Beyond the Calculus of Power and Position: Relationships and Theorizing in Ethnography

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-738
Author(s):  
Iddo Tavory
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Way

Ethnography is made of relationships. Even when the observations the ethnographer writes of take place between others in the field, it is through the development of relationships that data are generated and through a particular relationship that interpretation is offered. In this introduction to the special issue about relationships and theorizing in ethnography, I outline three relevant dimensions of such relationships that aren't captured by current debates that center on power dynamics in the field: (a) Alignment. Going beyond the trifecta of race, class, and gender, I suggest that a key element of positionality includes the ways in which the ethnographer’s projects align (or purposely fail to align) with those of her interlocutors; (b) Temporality. Thinking seriously about time allows us to appreciate how differences in the temporal arcs of research modulate the narrative arcs of theory as well as set the stage for the afterlife of participant observation in the process of writing and publishing; and (c) Place. As relationships deepen, ethnographers often find themselves in new spaces, complementing the temporality of narrative arcs with a different landscape of social theory. Doing so, this article calls for renewed attention to the way in which the patterned structure of relationships in the field shapes how ethnographers theorize their work.

scholarly journals Sexual(ities that) progress: Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 239965442095421
Author(s):  
Kath Browne ◽  
Jason Lim ◽  
Joseph Hall ◽  
Nick McGlynn
Keyword(s):  
American Association ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Way

This piece introduces the papers for the Sexual(ities that) Progress special issue. It arises out of two sessions at the 2017 American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, where scholars critically interrogated assumptions of progress and the ideals and models that follow from understanding certain spaces and places as ‘leading the way’ in terms of sexual and gender inclusions. In this paper, we outline some of the key debates and how papers in this special issue address discourses of sexual(ities that) progress and, in particular, the importance of decolonial and postcolonial critiques in such debates. We conclude by noting omissions, the timeliness of the papers and the ongoing need for spatial lenses in exploring the power relationships that reconstitute sexual and gendered lives, cultures, politics and embodiments.

scholarly journals Introduction to the special issue on digital government and gender

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-113
Author(s):  
Mila Gasco-Hernandez ◽  
Giorgia Nesti ◽  
Maria Cucciniello ◽  
Yenisel Gulatee
Keyword(s):  
Special Issue ◽  
Digital Government ◽  
And Gender

scholarly journals Laws and Emerging Technologies

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Esther Salmerón-Manzano
Keyword(s):  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Legal Issues ◽  
The Other ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
The World ◽  
Huge Impact ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
The Way

New technologies and so-called communication and information technologies are transforming our society, the way in which we relate to each other, and the way we understand the world. By a wider extension, they are also influencing the world of law. That is why technologies will have a huge impact on society in the coming years and will bring new challenges and legal challenges to the legal sector worldwide. On the other hand, the new communications era also brings many new legal issues such as those derived from e-commerce and payment services, intellectual property, or the problems derived from the use of new technologies by young people. This will undoubtedly affect the development, evolution, and understanding of law. This Special Issue has become this window into the new challenges of law in relation to new technologies.

Markets are constantly collapsing: Reconceptualizing ‘the market’ as a quantum social wavefunction

2021 ◽  
pp. 102452942098782
Author(s):  
Michael Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Broad Framework

The quantum moment in International Relations theory challenges the taken for granted Newtonian assumptions of conventional theories, while offering a novel physical imaginary grounded in quantum mechanics. As part of the special issue on reconceptualizing markets, this article questions if prior efforts to conceptualize ‘the market’ have been unsuccessful at capturing the paradoxical microfoundational/macrostructural because of the Newtonian worldview within which much social science operates. By developing a new, quantum perspective on the market, taking the physical paradigm of the wavefunction, I seek to explore the connections between entanglement, nonlocality, interference and invisible social structures. To demonstrate the applicability of quantum thinking, I explore how global value chains and open economy politics might be ‘quantized’, through the mobilization of core concepts of quantum social theory, within the broad framework of the market as a quantum social wavefunction.

scholarly journals Foreword to the Special Issue on Paving the Way for the Future of Urban Remote Sensing

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 6533-6536
Author(s):  
Sebastien Lefevre ◽  
Thomas Corpetti ◽  
Monika Kuffer ◽  
Hannes Taubenbock ◽  
Clement Mallet
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Urban Remote Sensing ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Way

Interview with Vicki Kirby

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 261-271
Author(s):  
Daniel McLoughlin
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
New Materialisms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

In this interview, Vicki Kirby discusses her research into the relationship between nature and culture, focusing in particular on her recent edited collection, What If Culture Was Nature All Along? The volume appears in the ‘New Materialisms’ series, and so the interview begins by situating the collection with respect to the recent materialist turn in social theory. Kirby discusses the influence of deconstruction on her thought, and the way that she draws upon Derrida to think through recent research in the life sciences and its implications for understanding the relationship between matter, life, and communication. She also goes into the political implications of her work and the relationship between biopolitics and biodeconstruction.

scholarly journals Power dynamics and collaborative mechanisms in co-production and co-design processes

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Farr
Keyword(s):  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Longitudinal Methods ◽  
Relational Processes ◽  
Cancer Services ◽  
Government Innovation ◽  
Design Techniques

Co-production and co-design practices are increasingly being promoted to develop user-centred public services. Analysing these practices with literature on power, participation and realist social theory this article explores the power dynamics, mechanisms and impacts within co-production and co-design processes. Two case studies were evaluated using qualitative longitudinal methods: an experience-based co-design project within hospital-based breast cancer services was followed from initiation to completion, alongside a local government innovation team that used co-production and co-design techniques to enable person-centred policies and services. The two cases illustrate how co-production and co-design techniques involve facilitating, managing and co-ordinating a complex set of psychological, social, cultural and institutional interactions. Whilst existing power relations can be challenged in different ways, constant critical reflective practice and dialogue is essential to facilitate more equal relational processes within these techniques, and to institute changes at individual, local community and organisational levels.

scholarly journals Exploring Gender Differences in Support for Rightist Parties: The Role of Party and Gender Ideology

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (01) ◽  
pp. 80-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosie Campbell ◽  
Silvia Erzeel
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
Populist Radical Right ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Right

This contribution to the Special Issue on Gender and Conservatism uses expert and election surveys to explore the extent to which the feminist or traditional gender ideology of parties of the right relates to their economic and liberal/authoritarian ideology. We show that although parties of the left generally espouse more feminist ideologies than parties of the right, there are a significant number of rightist parties in Western Europe that combine laissez-faire economic values with liberal feminist ideals. That said, there is more homogeneity among parties of the populist radical right than rightist parties more generally. We find that despite some variation in their gender ideology, parties of the populist radical right overwhelmingly—with the exception of one party in the Netherlands—continue to adopt traditional or antifeminist gender ideologies. In terms of attracting women voters, we find that rightist parties who adopt a feminist gender ideology are able to attract more women voters than other parties of the right. We detect several examples of center-right parties that include feminist elements in their gender ideologies and are able to win over larger proportions of women voters than rightist parties that fail to adopt feminist positions.

Introduction: Italy in the eyes of others

Modern Italy ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osvaldo Croci ◽  
Sonia Lucarelli
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
International Role ◽  
The Way

The international role and status of Italy among international powers has been an issue of debate in both the political and the academic context. What has never been systematically investigated is the way in which other powers with which Italy interacts in institutional contexts perceive Italy and its international role. It is the aim of this special issue to provide an overview of how Italy is perceived abroad. This introduction explains why it is worth looking at international images of Italy, and sums up the findings of the research project.

Seeing Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Angela Bock
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
The Way

Seeing Justice examines the way criminal justice in the United States is presented in visual media by focusing on the grounded practices of visual journalists in relationship with law enforcement. The book extends the concept of embodied gatekeeping, the corporeal and discursive practices connected to controlling visual media production and the complex ways social actors struggle over the construction of visual messages. Based on research that includes participant observation, extended interviews, and critical discourse analysis, the book provides a detailed examination of the way these practices shape media constructions and the way digitization is altering the relationships between media, citizens, and the criminal justice system. The project looks at contemporary cases that made the headlines through a theoretical lens based on the work of Michel Foucault, Walter Fisher, Stuart Hall, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Nick Couldry, and Roland Barthes. Its cases reveal the way powerful interests are able to shape representations of justice in ways that serve their purposes, occasionally at the expense of marginalized groups. Based on cases ranging from the last US public hanging to the proliferation of “Karen-shaming” videos, this monograph offers three observations. First, visual journalism’s physicality increases its reliance on those in power, making it easy for officials in the criminal justice system to shape its image. Second, image indexicality, even while it is subject to narrative negation, remains an essential affordance in the public sphere. Finally, participation in this visual public sphere must be considered as an essential human capability if not a human right.

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