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Articles 31 - 45 of 45

Full-Text Articles in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Different Choices: A Public School Community’S Responses To School Choice Reforms, Amanda U. Potterton Aug 2018

Different Choices: A Public School Community’S Responses To School Choice Reforms, Amanda U. Potterton

The Qualitative Report

In the United States, state and federal reforms increasingly encourage the expansion of school choice policies. Debates about school choice contrast various concepts of freedom and equality with concerns about equity, justice, achievement, democratic accountability, profiting management organizations, and racial and class segregation. Arizona’s “market”-based school choice programs include over 600 charter schools, and the state’s open enrollment practices, public and private school tax credit allowances, and Empowerment Scholarships, (closely related to vouchers), flourish. This qualitative analysis explores one district-run public school and its surrounding community, and I discuss socio-political and cultural tensions related to school choice reforms that exist …


Creating A Participatory Arts-Based Online Focus Group: Highlighting The Transition From Docmama To Motherscholar, Anna Cohenmiller Jul 2018

Creating A Participatory Arts-Based Online Focus Group: Highlighting The Transition From Docmama To Motherscholar, Anna Cohenmiller

The Qualitative Report

Using Facebook to create a participatory, arts-based online focus group, this study had two primary purposes: (1) to examine how mothers in academia present themselves as they transition from doctoral student mother (“DocMama”) to full time position as motherscholars and (2) to explore the use of a participatory, arts-based online focus group on Facebook to facilitate participant description of experiences and feelings. This study adds both to the research on online research by emphasizing a collaborative nature and art to share experiences, and also to the research about motherscholars, examining the oft overlooked transition from doctoral program to academic career …


Koreans, Americans, Or Korean-Americans: Transnational Adoptees As Invisible Asians, A Book Review, Tairan Qiu Jul 2018

Koreans, Americans, Or Korean-Americans: Transnational Adoptees As Invisible Asians, A Book Review, Tairan Qiu

The Qualitative Report

The book, Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism, explores the personal narratives and histories of adult adoptees who were born between 1949 and 1983 and who were adopted from Korea by White parents. Using oral history ethnography, Nelson (2016) seeks to correct, complicate, and contribute to current discussions about transnational adoptions. In this book review, the author provides an overview, a personal reflection, and recommendations for potential audiences of this book.


Epistemological Ruptures: Flashback On Fieldwork Dilemmas While Doing Research On Friends At Home, Israel Aguilar Mar 2018

Epistemological Ruptures: Flashback On Fieldwork Dilemmas While Doing Research On Friends At Home, Israel Aguilar

The Qualitative Report

While doing fieldwork at home and/or with people who are familiar can yield new knowledge, researchers using ethnographic techniques ought to first assume the role of apprentice and enact vulnerability before they can represent findings that represent what really happened. Doing otherwise can tarnish relationships or jeopardize a study. The history of narrative within ethnographic research is discussed as an introduction to the author’s own personal narrative, which is in the form of a flashback that illustrates the journey he embarked on in 2010 when he initiated dissertation research in his hometown of south Texas. It is here where he …


The "Native" As Ethnographer: Doing Social Research In Globalizing Nsukka, Chidi Ugwu Oct 2017

The "Native" As Ethnographer: Doing Social Research In Globalizing Nsukka, Chidi Ugwu

The Qualitative Report

Researchers have noted how local attitudes that connect research to the external world could affect findings differently in different contexts. How this played out for an indigenous researcher is the new perspective presented in this paper. Although an indigene of the study area, I became an outsider of sorts as soon as I began to show interest in malaria in a way that suggested to locals that the results of my investigation could eventually get to the government or the Western world – locals saw those two entities as embodying power and material abundance. Although I worked as an insider, …


The Insiders’ Experience Of An Undergraduate Level Ethnographic Fieldwork Training Program In India, Abhradip Banerjee, Krishnendu Polley, Arun Makal, Bhubon Mohan Das Aug 2017

The Insiders’ Experience Of An Undergraduate Level Ethnographic Fieldwork Training Program In India, Abhradip Banerjee, Krishnendu Polley, Arun Makal, Bhubon Mohan Das

The Qualitative Report

Research on fieldwork experiences is not something new to the discipline of Anthropology. However, undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India as a research area still remained unexplored. The purpose of the study described in this paper was to explore the proceedings of undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training programs in India. This article uses the authors’ own recollections regarding an undergraduate level ethnographic fieldwork training program carried out by a college affiliated with the University of Calcutta. All four authors along with their 21 fellow students have participated as trainees in this fieldwork training program. Through a qualitative analysis …


“The Tourists Still Come, But They Don't Buy As Much As Before”: Vulnerability And Resilience In Two Bay Island Communities In The Wake Of The Global Financial Crisis, Racine Marcus Brown Apr 2017

“The Tourists Still Come, But They Don't Buy As Much As Before”: Vulnerability And Resilience In Two Bay Island Communities In The Wake Of The Global Financial Crisis, Racine Marcus Brown

The Qualitative Report

The purpose of this article is to elucidate the differential recovery of household livelihood after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in the communities of West End and Punta Gorda on the island of Roatán, Islas de La Bahia (Bay Islands), Honduras; the emphasis is on livelihoods in tourism due to its economic importance on the island. The theoretical approach is a political ecology of tourism with an emphasis on differential benefits and challenges of tourism development at the household level. The study employs a mixed methods ethnographic approach incorporating participant observation, informal interviews, and semi-structured interviews for the qualitative component. …


How To Conduct A Mini-Ethnographic Case Study: A Guide For Novice Researchers, Patricia I. Fusch Ph.D., Gene E. Fusch, Lawrence R. Ness Mar 2017

How To Conduct A Mini-Ethnographic Case Study: A Guide For Novice Researchers, Patricia I. Fusch Ph.D., Gene E. Fusch, Lawrence R. Ness

The Qualitative Report

The authors present how to construct a mini-ethnographic case study design with the benefit of an ethnographic approach bounded within a case study protocol that is more feasible for a student researcher with limited time and finances. The novice researcher should choose a design that enables one to best answer the research question. Secondly, one should choose the design that assists the researcher in reaching data saturation. Finally, the novice researcher must choose the design in which one can complete the study within a reasonable time frame with minimal cost. This is particularly important for student researchers. One can blend …


Frustrations, Fights, And Friendships: The Physical, Emotional, And Behavioural Effects Of High-Density Crowding On Mumbai’S Suburban Rail Passengers, Lily Hirsch, Kirrilly Thompson, Danielle Every Feb 2017

Frustrations, Fights, And Friendships: The Physical, Emotional, And Behavioural Effects Of High-Density Crowding On Mumbai’S Suburban Rail Passengers, Lily Hirsch, Kirrilly Thompson, Danielle Every

The Qualitative Report

Crammed together in tight folds of humanity, the suburban rail passengers of Mumbai, India, experience the most densely crowded trains in the world (Basu & Hunt, 2012). Whilst the immediate physical descriptors of crowdedness in Mumbai are well understood (Hirsch, 2016), there is little knowledge of the effect this has on the multitude of passengers. This is an important omission, as the effects of crowding on passengers impact their attitudes, travel behavior, and travel decisions. This paper therefore seeks to discern the physical, emotional, and behavioural effects of rail passenger crowding in Mumbai, India. To achieve this, a qualitative methodology, …


Constructing A Sociological Biography: A Surprisingly Complex Autobiographical Practice, Sara Louise Wheeler Feb 2017

Constructing A Sociological Biography: A Surprisingly Complex Autobiographical Practice, Sara Louise Wheeler

The Qualitative Report

Biographical statements are an important part of impressions management in the academic milieu. These statements provide an online presence, accompany our academic products, and represent us in the academy. This becomes a high stakes activity, which can be quite anxiety provoking. As a qualitative sociologist with a particular interest in auto/ biography, producing such a statement really ought to be easy - putting into words: who I am, what I do, and where I am currently located. However, writing sociological biographies requires a fine balance, particularly during the early career phase, when we may be juggling projects, research directions and …


Newcomers In A Nontraditional Receiving Community: Korean Immigrant Adaptation Strategies In The American Deep South, Charles A. Lynn, Sun-A Lee Dec 2016

Newcomers In A Nontraditional Receiving Community: Korean Immigrant Adaptation Strategies In The American Deep South, Charles A. Lynn, Sun-A Lee

The Qualitative Report

This ethnographic case study considers the role of the church in the lives of Korean immigrants in a small town in the southeastern United States. Drawn to a poultry processing plant by the promise of permanent residency, hundreds of middle class Koreans have cycled through one-year commitments at Claxton Poultry since 2005. We analyze the benefits and pitfalls of adaptation strategies developed by the Korean immigrants and how their social networks both help and hinder their livelihood in a nontraditional receiving locale. Results indicate that while membership at a prominent religious congregation does offer Korean immigrants bonding networks amongst themselves, …


Pregnancy And Childbirth Practices Among Immigrant Women From India: “Have A Healthy Baby”, Rama Cousik, M. Gail Hickey Apr 2016

Pregnancy And Childbirth Practices Among Immigrant Women From India: “Have A Healthy Baby”, Rama Cousik, M. Gail Hickey

The Qualitative Report

In India, practices relating to pregnancy, childbirth and child development have been rooted in cultural beliefs and traditions that are based on knowledge contained in ancient Indian texts. Many Indians residing across the globe continue to observe these practices. Some may find it challenging to do so when they are residing abroad, away from familiar surroundings and separated from their extended families. A small body of research exists that shows that migrant Indian women do observe traditional maternal practices based on cultural beliefs, but there is a need to learn more about how this knowledge is acquired, disseminated and preserved. …


Using Photography As A Creative, Collaborative Research Tool, Ailsa Winton Feb 2016

Using Photography As A Creative, Collaborative Research Tool, Ailsa Winton

The Qualitative Report

Drawing on debates in the complementary fields of participatory, youth and visual research methods, the paper discusses an experimental photography project carried out as part of a broader study with young people in Mexico City on spatial experience, belonging and exclusion. The paper describes the mechanics of the project, considers the kind of data it produced, and discusses the different outcomes for participants and researcher, including its difficulties and limitations. It finds that the creative, collaborative approach used has potential for opening the research process to embrace creative, reflexive, complicated “selves,” but warns that this outcome is not automatic: collaboration …


Between Warrior And Helplessness In The Valley Of Azawa - The Struggle Of The Kel Tamashek In The War Of The Sahel, Patrick James Christian Jan 2015

Between Warrior And Helplessness In The Valley Of Azawa - The Struggle Of The Kel Tamashek In The War Of The Sahel, Patrick James Christian

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an Investigation into the Tuareg involvement in violent conflict in the Sahara and the Sahel of North Africa from a sociological psychological perspective of unmet human needs. The research begins by establishing the structure and texture of the sociological, psychological, and emotional life patterns of their existence when not involved in violent conflict. This is followed by an examination of the pathology of Tuareg social structures that are engaged in intra and inter communal violence as perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. The first part of the research establishes normal conditions of the sociological life cycle and highlights natural …


The Impact Of Acculturation On Perceptions Of Elder Abuse And Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Elderly Polynesians, Myra Halaevalu Te’O Aukusitino Jan 2015

The Impact Of Acculturation On Perceptions Of Elder Abuse And Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Elderly Polynesians, Myra Halaevalu Te’O Aukusitino

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was conducted to determine whether or not acculturation affects the process of help-seeking patterns and behaviors for Polynesian victims of elder abuse. The researcher utilized a quantitative correlation design to employ structured survey measures to collect statistical data to determine the impact of acculturation on perception of elder abuse and help-seeking behaviors among elderly Polynesians. Acculturation was measured using the Polynesian Self-Identify Acculturation Scale and the 13 case scenarios developed by Moon and Williams. The study looked at the extent to which elderly Polynesians perceived that the scenarios depicted abusive situations, and to what extent they indicated …