The Permeable Boundaries of Research Subjectivity in the Religious Field

Touchscreens are being integrated into classrooms to support collaborative learning, yet little empirical evidence has been presented regarding how children collaborate using touchscreens in classrooms. In particular, minimal research has been directed towards how teachers can design for and guide children’s touchscreen-based collaboration. Concurrently, the Programme for International Student Assessment and other international organisations have highlighted collaboration and ICT skills as crucial competencies for mastery in the twenty-first century. Accordingly, this article presents three narrative cases from a touchscreen project in Denmark, where 41 second-grade children and three teachers from two classrooms participated. The cases are based on ethnographic field data and 150 hours of video footage of natural occurring interaction in classroom settings. The ethnographic field data and video footage are examined using a collaboration model and embodied interaction analysis. Each case presents features of the subtle processes of children’s collaboration around touchscreens and teachers’ role in designing and guiding such collaboration. Thus, this article illustrates teachers’ and children’s situated processes of integrating touchscreens for collaborative activities in their classrooms.

Translating ethnographic field data to engineering requirements and design models suitable for implementing socio-technical systems is problematic. Ethnographic field data is often “messy” and unstructured, while requirements models are organized and systematic. Cooperation and communication within an interdisciplinary design team makes the process even more complicated. A shared understanding between ethnographers, interaction designers, and software engineers is vital to ensure that complex and subtle social interactions present in the data are considered in the final system design. One solution for supporting team conversations uses the quality goal construct as a container for complex and ambiguous interaction attributes. Quality goals in system modelling promote shared understandings and collaborative design solutions by retaining a high level of abstraction for as long as possible during the design process. This chapter illustrates the effectiveness of abstract goals for conveying complex and ambiguous information in the design of a socio-technical system supporting social interaction between couples.

Translating ethnographic field data to engineering requirements and design models suitable for implementing socio-technical systems is problematic. Ethnographic field data is often “messy” and unstructured, while requirements models are organized and systematic. Cooperation and communication within an interdisciplinary design team makes the process even more complicated. A shared understanding between ethnographers, interaction designers, and software engineers is vital to ensure that complex and subtle social interactions present in the data are considered in the final system design. One solution for supporting team conversations uses the quality goal construct as a container for complex and ambiguous interaction attributes. Quality goals in system modelling promote shared understandings and collaborative design solutions by retaining a high level of abstraction for as long as possible during the design process. This chapter illustrates the effectiveness of abstract goals for conveying complex and ambiguous information in the design of a socio-technical system supporting social interaction between couples.

Combining ethnography and object-orientation for mobile interaction design: Contextual richness and abstract models

This article seeks to explore the colonial encounters with Pashtuns of the erstwhile North West Frontier Province (now renamed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Pakistan and their mythical Orientalist constructions in the colonial historical and ethnographic accounts of the late 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The recurring colonial images and the transformation of colonial discourses and post-colonial effects on Pashtun identity and society are analyzed in this research article. Noticeably, it looks into the paradigm shift from the anthropocentric views of Pashtuns to Orientalized and Europocentric ideas by applying Edward Said’s influential thesis of ‘Orientalism’ and integrating the work of other post-colonial thinkers. This research article draws upon archival, anthropological, ethnographic field data to supplement the textual analysis and challenge the Orientalist and colonial representation of Pashtuns. The ethnographic field data were gathered through in-depth interviews with various Pashtun intellectuals, poets, writers, and authors from various institutions in Peshawar and Charsadda. However, this research article demonstrates that there are colonial biases and Eurocentric constructions of Pashtuns in the colonial accounts and texts. The colonial biassed representations of Pashtuns are transformed into postcolonial discourses. Pashtuns and Pashtun society are still uncritically analyzed through colonial lenses and spectacles.

The use of audiovisual recording devices is changing the practice of qualitative research. Extensive corpus of data can be generated in (shortterm) focussed fieldwork. Nevertheless, methods to analyse video data are still in an experimental stage. This article explores the benefits and limitations of applying sociolinguistic genre analysis to audio-visual data. This is illustrated with a case study, based on the videotaped »deep-trance vision« of a New Religious Movement’s spiritual leader, which is one the most famous contemporary religious visionaries in Germany. The analysis aims to reconstruct the construction of this religious experience of transcendence from the perspective of its followers. We will examine three different levels of communication (a) the inner context, exploring the textual, gestural, mimical and prosodic aspects, (b) the intermediate level where the focus lies on the setting and decorum, and finally (c) the outer context, focussing on the social embedding of this form of »transcendent« communication and its filmic presentation. The article closes with a reflection on the need to combine hermeneutic analysis of case studies based on textual analysis with ethnographic field data and observation to contextualise its interpretation.

In this study, I critically examined conventional ethnographic approaches that have, since the 19th century, overlooked the agency of non-human animals, using ethnographic field data I gathered in an equestrian club. At the same time, while exploring the possibilities of conducting a multispecies ethnography, I traced anthropocentrism through the spatial arrangements and language-based classifications humans apply to horses. This research emerged as part of my one-year undergraduate thesis project. I spent approximately five to six months actively in the field, during which I conducted participant observation, interacted with around 70 individuals within the club environment, and carried out 18 in-depth interviews. The entire process was conducted with the approval of the relevant ethics committee. In the field, I evaluated human actions and discourses as data, while also striving to include the interactions of horses with the space, with humans, and with their own kind. Throughout the research process, I also questioned how my own exist-ence as a human might affect the study, how far the boundaries of reflexivity could be expanded, and whether being human might create barriers in a multispecies ethnograph-ic study. Through the observations presented at the end of this study, I aimed to offer a critical perspective on earlier ethnographic works and contribute to the development of a more sensitive reflexivity against anthropocentrism in future research.

Building state capacity in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina: The case of Brčko District

In this paper, using ethnographic field data from three indigenous Akan communities, we show that Akan religious ontology about the natural world provides a formidable resource and framework for managing the environmentally destructive tendencies of the human being. We further prove that while these ontologies about the natural world emerge from the intense religiosity of the Akan and the metaphysical worldview of the indigenous Akan, they contain strong environmental ethical norms and values worth resourcing for environmental sustainability in Ghana. We, consequently, argue that significant attention ought to be paid to these religious ontologies—beliefs, norms and practices—of the indigenous Akan, as an effective means of achieving environmental sustainability. We, therefore, propose the resourcing and adoption of indigenous religious ontologies on the natural world that have the potential of informing and enhancing environmental policies and initiatives towards environmental sustainability in Ghana.

This article discusses the role of meaning in the institutionalization of performance art between 1970 and 2000. Ethnographic field data and historical documents evidence the changing dynamics of the field. The definition held by members of a particular field determines, in part, the manifestation of that field. The meaning of performance art is described from the viewpoint of the participants. The process of institutionalization is shown as a paradox for American avant-garde art. Artists and venue providers seek to address these contradictions by democratizing the art form through embracing egalitarian curatorial practices and culturally diverse venues and nonart audiences. Thus institutionalization is a process of negotiation shaped by meaning as well as social structure.

Traditionally, CPA scholarship has either assumed away policy intermediaries completely, or depicted them as corporate mouthpieces. Meanwhile, research on policy intermediaries has portrayed actors such as think tanks, PR firms and lobbying firms as far more active and self-interested. Our study investigates this puzzle by attending to the question: ‘Whose political agenda is expressed by intermediaries during their lobbying on behalf of corporate clients?’ By importing insights from studies of policy intermediaries, and approaching the world of lobbying qualitatively – delving deep into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of corporate lobbying using ethnographic field data and interviews with corporate lobbyists – we provide a different, more fine-grained picture of the lobbyist–client relationship, in which policy intermediaries shape, adapt and even invent their clients’ agendas. Our study contributes CPA scholarship by (1) providing an analytical distinction between the political agendas of corporate clients and those of their lobbyists, (2) bringing further detail and modification to Barley’s theory of an institutional field of political influence and (3) identifying agency problems between client and lobbyist as a novel explanation for why the financial profitability of CPA investment has been difficult to verify. Moreover, the study brings further sophistication to a burgeoning literature on policy intermediaries by suggesting that lobbyists’ own professional characteristics – such as length of political experience and strength of political convictions – influence how independently of their clients they dare to act.

In this paper, we define what we understand by birth professionals and examine how they have emerged in India in response to existing obstetric and gynecological practices. The focus here is on the emerging category of the “birth professional,” as we look back into how professional midwifery, doulas, childbirth educators and lactation consultants have come to define “newer” birthing options for women, with the corresponding decline of traditional midwifery in India. Finally, the paper uses ethnographic field data on professional midwives and doulas, to define what birth professionalism represents in India through case studies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the efforts of an ethnic Miao migrant worker association to recreate and engage with festivals both in the host society of the Pearl River Delta and back home in Southeastern Guizhou province of Southwest China. It analyzes how and under what conditions the disadvantaged migrant workers collectively demonstrate and assert their cultural identity in festival activities, rekindling and strengthening their ethnic consciousness. Design/methodology/approach Based on ethnographic field data, this study focuses on the connections between migrant workers’ lives in modern host societies and their traditional culture back home. Special attention is paid to the temporal dynamics of migrant workers’ cultural identity and socio-economic development. Findings The leaders of the Miao migrants’ association created network linkages to channel the flow of labor, capital and culture between the host society and the migrants’ hometown, and made efforts to secure institutional embeddedness at both ends of the flow. Their use of festivals and related heritage as cultural capital has facilitated the cultivation of network linkages and institutional embeddedness for economic advancement and overcoming ethnic prejudices and institutional disadvantages. Originality/value By illustrating how the economic development has been imbricated with culture, this research enhances understanding about the role of network linkage and institutional embeddedness in the flow of labor, capital and culture between host society and home place of migrant communities.

The chapter demonstrates that spirituality and popular religiosity are built into the Marian apparitions, thus turning them into a contemporary ‘modern’ phenomenon. The study refers to a series of apparitions which happened during 1999 in Marpingen, a German village close to the Western border with France. This village was the setting for a series of Marian apparitions back in the 19th century. These earlier apparitions have recently been subjected to a very thorough study by British historian David Blackbourn (1993). Whereas Blackbourn based his analysis on written documents mostly stored in archives, the authors had not only access to written documents, newspapers and books, but also the exceptional chance to collect video-tape records from the event, and they could also rely on audio-taped statements by the seers. These data, supported by ethnographic field data, are subject to a fine-grained video-analysis provided in the chapter. In Marpingen, it was Marion who began to have visions on May 17 and 20 near the chapel (built by the above-mentioned association) where the earlier apparitions had happened. Thereafter, the three women together had various apparitions near the chapel, mostly in the company of an increasing number of pilgrims. The sixth apparitions on June 13, 1999, was already witnessed by about 4,000 visitors, and on the ninth day of the apparitions, on July 18, 12,000 visitors turned up. The final apparitions were said to be at- tended by 30,000. As a hundred years before, the incident not only attracted masses, there was also some turmoil accompanying the apparitions: television stations turned up and reported critical- ly on the event, the Church prohibited any proclamation by the seers, the seers were threatened and, finally, the village administration and the chapel association got into a conflict. The authors pointed out that when talking about the apparition, we must be aware of the fact that this notion refers not only to a subjective experience by the seers. In order to become an apparition, it needs to be communicated. The communication of the apparition does not only draw on the verbalisation by which the apparition is being reported, i.e. reconstructed. In addition, the apparition is also being performed by the body of the seers who form part of the setting which includes the visitors in relation to the seers and the spatial constellations of other objects. Thus, the authors interpret apparition as a communicative performance of religious action. However, the verbalisation of the cited vision is not, as in other cases, reconstructed after the vision. On the contrary, the seer (Marion) talks into a dictograph which is held by another visionary – Judith – while having the vision. In this way, the apparition is turned into a live report. It may be no accident that this kind of live report is not directly addressed to the live audience. Rather, it is recorded so to be accessible to a larger media audience via audio tapes, transcripts of the visions and a number of books based on these reports. According to Auslander (1999: 39ff.), it is the ‘techno- logical and aesthetic contamination of live performance’. The authors noted that the media are not only added to the event but are imparted in the event to such a degree that they transform it into something different. Thus, the use of the dictograph results in a format of the ‘live report’ on the inner visions. The microphone allows coordinating the actions of the seers with those of the crowd – a phenomenon that was virtually impossible at earlier apparitions. According to the authors, the Marian movement is not only a static remnant of earlier periods but also a form of modern expression against rationality and secularism. The Marian apparition in question, according to the authors, is an example for the modernity of this form of religion by exhibiting the essential features of popular religion. It is not that religion has changed its contents: it is still the realm of the transcendent as the subject matter of religion. However, this subject matter is not an element of cognitive or moral belief; it is something to be experienced subjectively, the reasserting subject being the major instance and locus of religiosity. This way, the analysis of Marian apparitions is a case for the thesis of the modernity of religion and a case that demonstrates what is modern about religion.

Call centres are high‐pressure work environments characterised by routinisation, scripting, computer‐based monitoring and intensive performance targets. This promises a series of business advantages, but also risks counterproductive outcomes. Drawing on evidence from ethnographic field data, it is suggested that both desired and risked outcomes are mediated by personal modes of coping and organisational sustaining mechanisms. A central concern is to explore the underlying assumptions of call centre design and management, and to establish whether or to what extent information systems have been constructed as learning sites or behavioural control sites. When behavioural control is a primary goal this introduces a climate of resistance, further inflated by the culture of measurement and enforcement that is likely to ensue. In this environment, agent, manager and organisation become defensive and the main outcome is a destructive crisis of trust that creates important and difficult implications for the capacity to learn.