Humor Orgies as Ritual Insult

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Patrick Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Group Solidarity ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Group Members

In-group members can display a sense of solidarity by earning license to direct verbal putdowns toward one another in the presence of others. An explanation of the process by which in-group members can maintain a sense of solidarity through putdowns in everyday life, however, is lacking in the literature. Set in a corner donut shop in southern California, this article describes how a group of old straight white middle-class men direct improvisational putdowns toward each other and explains how this banter maintains a sense of group solidarity for these men. The article puts forth a view of ritual insult in the form of “humor orgies” as emergent interactional phenomena characterized by successive, situation-dependent turns whereby group members play with interpersonal meanings in “givin’ it” “on top” and “takin’ it” “on bottom.” The findings raise questions about the extent to which superiority theories of humor are adequate and also suggest a need for ethnographies of everyday improvisational humor in public, non-workplace settings.

"A City of Picture Buyers": Art, Identity, and Aspiration in Los Angeles and Southern California, 1891-1914

2010 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-50
Author(s):  
Jasper G. Schad
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
White Middle Class

In less than twenty-five years, Los Angeles and other southern California urban centers evolved from culturally sterile communities into vibrant art centers. That remarkable transformation resulted from a combination of social, economic, and political changes that drew residents to landscape paintings. They enjoyed widespread popularity because residents invested them with meanings that transcended art. They became icons of identity, bolstered visions of an unspoiled suburban Eden, and helped southern California's white middle-class to cope with the mounting stress of modern urban life.

CULTIVATING A PROFESSIONAL POSE:

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 517-532
Author(s):  
Brandon A. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Black Men ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
White Institution ◽  
Success Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Behaviors

AbstractIn this article I investigate how a group of Black men in college worked together to learn and practice the professional pose—professional styles and behaviors meant to navigate professional settings. I argue that these behaviors were adopted to preempt any potential discriminatory acts and would ideally disassociate them from the negative labels associated with Black men. Specifically, I examine how leaders of the group Uplift and Progress (UP) prepared other members and recruits by teaching them how to present themselves as professional Black men who were familiar with White middle-class practices. To further encourage their success, group members sought out opportunities to practice these styles in public. By cultivating this professional pose, they were able to claim their place at a White institution and distance themselves from the unfavorable stereotypes of Black men. This strategy also bolstered their reputation on campus and would ideally prepare them for the predominantly White workplace.

Engaging Social Justice Methods to Create Palliative Care Programs That Reflect the Cultural Values of African American Patients with Serious Illness and Their Families: A Path Towards Health Equity

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-230
Author(s):  
Ronit Elk ◽  
Shena Gazaway
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Serious Illness ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Healing Power

AbstractCultural values influence how people understand illness and dying, and impact their responses to diagnosis and treatment, yet end-of-life care is rooted in white, middle class values. Faith, hope, and belief in God’s healing power are central to most African Americans, yet life-preserving care is considered “aggressive” by the healthcare system, and families are pressured to cease it.

Inadvertent Exemplars: Life History Portraits of Two Socially Just Principals

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Scanlan
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Life History ◽  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Public Elementary Schools ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

This study creates life history portraits of two White middle-class native-English-speaking principals demonstrating commitments to social justice in their work in public elementary schools serving disproportionately high populations of students who are marginalized by poverty, race, and linguistic heritage. Through self-reported life histories of these principals, I create portraits that illustrate how these practitioners draw motivation, commitment, and sustenance in varied, complicated, and at times contradictory ways.

scholarly journals Ultra Groups as Social Space for Leisure

2017 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11
Author(s):  
Daniel Seabra
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Autobiographical Narratives ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Direct Participation ◽  
Social Leisure ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Media ◽  
Regular Practice

AbstractThe paper aims to demonstrate that violence is far from a regular practice in Ultra groups, despite its notorious visibility as transmitted by the media. The paper attempts to demonstrate that Ultra groups are a social space of leisure for young people, rather than a space for violence. Actually, having used observation through direct participation and having registered the discourses of Ultra group members, it is possible to demonstrate that life in these groups represents, for many, not only a break from difficult everyday life, but also the only and/or the most important moment of social leisure in their lives.The object of this research was four Ultra groups who support the teams of Oporto City: Super Dragõe, Colectivo Ultras 95 (both support Futebol Clube do Porto), Panteras Ngeras (supporting Boavista Futebol Clube), and Alma Salgueirista (supporting Sport Comércio e Salgueiros). The research was based on observation through direct participation made among the groups over six years. Also conducted were 90 semi-structured interviews, 20 autobiographical narratives, and surveys (sample 206 for estimated n=1766).

“I Assumed It Was a Much Safer Place Than It Really Is”: Nonbinary Educators’ Strategies for Finding School Jobs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Iskander
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Gender Identity ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
Hiring Process ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Trans People ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
American Schools ◽  
Selling Point ◽  
Transformative Approach

People who are nonbinary—one of many kinds of trans identity that do not fit neatly within a man/woman binary—face particular challenges when seeking employment in P–12 schools, which have historically been places where rigid gender norms are strictly enforced. This paper draws on semistructured interviews conducted in 2018 to explore how 16 nonbinary educators navigated the process of finding, securing, and keeping jobs in Canadian and American schools. I found that most participants were concerned about securing a job or potentially losing their job or their safety at work because others might be inhospitable to their gender identity or expression. At the same time, participants had strategies to ensure that they found and kept jobs they were comfortable with, such as investigating a school’s support for queer and trans people, forging positive relationships with administrators and staff, and presenting their gender in particular ways during the hiring process. This study illustrates the limitations of individualistic, tokenizing forms of trans inclusion and reveals the continued prevalence of gender normativity in schools, despite a rapidly shifting gender landscape. While trans inclusion, at least on the surface, may be a selling point for some schools, trans people continue to face barriers when the underlying structures that privilege White, middle-class, cisgender, and heteronormative gender expression remain intact. I argue that, if trans people are to be fully supported in the education workplace, an intersectional and broadly transformative approach to gender justice is necessary.

Breaking the Trance: Moving beyond the Straight, white, Middle-Class Male Script

1991 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul G. Schurman
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Pastoral Counselors ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Privileged Position ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Human Liberation

Explores the creative roles men might play in a human liberation movement in which their privileged position will need to be modified. Sees pastoral counselors as “hope agents” who may faciliate the transition of men to new and different roles in which patriarchy will play less and less of a role in society. Details specific ways in which the loss of patriarchy can lead to a fresh and creative equality in which both men and women will experience new freedoms.

The White Middle Class

2001 ◽  
pp. 271-292
Author(s):  
Melvyn L. Fein
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
White Middle Class
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