Ethnographic Data Research Articles

“The man is always in front while the woman is at the back”: gendered attitudes towards education in rural Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT Our research from Sierra Leone shows how the schooling experience presents new gender puzzles. Since the end of the civil war in 2002, serious efforts have been made to improve access to education and enhance gender equality in schools as part of the Education for All agenda. However, despite enhanced educational opportunities for girls and rising school enrolment rates, girls are still more likely to drop out from school than boys especially in rural areas. This paper examines the impact of the gendered attitudes towards girls’ education and highlights a clear disconnect between high aspirations towards girls’ education and low expectations of their success in schools. Drawing on rich ethnographic data, we demonstrate that gender can be seen as an important factor that frames perceptions of education and can negatively affect girls’ abilities to access quality education and complete school.

Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool

Ideas of nature, nation and childhood are intertwined in Nordic early childhood education. We explore in ethnographic data the ways nature is taught in Swedish mobile preschools. We show how everyday nationalism manifests in the teaching practices of ‘good’ pedagogy in nature. We argue that depending on who is teaching and learning, various constructions of nationhood emerge enabling the re-imagination of a single national imaginary to a plural one.

ILMU SABUKU, A LOCAL TAREKAT PRACTICED FOR CENTURIES BY THE BANJAR SOCIETY, SOUTHERN KALIMANTAN

Ilmu Sabuku is a spiritually nuanced Sufist from the Banjar community in southern Kalimantan, Indonesia. Ilmu Sabuku has become an integral part of religious practice, playing a role in shaping Banjar Muslim society's beliefs and way of life. Ilmu Sabuku has become a form of local Sufism that emphasises the importance of spiritual purification and achieving inner knowledge. Ilmu Sabuku teachings offer a deep understanding of the relationship between the self and the divine, as well as ways to work towards enlightenment and spiritual growth. Based on an ethnographic approach and data gathered through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and related documents, the result highlights the significant role of Ilmu Sabuku in the religious, social, and daily life practices of the Banjar community. Even some people consider Ilmu Sabuku a "deviated" practice, but it has survived to this day. Some groups even openly keep teaching through religious meetings, through oral and written learning, as well as through visual audio, while others promote it secretly through traditional medicine and exorcism.

Tinkering with symptoms, causes and solutions: Tracing the enactments of multiple chronic illnesses in specialised outpatient check-ups.

People living with multiple chronic illnesses and an increasing need for acute care is a global health challenge, which questions the conventional ways of managing illness. A central issue is how medical practices can become more patient-centred and aligned with the everyday life of patients. Communicative strategies for eliciting the patient's goals and preferences are often proposed. In this article, we draw on ethnographic data from fieldwork conducted during 2019-2020 in health-care settings and among people living with multiple chronic illness(es) and repeated acute admissions in Denmark. Inspired by science and technology studies of chronic illness and care, we trace the enactments of illness and illness work in a patient trajectory marked by persistent symptoms and medical complexity. We analyse three medical encounters, and we show how 'tinkering' with clinical signs and utterances in each encounter constantly enacts new versions, shaping how the patient could and should live with his illness. We argue that specialised outpatient check-ups for these patients must provide space for continuous tinkering with the concrete effects of illness in everyday life.

Caste Solidarity and Religiosity among Mumbai Dalits during the Covid Pandemic

This article explores patterns of caste solidarity and religious practices among North Indian Dalits in Mumbai during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from ethnographic data, it demonstrates how respondents experienced specific vulnerabilities due to their ethnic and caste identities. Following this, solidarities based on caste emerged to strengthen social cohesion and offer a sense of future possibilities. Additionally, on account of the ontological insecurity caused by the pandemic, a renewed collective sense of religiosity emerged, helping local people to manage their precarious existence and mitigating pain. The article concludes by arguing that community solidarity and religious re-assurance mechanisms, given the absence of state support, were their only hope to cope with the pandemic and to navigate COVID-19.

Multilingualism in Teressa Island: performance and practice

ABSTRACTLabeling of a code as a language or dialect is a process that involves multiple stakeholders. Fundamentally, the notions of language and dialect are not linguistic but ideological constructs. Academic and political definitions often overlap, but can also potentially be at odds with each other. This paper attempts to explore this dilemma by looking at linguistic and ethnographic data from two Nicobari codes in Central Nicobar; namely Lurö and Sanenyö. These codes have been labeled as part of a dialect chain based on lexicographic data as well as computational phylogenetic analyses. However, the speakers claim that these codes are distinct languages and that Lurö is not understood or spoken by Sanenyö speakers. Adding to this, ethnographic observations made during in-situ fieldwork on Teressa Island where both codes are spoken, paints a different picture and complicates the matter. It would seem that language labels, ways of speaking and meta-linguistic commentary are creatively employed by the speakers in order to negotiate with ongoing transformations in the power hierarchies on the island. The paper will analyze language structure, linguistic practices and language ideologies to understand how linguistic differentiation is produced and the role it plays in the (re)creation of socio-political formulations.

Racialised mobilities in China

The scholarship on how race and mobilities intersect and interact has emerged mainly from the Western context, such as the UK and the US. Minimal to no research has examined this relation within Global South settings. As an emergent destination country for international migration, China offers an interesting case to research the mechanisms through which foreign migrants’ mobilities are racialised and hierarchised by the local population. This article thus examines how race and racism affect foreign students’ negotiation and interpretation of daily rules of movement and social norms of mobility, and how the racialisation of mobilities, in return, reshaped their foreignness in China. Based on ethnographic data from in-depth interviews with 21 foreign students in an elite Chinese university and participant observation, this article shows how the hierarchy of access to everyday mobilities is established through the logic of racial ideology, scapegoating and institutional design. Mobilities are also intertwined with the intersections of race, gender and skin tone, alongside the construction of misperceived racial identities from the locals, which goes on to produce further immobilisation among foreign students.

‘[Trails] and tribulations’: exploring wash-out in cycling coach education

ABSTRACTThe mechanisms underlying occupational socialisation and wash-out following formal coach education are not well understood. This study explores eight cycling coaches (6 males, 2 females) navigating these challenges as they transition into their everyday coaching role. Using ethnographic interview data (collected over 18 months) and inspired by creative non-fiction (CNF) literary techniques, the accounts of three characters (Emily, Mark, and Yvette) offer rich insight into the workplace conditions that facilitate and inhibit wash-out: ignored and forgotten; the challenges of wearing two hats; and triumph on the trails. We discuss the challenges of becoming immersed and accepted into occupational cultures, the socialising force of observing other coaches, and the impact of (mis)aligned goals between the individual and organisation. This work has potential to inform the support offered to coaches following formal training.

“Do as we say and you'll be successful”: Mundane power in corporate entrepreneurship

AbstractCorporate entrepreneurship is infused with power. Prior research has begun to shed light on the role of power in innovation contexts. Yet, we know much less about the day‐to‐day enactment of mundane power in corporate entrepreneurship, which, despite its partial subtlety, is no less consequential regarding decisions on pursuing or abandoning innovative ideas. This paper extends the literature on corporate entrepreneurship and power by exploring the discursive practices through which managers and employees of a corporate accelerator disciplined venture founders in the pursuit of innovative ideas. Based on a Foucauldian discourse analysis of ethnographic data, we show how a clash of entrepreneurship discourses invokes the day‐to‐day performance of three discursive practices—observing, exercising, and punishing—through which the accelerator's staff ensured that venture founders would adopt a dominant entrepreneurship discourse, with important implications for decisions on pursuing innovative ideas or not. These findings deepen our understanding of enacting mundane power in corporate entrepreneurship as well as the enablers and outcomes of such power enactment. We also outline the practical implications for emerging corporate innovation settings such as accelerators.

“Festival y Protesta”: The Integral Role of Protesting State Violence in Celebrating Puerto Rican Women and Feminists

Eradicating the mistreatment of Puerto Rican women and people that local and U.S. governments enact has been a major transformative goal for Puerto Rican feminist movement communities. The celebration of International Working Women’s Day presents optimum opportunities for organizations to celebrate and make visible the monumental achievements of Puerto Rican women and people. Similarly, they foster the opportunity to strategically protest the large-scale and harmful attacks of the United States and Puerto Rico’s (abbreviated throughout as U.S. and P.R.) governing double-bind onto minority Puerto Rican populations. Feminist activists, protesters, artists, and attendees collaborate in performances, speeches, and overall programming, resulting in dually celebratory and protest-based marches. Further, the multifaceted approach to protesting observed at the celebration of International Working Women’s Day shines light on decolonial and feminist efforts that bring about social justice and transformation. This article analyses ethnographic data collected through participant observation in one march held in Puerto Rico, as well as a small archive of news articles relating to said march. Results reflect strategic forms of organizing and protesting that exercise activists’ agency in communication with the government and state. Further, they show the demand for accountability and action in favor of minority Puerto Rican populations. Simultaneously, the results also shine a light on the synergistic character of state and government approaches to minimize the impact of activist protesting.

Navigating whiteness from the margins: Finnish, Somali, and Arabic speakers’ experiences of racialization, (in)visibility, and (im)mobility in Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between language, (in)visibility, and (im)mobility in racialized spaces, focusing on Finnish, Somali, and Arabic speakers in Sweden. Using a theoretical framework based on hegemonic whiteness and intersectionality, the study explores how multilingual practices and subjectivities intersect with race, religion, gender, and class to shape social visibility and mobility. The research draws on linguistic ethnographic data, including interviews, linguistic landscape documentation, and an analysis of the media discourse. The study finds that while Finnish speakers have become invisible due to assimilation policies, Somali and Arabic speakers are hypervisible in Swedish public spaces and discourse, although Arabic speakers are sometimes, and in relation to other migrants, nearing Swedish whiteness. However, all three languages and their speakers are constrained by a white normativity that reproduces inequality. The paper challenges simplistic notions of mobility/immobility and visibility/invisibility in the context of a changing racial order in Sweden, where whiteness serves as a binary sorting mechanism that perpetuates inequality. Overall, this research sheds light on the complex entanglement of language, visibility, and mobility in white spaces and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the intersectional dynamics of race and language.

Collective moods in Western Isles structures of being

AbstractThis paper develops a relational framework to interpret ethnographic data on the way residents of a community‐owned estate in the Western Isles of Scotland evaluated and contributed to collective quality of life. The analysis compares conversations with community development professionals and crofters to identify social and cultural structures influencing their contrasting interpretations of locally valued qualities of social attachment, belonging, and community. The framework integrates perspectives from phenomenological anthropology with Heidegger's theory of Being‐in‐the‐world to describe how structures of care, temporality, mood, and discourse influenced the dynamics of sociocultural diversity, interpretations of social relationships, and collective efforts to compose favorable conditions for co‐existence in a small population.

The everyday enactment of interfaces: a study of crises and conflicts in the more-than-human home

ABSTRACT By 2027 more than 530 M homes will likely adopt at least one type of automated system. This means that a growing number of residents will be living with automated technology in the home, everyday. But living with smart homes is full of conflicts between what residents find appropriate and what technology does instead. Previous research, centering end-user needs, has often focused on smooth living experiences through graphical user interfaces and improved predictions. In this research, we take the more-than-human lens of co-performance to put crises in everyday practices in view, and to conceptualize a new notion of interface. Based on ethnographic data from 11 households, our findings illustrate how crises reveal conflicting ideas of appropriateness, how residents reconfigure their co-performances with technology in response to everyday crises, and how new interfaces are enacted as a result. We conclude by illuminating how researchers and designers should not look at the conflicts and crises emerging in the more-than-human home as something of which to get rid. Instead, they are opportunities for residents and buildings to respond to one another in the context of everyday life and to enact interfaces that were not pre-designed into the building.

Йойги в контексте свадебной обрядности северных карелов: семантика и особенности функционирования

The article deals with the joiks as a genre of North Karelian folklore, which in traditional culture marks the transitional, crisis situations in the life- and calendar cycles and is an element of the wedding ritual’s musical code. In terms of the poetic text content, the joiks bear a typological similarity to the reprobating (korilnye) songs from the folk music of Slavic peoples. The lack of research on the semantics and functions of the joiks in the context of wedding rituals, as well as on the correspondence between the joik poetic texts and ritual tunes makes this study relevant. The task for this article is to identify the ritual and non-ritual functions of the joik musical and poetic texts based on ethnographic data and the study of the etymology and the semantic field of the term’s meanings. Another aspect examined in the article is that of the features of functioning of the joiks when they are performed with wedding song tunes. The material for the study was provided by a set of published and archival texts and audio records made by folklorists and musicologists predominantly in the mid-20th century.

Debriefing Teaching Strategies and Multimodal Narratives in ESL: Pedagogical Tools for Developing Agency, Making Meaning, and Confronting Racism

Over the years, there has been a rising interest in combining debriefing teaching approaches and multimodality in classrooms to promote superior critical thinking, reflective thinking, and comprehension (Reyes-Chua, 2018). Such practices have also been instrumental in facilitating L2 learning and identity development (Johnson & Kendrick, 2017). Although most research has focused on the potential of multimodality in enhancing language learning and identity construction, only a handful of studies have investigated how debriefing teaching strategies and multimodal narrative tactics can empower adult minoritized L2 learners to confront racism and develop agency. Using ethnographic and action-based research data, this study examines the role of debriefing teaching strategies and multimodal narrative practices in developing agency, creating meaning, and addressing linguistic racism. The study took place in an intermediate ESL class in the Mid-South region of the USA. Over a period of ten weeks, students wrote ten multimodal narratives in shared Google Docs about their experiences with the English language. During debriefing sessions, they reflected on the narratives and addressed issues of racism by answering 'what,' 'so what,' and 'now what' questions. This study finds that learners can acquire language, develop agency, and confront linguicism through multimodal narrative practices and debriefing teaching strategies.

Breaking in Morocco: Opportunities and challenges for professionalization and gender equality in the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games

In Morocco, breaking’s formalization through governmental bodies already took off years ago and federations have played a crucial role in the organization, implementation and control of competitions. Formal institutions have shaped the local scenes and provided opportunities but also posed challenges for breakers on the ground. In this article, we explore formalization, gender inequalities and pathways for professionalization in Morocco in the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Utilizing ethnographic vignettes, interviews and survey data, we investigate how dancers navigate the top-down institutionalization of breaking and we give voice to their criticisms. We discuss how the formalization of breaking affects the Moroccan breaking scene, what critical opinions about this formalization exist and how formalization can be organized in culturally sustaining ways. In our investigation we paid particular attention to opportunities for professionalization and achieving gender equality for dancers from the Global South as well as the question of access to the western structure of the Olympics. We found that institutional formalization is perceived as disappointing and detrimental to the long-term and bottom-up development and self-organization, while nevertheless also opening up support and new opportunities for professionalization and achieving equality for b-girls.

Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team: addressing Indigenous dementia disparities through deep exploration of culture and community‐specific context

AbstractBackgroundThe Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team (MK‐MDT) was established in 2016 to address brain health equity for Indigenous and rural populations. Indigenous populations are under‐represented in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research studies and clinical trials, yet there is a dire need to address ADRD disparities in this population. In this paper we outline our research approach and studies underway at the MK‐MDT that are designed to address the ADRD disparity in Indigenous populations in the US and Canada. We highlight our flagship study “Indigenous Cultural Understandings of Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia – Research and Engagement” (ICARE) as a key foundational ethnographic study necessary to advance the field.MethodThe MK‐MDT incorporates a community‐based participatory research (CBPR) approach with two‐eyed seeing. Two‐eyed seeing ensures the inclusion and valuing of Indigenous knowledge throughout the research process. In ICARE, we maintain a consistent focus on ethnographic research with Indigenous communities to ensure deep understanding of how culture and context shape the dementia experience. Interviews, sequential focus groups, participant observation and fieldnotes are used to populate an ethnographic database on the lived experience of dementia in Indigenous populations. We incorporate a diversity perspective by working with multiple Indigenous communities for each study. We invest in community engagement infrastructure such as community advisory committees, elder advisors, community‐based researchers and outreach workers to ensure our methods follow local ethical protocols, is culturally safe, and community controlled.ResultWe have successfully initiated NIH‐funded programs of research aimed at reducing dementia disparities. ICARE was launched in 2018 and included 54 interviews and 14 sequential focus group sessions (n = 17) in four diverse Indigenous communities, establishing the first stage of a robust ethnographic database. Findings support the existence of an Indigenous specific understanding of dementia that impacts the dementia care experience.ConclusionThe CBPR approach coupled with two‐eyed seeing has allowed for authentic engagement with multiple Indigenous communities and has supported the collection of ethnographic data that can be used to develop culturally appropriate health promotion materials and interventions. The community‐based infrastructure that has been established is currently supporting multiple projects, including clinical research.

Text on Instagram as emerging genre: A framework for analyzing discursive communication on a visual platform

Against the backdrop of Instagram’s transforming platform culture, this contribution proposes a framework for analyzing text posts as form of discursive communication. Text posts on the formerly mainly visual platform are understood as both a new social media genre and an emerging social practice. First, the genre is contextualized and grounded by recent evidence of a modal expansion, as well as through the reconstruction of transforming platform affordances. Secondly, based on long-term online ethnographic involvement and data collection, recurring categories and properties are identified within the emerging genre and differentiated in four discursive dimensions: text types, forms of (re)mediation, stance, and tonality. Variations within the dimensions are further distinguished and illustrated and their relevance scrutinized. These discursive dimensions are designed to be used as heuristics and / or analytical categories in combination with various methodological approaches from in-depth qualitative explorations to large-scale automated analyses. Finally, possible broader sociocultural implications of the emerging genre are discussed.

The role of the state in consumer culture: the case of “Operation Vin” in Sweden

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the market dynamics that led to a shift in Swedish consumers' alcohol preferences from schnapps to wine. Specifically, the study investigates how the Swedish state influenced consumers' alcohol habits and highlights the role of governance units in shaping consumer culture.Design/methodology/approachThe study reconstructs the historical memory of the “Operation Vin”, a strategic marketing campaign implemented by Systembolaget from 1957 to 1985, to conceptualize the past and to uncover the structures and change dynamics of the Swedish alcohol market system. Following this approach, the research contrasts historical data from multiple sources with market-oriented ethnographical data and traces the trajectory of how the consumption of alcohol has changed as a consequence of the Swedish state’s initiatives.FindingsThe study offers two contributions to the literature in marketing and consumption history. Firstly, it uncovers the lines of actions (framing and settlement) involved in creating marketing systems and shaping consumer culture. Secondly, it explores how the state strategically leveraged its social skills to promote a specific type of alcohol consumption (wine) and to induce the Swedish consumer to cooperate in the refashioning of the alcohol field.Social implicationsThe authors aspire for this paper to offer valuable insights into how a state, as a governance entity, can shape consumer culture through a strategic blend of various regulatory measures, both gentle and forceful. The authors emphasize the pivotal role of social skills in fostering cooperation during the implementation of a new alcohol policy.Originality/valueThis paper provides valuable insights into the role of the Swedish state in shaping consumer culture and explores the strategic actions and marketing systems involved, contributing to marketing and consumption history literature.

Teaching Medical Anthropology in UK Medical Schools: Cultivating Autoethnographic Practice among Medical Students

Behavioural and social sciences (BSS) are a core component of undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom. Despite the formal recognition of BSS by the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC), anthropology remains largely at the periphery in the medical curriculum. Medical students often describe it as ‘fluffy’ or as ‘common sense’, in comparison to biomedical learning content. To make anthropology more relevant and applicable to future clinical practice, we draw on ethnographic data (interviews, focus groups, field notes and reflective texts written by medical students) collected by an anthropologist during fieldwork in two UK medical schools. We suggest moving this content out of the preclinical phase and instead incorporating it into the clinical phase. Specifically, we propose that having students conduct a micro-autoethnography during the clinical phase brings together two crucial aspects of medical student training: BSS principles and formation of a professional identity. Embedding these concepts in this specific context will allow students to process tensions they may feel between interactions they observe in a clinical context and team versus what they have been formally taught. This process allows them to negotiate their own professional identity between practice and ideal while more robustly situating BSS content in a relevant and immediately applicable manner within the current constraints of the medical curriculum.