process of a cartonero settlement in the city.

The sociality of public space broadcasting during media events

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 581-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Widholm
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Media Events ◽  
Public Consumption ◽  
London Olympics ◽  
The City ◽  
City Centres

In the last decade, large public screens and globally organized public viewing areas (PVAs) have become increasingly significant elements of media events, expanding the possibilities for mass audiences to collectively watch events together in real time. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in connection with the British Royal wedding (2011) and the London Olympics (2012), this article explores the ‘sociality’ of public space broadcasting, focusing on interactions and performances of identity by people gathered for collective viewing in the city centres of London, Birmingham and Manchester. The analysis shows that public space broadcasting mobilizes a variety of social identities and performances, spanning from ‘relaxed’ forms of engagement to more fannish articulations of nationality, cosmopolitan hybridity and spectacle participation. Geographical location and structural embedding strategies clearly impinge on public performances within PVAs. The article concludes that the degree of commercialization and presence of journalists and other media professionals are particularly central external drivers of performativity in connection with public consumption of media events.

Down and Out in Atlantic City

2012 ◽  
Vol 642 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Avery
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Labor Markets ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Atlantic City ◽  
Cold Winter ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Working Age ◽  
History Of

This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews to provide a sociological life history of a man the author calls George. George lived on Atlantic City’s streets between 1995 and 2009. Instead of accessing available social services, George stayed outside year-round, even during the cold winter months. He obtained small amounts of money by begging for spare change and slept in alleyways, casino bus terminals, underneath the Boardwalk, and behind garbage dumpsters until his death. George’s story reveals how someone who likely would have been committed during the era depicted in Goffman’s Asylums (1961) had viable alternatives to confinement within an institution. This article has two aims. First, it adds empirical depth to literature on working-age, unhoused men disconnected from formal labor markets and social service systems. A second, more analytical aim is to extend our thinking about Goffman’s concept of moral career.

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