Digital Commons Network^™

Practice Approaches And The Ethnography Of Communication: Investigating For The Possibility Of A Mutually Beneficial Relationship, Keith Berry

The Qualitative Report

In this essay, I explore the areas of accord and discord between two efficacious modes of research: practice approaches and the Ethnography of Communication (EOC). As an interpersonal and intercultural scholar, I carefully analyze these approaches in order to find innovative ways to describe the diversity that I see in modern social interaction. Working against paradigms that suggest using either one approach or another, I engage this project hoping (expecting?) to find and/both alternatives for communication study. I argue that, in spite of their differences, practice and EOC traditions co-exist in a mutually beneficial relationship for the study of communication …

Ethnography In The Realm Of The Pragmatic: Studying Pragmatism In Law And Politics, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

.

Participant Observation Of Alcoholics Anonymous: Contrasting Roles Of The Ethnographer And Ethnomethodologist, Seán O'Halloran

The Qualitative Report

This paper is an attempt to explore the possible research stances available to the researcher involved in participant observation of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) . It examines some ethnographic studies of AA, within both naturalistic and symbolic interaction is m research paradigms. However , mindful of the constitutive nature of language in social interaction and also wishing to focus on AA as a discoursal process, ethnomethodological approaches are examined, particularly the insights available through Conversational Analysis (CA) and Institutional Interaction. The methods of scrutiny available through these approaches - the emphasis on data and fine-grained detail as well as the context …

Beginning On-Line Delphi Ethnographic Research: The Bolder Method, Jeffrey K. Edwards

The Qualitative Report

The use of the Internet to gather data, produce and report research has changed the face of the fields of education and research. This paper will present a method for combining electronic on-line media and Delphi methodology to begin the process of ethnographic research with participant inclusion, informed consent, data gathering by discourse facilitation, and preparation for coding. The use of a reflecting team by the research group provides impetus for second round responses by participants. Methods, format, a case study and an evaluation of the process will be presented.

Scientific Empathy, American Buddhism, And The Ethnography Of Religion, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

The expansion of the use of ethnography in the study of religion has led to substantial methodological confusion. The reflexive ethnographic efforts which exist commonly appeal to the need for ethnographer empathy for field subjects, although the nature and ethical ramifications of this empathy remain poorly explored. This essay offers a model of ethnographic empathy in terms of the methodological observations of Weber, Homans, and Kohut. Using a model of empathy in terms of a reflexive “evenly hovering attention” for data collection, possible gains in the field from this model are explored. These gains include overcoming obstacles to data collection …

Book Review: Bachrach And Turner, Sugar’S Life In The Hood: A Story Of A Former Welfare Mother, Frank W. Munger

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Communities In Crisis, Susanna Trnka

Pacific Studies

This introduction sets the stage for a volume of essays exploring the social, political, and cultural upheavals experienced in Fiji during and after the May 2000 coup led by George Speight. While media and political discourse have largely focused on national-level implications and ethnic divisions, this collection shifts attention to grassroots perspectives, highlighting how ordinary citizens experienced and interpreted the crisis. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during or shortly after the coup, contributors examine local discourses, community reactions, and the reconfiguration of identities and power dynamics. The introduction contextualizes the coup within Fiji's broader history of political instability, including the …

Legal Orientalism, Teemu Ruskola

Michigan Law Review

Fifty years ago comparative law was a field in search of a paradigm. In the inaugural issue of the American Journal of Comparative Law in 1952, Myres McDougal remarked unhappily, "The greatest confusion continues to prevail about what is being compared, about the purposes of comparison, and about appropriate techniques." In short, there seemed to be very little in the field that was not in a state of confusion. Two decades later, referring to McDougal's bleak assessment, John Merryman saw no evidence of progress: "few comparative lawyers would suggest that matters have since improved." And only a few years ago, …

Public Participation In Environmental Management: Seeking Participatory Equity Through Ethnographic Inquiry, John V. Stone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reports the activities, methods, and key findings of a doctoral research project in applied anthropology and an environmental anthropology fellowship. The research project was conducted through the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, while the fellowship was sponsored jointly by the Society for Applied Anthropology and the United States Environmental Protection Agency and was conducted through the Great Lakes Fellowship Program of the Great Lakes Commission, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Together, these projects demonstrated the utility of an ethnographic approach called Risk Perception Mapping (RPM) to the public consultation and social research interests of the Commission …

Power And Patronage In Pakistan, Stephen Lyon

Faculty & Staff Publications

Asymmetrical power relationships are found throughout Pakistan's Punjabi and Pukhtun communities. This thesis argues that these relationships must be examined as manifestations of cultural continuity rather than as separate structures. The various cultures of Pakistan display certain common cultural features which suggest a reexamination of past analytical divisions of tribe and peasant societies. This thesis looks at the ways power is expressed, accumulated and maintained in three social contexts: kinship, caste and political relationships. These three social contexts are embedded within a collection of 'hybridising' cultures (i.e. cultures which exhibit strong mechanisms for cultural accommodation without loss of 'identity'). Socialisation …

Rural Whiteness, Realizing Race: White Race Identity In Rural Northwestern Pennsylvania: A Critical Review, Gloria Adams

Honors Papers

In studying race, specifically whiteness, in northwestern Pennsylvania, I am speaking of my own experiences and my own identity. In searching for the truth behind race issues and white identity in this place, I must implicate myself in perpetuating racist attitudes and social structures, if not only for my own ignorance of diverse cultures. Like all whites I cannot escape my white skin and the privileges I receive because of it, but I can question that privilege, in an effort to understand my position and enact anti-racist change. This ethnography of whiteness in northwestern PA is as much about myself …

Multigenerations And Multidisciplines: Inheriting Fifty Years Of Gwembe Tonga Research, Lisa Cliggett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Real Time: Governing The Market After The Failure Of Knowledge, Annelise Riles

Law and Economics Papers

This paper presents an ethnographic account of the work of bureaucrats at the Bank of Japan, Japan's central bank, as they engaged in the construction of a "real time" payments system. The paper aims to consider certain shared dimensions of the knowledge practices of late modern anthropologists and economic planners and the special challenges these pose to the study of modern knowledge. In particular, the paper focuses on the effects of the attraction of "self-sustaining systems" consisting of "two sides." It concludes that one central challenge of new ethnographic subjects such as global financial markets is to find ways of …

Webbing Egypt: An Ethnographic Insight Into Levels Of Imagination Surrounding The Production Of Web Sites, Ivan Panovic

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an ethnographic description of practices of the producers of Egypt-based and Egypt-related websites.

Review: Social Organization And Cultural Aesthetics: Essays In Honor Of William H. Davenport, Stuart Kirsch

Pacific Studies

William W. Donner and James G. Flanagan, eds., Social Organization and Cultural Aesthetics: Essays in Honor of William H. Davenport. New York: University Press of America, 1997. Pp. v, 151, illus., bib. US$56.50 cloth; $30.50 paperback.

Reviewed by Stuart Kirsch, University of Michigan

Life Projects (Chapter 5 Of The Book Between Gay And Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation), Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

“Life Projects” is Chapter 5 of the book Between Gay and Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation (AltaMira Press, 2001). The timeframe spans from the fall of 1996 to January 1997. I’m taking a course on life history, and I ask a member of my research community, Gordon Bernstein, to participate in my project. During our interviews, Gordon teaches me about the ongoing process of coming out—to oneself, to other gay men, and to coworkers, friends, and family. Later, I grapple with elements of this network of gay male friends that can be unsettling, especially for women. I bemoan its …

Introduction To Between Gay And Straight: Understanding Friendship Across Sexual Orientation [Book], Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This chapter sets a personal, academic, and cultural context for the author's PhD dissertation research (1994-98), an ethnographic and interview study of a network of gay male friends in Tampa, Florida.

Men Kissing, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The author, a heterosexual woman, uses the theme of men kissing to show relational dynamics in her fieldwork community, a network of gay male friends. Political implications of public same-sex kissing also are discussed. At the time the events described in "Men Kissing" occurred (1997) and for six more years, it was not legal for persons of the same sex to be intimate in Florida and 13 other states.

Writing Awareness, Gwen Gorzelsky

English Faculty Research Publications

Author offers reflections and insights into a middle school after-school literacy pilot program. The author argues that, by practicing embodied, metaphoric ethnography, educators can revise their roles in classroom social systems and so pursue the goals of critical pedagogy. This work has developed from research on the emotional and embodied aspects of writing instruction, and the work developed out of a book she was writing on grassroots literate practices, titled Echoes Half Heard: Community Activists, Collective Movements.

Book Review: Greg Dening, Performances, Marta Rohatynskyj

Pacific Studies

Greg Dening, Performances. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 1996. Pp. xvi, 296, bib., index. US$45 cloth; $19.95 paperback.

Reviewed by Marta Rohatynskyj, University of Guelph

An Ethnography Of Abstractions?, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Forum: Stephen F. Eisenman, Gauguin’S Skirt, Elizabeth C. Childs

Pacific Studies

Stephen F. Eisenman, Gauguin’s Skirt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Pp. 232, 110 illus., notes, index. US$29.95 cloth; $24.95 paperback.

Review: Elizabeth C. Childs Washington University St. Louis

An Art Teacher's Personal And Prictical Knowledge Of The Classroom: An Ethnographic Study, Tarne M. Carver

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to search for meaning in the socially constructed and constantly changing environment and practical knowledge of a Fine Arts Instructor. The researcher wanted the teacher to gain new insights on the subject of self, instruction, subject matter, role as teacher, role as colleague, curriculum development and the lives of students. A yearlong internship was conducted in which the researcher took on the role of observer and then of participant-observer. Ajournal of field notes was chronicled throughout the internship. From this journal, interview questions were developed and two interviews were conducted. The goal was to …

Law And The Ideal Citizen, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

The theme identified for this lecture series is the subject of responsibility. I assume Washington and Lee has selected that topic out of a sense that it has not received sufficient attention, as compared, for example, to the subject of "rights." I select "rights" as the counter-example because we often hear of the two in tandem – "rights and responsibilities." As such, the concept of responsibility connotes a sense of obligation as to what is due from us to others and to the community. It is, in that sense, easier to be in favor of rights than it is of …

Discerning The Invisible In A Group Portrait Of Stability: An Ethnography Of The Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood, Lisa Marie Wheeler

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The purpose of this ethnographic study has been to learn about the sub-culture of the Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood: who the people are who live in its geographic boundaries (according to each other) and how they experience and construct their community. Although residents recognize to some degree that their neighborhood is fragmented into smaller areas, most emphasize a sense of belonging to the neighborhood as a geographic whole, taking pride in its reputation for stability, diversity and integration. The "strong sense of community'" and stability that residents often say they enjoy relies on common interests and a shared goal among active residents …

Conceptual Metaphor In The Health Care Culture, Cheryl D. Glennon Dnsc, Ms, Rn

Dissertations

The conceptual metaphor has meaning only when understood within the cultural framework which gives rise to the conceptualization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of cognition (conceptual metaphor) and culture as manifest during intercultural communication in teaching-learning sessions between health care providers and patients. An ethnography of communication (Hymes, 1974; Saville-Troike, 1989) was the method employed to investigate the use of metaphor by patients, nurses and other health care professionals. Patients were viewed as a sojourner group in the health care culture; nurses and their health care partners were seen as a host group. Data were …

Jane C. Goodale's Review Of Eric Venbrux's A Death In The Tiwi Islands: Conflict, Ritual, And Social Life In An Australian Aboriginal Community, Jane C. Goodale

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Infinity Within The Brackets, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

The ethnographic subjects of this article are UN-sponsored international conferences and their legal documents. Drawing upon fieldwork among Fiji delegates at these conferences, in this article I demonstrate the centrality of matters of form, as distinct from questions of “meaning,” in the negotiation of international agreements. A parallel usage of documents and of mats among Fijian negotiators provides a heuristic device for exploring questions of pattern and scale in the aesthetics of negotiation.

Ailing Hearts, Go Home: Ethnographic Storytelling And The Levels Of Experience, Bryan D. Tilt

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

I visited Primary Children's Medical Center on a fresh snow morning near the beginning of last winter. The hospital was not where it had been in my childhood, a quiet neighborhood in "the avenues" section of Salt Lake City; several years ago the hospital moved to a new location farther east on the Wasatch Mountain foothills, near the University of Utah Medical Center. The old brick building now sits sedate and empty at the top of a shaded hill. My memory of the old hospital is as a bright and oppressive place, full of the stuff of life and death. …

Ethnographic Inquiry Of Social Support Throughout Women's Labor And Childbirth Experiences, Nancy Jane Pinder Saks Dnsc, Msn, Rn

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the phenomenon of social support throughout labor and childbirth in order to develop descriptive theory based on the behaviors of the labor and childbirth convoy. Utilizing ethnographic methodology, five women and their support convoys were observed throughout the women's labor and childbirth experience. Word processing and the ETHNOGRAPH software were used for data management, and constant comparative coding methodology was employed for data analysis. Affirmative, affective and aid-giving behaviors were enacted by all convoy members. Consistently, social support was found to be communicated to the laboring woman by her lay supporters by …