Working the System

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Schubert
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
System P ◽  
Media Reports ◽  
Post War ◽  
Africa Rising

Offering the first long-term ethnographic study of Angola since the end of its decades-long internal conflict, this book offers an empirically and analytically innovative perspective that balances the ‘Africa rising’ narrative pervading mainstream media reports of post-war Angola, and complicates the clientelist account of Angolan politics that predominates in academic literature. It does so by privileging an ethnographic approach rooted in urban life to capture the radical social and spatial dynamics of everyday life in its capital, Luanda. By working through the emic notion of the system (o sistema), this study pays attention to both the material practices and the symbolic repertoires mobilized in the co-production of the political. Examining the functioning of the system through the eyes of its users, the book therefore builds upon, and extends anthropology’s critique of dominance as something produced by a group of select individuals, and investigates instead what it means and how it feels to live in and be part of such a polity.

scholarly journals Engaged yet excluded: The processual, dispersed, and political dynamics of boundary work

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (11) ◽  
pp. 1504-1536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludo Glimmerveen ◽  
Sierk Ybema ◽  
Henk Nies
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Work ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Local Engagement ◽  
Temporal Sequences

What happens when people try to ‘transcend’ organizational boundaries and engage with so-called outsiders? Current boundary-work literature does not fully account for the processual, dispersed, and political dynamics triggered by such efforts. To address this shortcoming, this article builds on an ethnographic study of a professional care provider’s attempts to engage local citizens within one of its care homes. We analyze how actors negotiate the parameters of outsider engagement – that is, how they interactively (re-)erect and (re-)efface boundaries between actors (Who is engaged?), issues (What is their engagement about?), and positions of authority (Does local engagement affect central decision-making?). We contribute to extant theorizing by, first, explicitly scrutinizing boundary work’s temporal and spatial dynamics. Testifying to the importance of analyzing temporal sequences, we show how attempts at transcending boundaries intensified boundary work on multiple organizational platforms. Paradoxically, inclusionary efforts evoked exclusionary effects (and vice versa) as actors came to contest and, eventually, redefine ‘appropriate’ insider–outsider relations. Second, our analysis highlights how the political effectiveness of an inclusive and non-hierarchical approach still, ironically, depends on ongoing hierarchical support and managerial enforcement. Third, our article makes a case for the adoption of long-term, multi-sited methodologies when studying the everyday dynamics of boundary-work processes.

Turkish Muslims in a German city: Entrepreneurial and residential self-determination

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Sarah Hackett
Keyword(s):  
Residential Patterns ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
German City ◽  
Post War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Term Objective

Drawing upon a collection of oral history interviews, this paper offers an insight into entrepreneurial and residential patterns and behaviour amongst Turkish Muslims in the German city of Bremen. The academic literature has traditionally argued that Turkish migrants in Germany have been pushed into self-employment, low-quality housing and segregated neighbourhoods as a result of discrimination, and poor employment and housing opportunities. Yet the interviews reveal the extent to which Bremen’s Turkish Muslims’ performances and experiences have overwhelmingly been the consequences of personal choices and ambitions. For many of the city’s Turkish Muslim entrepreneurs, self-employment had been a long-term objective, and they have succeeded in establishing and running their businesses in the manner they choose with regards to location and clientele, for example. Similarly, interviewees stressed the way in which they were able to shape their housing experiences by opting which districts of the city to live in and by purchasing property. On the whole, they perceive their entrepreneurial and residential practices as both consequences and mediums of success, integration and a loyalty to the city of Bremen. The findings are contextualised within the wider debate regarding the long-term legacy of Germany’s post-war guest-worker system and its position as a “country of immigration”.

The foundations of peaceful coexistence after the war ... Mosul is a model

2019 ◽  
pp. 178
Author(s):  
Omar Hashim Thanon
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Mass Displacement ◽  
The Common ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Post War ◽  
Common Destiny

Since peaceful coexistence reflects in its various aspects the concept of harmony between the members of the same society with their different national, religious and sectarian affiliations, as well as their attitudes and ideas, what brings together these are the common bonds such as land, interests and common destiny. But this coexistence is exposing for crises and instability and the theft of rights and other that destroy the communities with their different religious, national, sectarian, ethnic aspects, especially if these led to a crisis of fighting or war, which produces only destruction and mass displacement, ttherefore, the process of bridging the gap between the different parts of society in the post-war phase through a set of requirements that serve as the basis for the promotion of peaceful coexistence within the same country to consolidate civil and community peace in order to create a general framework and a coherent basis to reconstruct the community again.      Hence the premise of the research by asking about the extent of the possibility and ability of the community of religious and ethnic diversity, which has been exposed to these crises, which aimed at this diversity, basically to be able to rise and re-integrate within the same country and thus achieve civil and community peace, and Mosul is an example for that, the negative effects of the war and the accomplices of many criminal acts have given rise to hatred and fear for all, leading to the loss of livelihoods, which in the long term may have devastating social and psychological consequences.        To clarify all of this, the title of the first topic was a review of the concept and origin of peaceful coexistence. While the second topic dealt with the requirements of peaceful coexistence and social integration in Mosul, the last topic has identified the most important challenges facing the processes of coexistence and integration in Mosul. All this in order to paint a better future for the conductor at all levels in the near term at the very least to achieve the values of this peaceful coexistence, especially in the post-war period.

scholarly journals The European Economic Constitution after the PSPP Judgment: Towards Integrative Liberalism?

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1058-1077
Author(s):  
Matthias Goldmann
Keyword(s):  
State Intervention ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Profound Change ◽  
European Economic ◽  
Economic Constitution ◽  
Post War ◽  
Reactive Mode ◽  
Proportionality Principle ◽  
Market Liberalism

AbstractThis article argues that the PSPP judgment effectively buries the era of financial liberalism, which has dominated the European economic constitution for decades. It raises the curtain on a new political paradigm, which I call “integrative liberalism”. Whereas the financial crisis put financial liberalism under strain, the development since then has been contradictory, torn between state intervention and market liberalism, focused above all on buying time rather than finding a new constitutional equilibrium. Now, together with the measures adopted in response to COVID-19, the PSPP judgment paves the way for profound change. Integrative liberalism is characterized by an overall shift from the market to the state, mitigating the post-crisis insistence on austerity and conditionality. Contrary to the embedded liberalism of the post-war era, integrative liberalism operates in a corrective and reactive mode with a focus on goals and principles, lacking the emphasis on long-term planning. Like every political paradigm, integrative liberalism ushers in a new understanding of the law. It puts the emphasis on context instead of discipline, and it elevates the proportionality principle. If integrative liberalism is to succeed, however, the democratic legitimacy of the Eurosystem and its independence require serious reconsideration.

scholarly journals Sociolinguistic Markers of Friendship Among Persons With Dementia in Long-Term Care

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 575-575
Author(s):  
Pamela Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Social Interaction ◽  
Long Term Care ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Term Care ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Pronominal Reference ◽  
Field Notes

Abstract Sociolinguistics and discourse analysis provide tools through which to examine how friendship is socially constructed through language and communication. Research on social isolation and loneliness reveals the importance of social interaction on the psychological and physical health of older adults. Given that linguistic, communicative, and functional abilities decline as dementia progresses, it is challenging to identify markers of friendship. The Friendship Project is an ethnographic study of social interaction among persons with dementia living in a long-term care setting. The data are from transcripts and field-notes of social interactions among residents with a range of cognitive impairments over a six-month time period. Results reveal that persons with dementia employ specific linguistic features such as narrative, evaluation, evidentials, and pronominal reference to make meaning and create relationships over time. Practical implications will be discussed.

Is Age the New Class? Economic Crisis and Demographics in European Politics

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Erk
Keyword(s):  
Age Groups ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Downturn ◽  
New Class ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Younger Age ◽  
Material Interests ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Welfare State

As the crisis turns into long-term economic downturn, younger age-groups in Europe seem to be hit with higher levels of unemployment while the welfare state is steadily shrinking. The young have suddenly become a social group united by collective material interests, but does this translate into a sense of a collective political interest? The paper examines to what extent the dominant class-based social science of the post-war years can help us understand the politics of age-groups. The analysis highlights four changes since post-war years: the workplace has changed, impacting socialization; modern media has changed, impacting mobilization; the political landscape is fairly institutionalized, tempering the possibilities for new political concerns to find voice; and those who would define and articulate the political priorities of the young are leaving the Old Continent.

PROPOSED COPING SUGGESTIONS AND STRATEGIES TO SOLVE THE TRUST DEFICIT FOR THE INDIANS AND CHINESE MEDIA IN THE POSTCOVID-19 ERA

2021 ◽  
pp. 61-64
Author(s):  
Niranjana Niranjana ◽  
Ren Feng
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Developmental Trend ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
Peaceful Rise ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Sister Cities ◽  
India And China

The rise of India and China is a major historical developmental trend that has led to peaceful India-China media cooperation. From a long-term strategic point of view, the Indian and Chinese media platforms should seek common ground while overcoming differences and increasing mutual trust. The governments of India and China should grasp the dominant power of public opinion in traditional media, new media and self-media platforms. We must increase the number of each other's reporting stations and media branches to promote the "opposite column" in the content of the mainstream media. Meanwhile both sides should strengthen the training of reporters and journalist, thus improve the existing India-China media cooperation systems and gradually cut mutual misunderstandings by building friendly provinces, sister cities, and cultural and tourism exchange projects to jointly serve the two countries' national strategy for the smooth realization of a peaceful rise.

Diglossia and Local Identity: Swiss German in the Linguistic Landscape of Kleinbasel

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edina Krompák ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Swiss German ◽  
Written Form

The city of Basel is situated in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in the geographic triangle of three countries: France, Germany and Switzerland. Everyday urban life is characterised by the presence of Standard German and Swiss German as well as diverse migrant languages. Swiss German is ‘an umbrella term for several Alemannic dialects’ (Stepkowska 2012, 202) which differ from Standard German in terms of phonetics, semantics, lexis, and grammar and has no standard written form. Swiss German is predominantly used in oral forms, and Standard German in written communication. Furthermore, an amalgamation of bilingualism and diglossia (Stepkowska 2012, 208) distinguishes the specific linguistic situation, which indicates amongst other things the high prestige of Swiss German in everyday life. To explore the visibility and vitality of Swiss German in the public display of written language, we examined the linguistic landscape of a superdiverse neighbourhood of Basel, and investigated language power and the story beyond the sign – ‘stories about the cultural, historical, political and social backgrounds of a certain space’ (Blommaert 2013, 41). Our exploration was guided by the question: How do linguistic artefacts – such as official, commercial, and private signs – represent the diglossic situation and the relation between language and identity in Kleinbasel? Based on a longitudinal ethnographic study, a corpus was compiled comprising 300 digital images of written artefacts in Kleinbasel. Participant observation and focus group discussions about particular images were conducted and analysed using grounded theory (Charmaz 2006) and visual ethnography (Pink 2006). In our paper, we focus on signs in Swiss German and focus group discussions on these images. Initial analyses have produced two surprising findings; firstly, the visibility and the perception of Swiss German as a marker of local identity; secondly, the specific context of their display.

Conceptual metaphor and media bias: a critical metaphor analysis of British and American mainstream media reports on the Hong Kong riots

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-339
Author(s):  
Xuan Ji
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Media Bias ◽  
Metaphor Analysis ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Critical Metaphor Analysis ◽  
Media Reports

Abstract This article makes a comparative analysis of the use of metaphors in the Hong Kong riot reports by British and American mainstream media. The analysis reveals the conceptualization process of events and finds that the use of metaphors is mainly concentrated in the war domain, the flare domain, and the natural forces domain.

scholarly journals Discursive Deflection: Accusation of “Fake News” and the Spread of Mis- and Disinformation in the Tweets of President Trump

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630511877601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Ross ◽  
Damian J. Rivers
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Objective Truth ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Reports

Twitter is increasingly being used within the sociopolitical domain as a channel through which to circulate information and opinions. Throughout the 2016 US Presidential primaries and general election campaign, a notable feature was the prolific Twitter use of Republican candidate and then nominee, Donald Trump. This use has continued since his election victory and inauguration as President. Trump’s use of Twitter has drawn criticism due to his rhetoric in relation to various issues, including Hillary Clinton, the size of the crowd in attendance at his inauguration, the policies of the former Obama administration, and immigration and foreign policy. One of the most notable features of Trump’s Twitter use has been his repeated ridicule of the mainstream media through pejorative labels such as “fake news” and “fake media.” These labels have been deployed in an attempt to deter the public from trusting media reports, many of which are critical of Trump’s presidency, and to position himself as the only reliable source of truth. However, given the contestable nature of objective truth, it can be argued that Trump himself is a serial offender in the propagation of mis- and disinformation in the same vein that he accuses the media. This article adopts a corpus analysis of Trump’s Twitter discourse to highlight his accusations of fake news and how he operates as a serial spreader of mis- and disinformation. Our data show that Trump uses these accusations to demonstrate allegiance and as a cover for his own spreading of mis- and disinformation that is framed as truth.

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