Everyday Expectations Research Articles

Being in a Horror Movie

Abstract This article takes as its starting point a recurring complaint in the popular reception of horror movies: that the characters in them behave foolishly. I argue that such complaints fail to recognize that the horror genre exploits a fundamental tension in fiction, between the perspective on a fictional world offered to its audience and that available to its characters. This distinction is highlighted in horror, which often depicts characters with everyday expectations facing extraordinary threats. Horror characters are frequently taken by surprise, and even the better prepared can be thwarted by the malevolence of the generic world. The extent of characters’ misfortunes can resemble deliberate persecution, self-consciously flaunting authorial manipulation. I draw on Todorov’s notion of “pan-determinism” and suggest that a more sinister variant operates in horror. Occasionally, a character’s experiences can help equip them to survive; I argue that this can be inflected politically in films where the malevolent horror world is placed alongside forms of real-life persecution and abuse. Critical attention to the world of horror, and how it is understood from both the outside and within, can clarify the connections between different theoretical understandings of the genre and bring out important but overlooked generic conventions.

Preservice Teachers and the Notion of Care: An Analysis of Classroom Management Plans

ABSTRACT Teachers leave the profession due to many reasons, one of which is difficulty with classroom management skills. A significant part of a well-run classroom is having affirming and positive relationships with students. In this study, teacher caring is explored via a content analysis of preservice teachers’ classroom management plans, a required component of their education preparation program. Findings revealed three themes: Remembering Their ABC’s; Keeping Culture Close and Peers Always Present; and Everyday Expectations Equal Engagement. Implications for teacher educators are presented with a summary of ways to encourage relational caring and bonding in the secondary classroom.

LOOPHOLE: EXPECTATIONS OF FORMING DIGITAL PUBLIC OPINION AND MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS OF DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

Society is a living organism and its dynamics highly dependent upon other variables such as culture, economy, technology, etc. New developments in any of them, also change our everyday lives, expectations, attitudes, and behaviors. Nowadays, the changes in society tend to be somewhat very quick as the new digital circumstances require abrupt decisions, instantaneous likes, or dislikes emitted to shape the so-called ‘digital public opinion’. It’s much easier to create a new public agenda, to learn about a subject, to gather, interpret, present, or hide opinions in this new digital platform. As citizens of digital culture, all participants are expected to be aware of the new dimensions of digital citizenship with shared responsibility. Societies seem to be improving digital aspects to form a public opinion, specifically within the last two decades. This paper aims to explore the new concept of digital citizenship and recent applications of digital public opinion whereas it exemplifies how the data is drawn from traditional public sources and how they are linked to the digital world to shape digital public opinion quickly. The reactions and counter-reactions to digital public opinion are much more visible, measurable, and valuable since it causes rapid and radical changes in society. The paper concentrates on the refugee issues in general and specifically the fire in Moria affecting more than 20000 people, including around 7000 children. How these kids were mobilized and how the decision made through digital citizenship is questioned. The paper also has some sentiment analysis correlates the results with actual events such as 5000 thousand people marching in Germany. Article visualizations:

Youth Experiences of and Views on Un-locked Coercive Placement in Residential Child Care

This article explores Norwegian youth experiences of and views on coercive placement in un-locked residential child care institutions. Inspired by Antonovsky’s salutogenic theory, the article discusses factors that make placement an opportunity for development among youth with serious drug and behavioural problems. The empirical material comes from interviews with 34 youth under and after coercive placement. The findings reveal that coercive placement in un-locked institutions can be helpful and necessary, provided that the institutions have the means available to protect the residents and provide supportive and meaningful treatment content. Factors such as treatment structure, the content of everyday life, clear expectations, and boundaries are discussed as important factors that help the placement to be an opportunity for development among youth with serious drug and behavioural problems.

Paradoxes of white moral experience

Paradoxes of white moral experience

Sharing our story individualized and triadic nurse meetings support couples adjustment to living with deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease

ABSTRACT Treatment with deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease, leads to a rapid improvement in mobility, which may challenge patients and spouses when adjusting to everyday life. An intervention, developed to support the adjustment to everyday life with DBS, demonstrated that individualized meetings with a specialized nurse was experienced as important and fruitful by both patient and spouses. Purpose: The aim was to gain a deeper understanding of how the meetings contributed to the adjustment process. Method: 38 audio-recorded meetings and six written summaries from eight couples participating in the intervention, were analyzed in a hermeneutic process. Results: The analysis revealed four themes: A relational triad of co-creating personal knowing. Sharing and listening in an atmosphere of trust and openness. Unveiling the couple’s everyday life, coping strategies and expectations. Supporting adjustment through knowing their personal story. Conclusion: The triadic dynamics in the meetings were quite particular. The main focus was the patients’ and spouses’ stories, individually and as a couple. The DBS nurse pursues solutions based on professional and specialized knowledge of Parkinson’s disease and the couple’s everyday life. Thus, the intervention meetings offered tailored, individualized and specialized care in supporting adjustment to DBS for PD both individually and as couples.

Fake News

I was invited to respond, as an early modernist, to two essays on medieval fictionality by Julie Orlemanski and Michelle Karnes. Both writers take issue with Catherine Gallagher's well-known assertion that fiction was "invented" in the early eighteenth century, with the rise of the novel. In "my" period, 16th-17thcentury England, debate raged in the wake of the Protestant Reformation about the relationship of truth to the world of quotidian experience. The truths of Christianity violate everyday expectations, but which disruptions are miraculous and which are frauds is highly contested. Reformers satirize and debunk Catholic rituals and miracles, and Catholics similarly ridicule Protestant beliefs and practices. Which events present themselves as "true" seems to depend upon literary genre and the horizons of plausibility that those genres imply. Shakespeare, I argue, explores issues about truth and fraudulence, and their inextricability from questions of literary genre, with special self-consciousness in his tragicomedies, in particular The Winter's Tale, and also in Othello.

The ideal carer role: gendered expectations in childhood ethnography

ABSTRACTDrawing on data from a preschool-based ethnography that examined both teachers and children, this paper explores gendered elements of adult–child interactions in the preschool classroom. The author describes a methodological approach that acknowledges the provision of helpfulness as a common, everyday expectation that the children had of their teachers, enacted through what she calls the ‘ideal carer role’. Adopting the role allowed her to gain insight into the everyday expectations of children and adults within the shared classroom culture, as well as some contexts in which children utilised adult power. Reflecting on the adoption of the role, the author also explores the ethics of enacting care, helpfulness, discipline and pedagogy as part of an ethnography of adult–child relations.

The musical Mach-Zehnder interferometer

The phenomenon of interference lies at the heart of quantum physics, and is responsible for many of the unusual aspects of quantum behaviour that deviate from our everyday expectations. Though classical physics allows for waves (e.g. of sound) to interfere, quantum theory allows for interference effects also to affect single particles. One device that demonstrates this experimentally is the Mach-Zehnder interferometer: here a single particle (e.g. a photon) travels down one of two possible paths, and quantum interference between the two paths affects the final position where the particle arrives. In this article, I propose a mechanism to musically demonstrate quantum single-particle interference: the musical Mach-Zehnder interferometer. This new quantum musical instrument makes use of two independently operated electronic keyboards, whose outputs are interfered according to the rules of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer. I discuss the musical possibilities this instrument enables, and outline a method to construct it via software simulation.

Collaborating to improve child and youth mental health in Nunavik

Following various reports highlighting the lack of mental health services for children and youth in Nunavik (Quebec, Canada), high rates of child placements under youth protection, and gaps in the coordination of services, the Regional Partnership Committee of Nunavik decided to prioritize collaborative, community-based approaches to the health and wellbeing of children, youth, and their families. It is in this context that the regional projectIlagiinut(‘For families’) was initiated and is being piloted in Kuujjuaraapik. In mental health care, collaborative practices are highly valued, and various models are flourishing. However, collaborative care models are not necessarily easy to implement and involve a variety of ingredients, including trust, strong partnerships, clarity of roles, and power dynamics, all of which are influenced by culture and context. In this study, we conducted a total of 54 interviews with administrators, clinicians, and Inuit family members to explore their everyday expectations for and experiences with child and youth mental health services and collaboration between people involved in care. In our analysis we explore how context influences expectations, beliefs, and experiences, and ultimately how these factors impact the nature of services offered to children, youth, and families. The aim is to shed light on obstacles to and facilitators of collaboration in child and youth mental health in order to inform individuals, communities, and organizations that are trying to change policy and practice.

Living with uncertainty: Mapping the transition from pre-diagnosis to a diagnosis of dementia

Across the world, an early and timely diagnosis of dementia is seen to be a policy and practice imperative and a necessary step in order to live well with the condition. However, limited understanding exists regarding the personal and relational meanings attributed to the diagnostic experience. Drawn from the findings of a larger multi-site study conducted in four areas of England, this article presents a subset of the data where five participants and their carers and two people living alone initially presented themselves at a memory clinic for diagnostic testing, with this presentation eventually resulting in a confirmed, and shared, diagnosis of dementia. All 12 participants were interviewed at two time points in the study: at the time of first presentation to the memory clinic and shortly after the diagnosis had been shared with them. Informed by the grounded theory method, constant comparative analysis was applied to the data and this process resulted in a four-phase sequential model of diagnostic transition: (1) becoming self-aware→seeking outside help; (2) being referred→receiving a clinic appointment; (3) undergoing tests→being told what's wrong; and (4) adjusting to the diagnosis→negotiating everyday expectations. Running through each phase was the core category of ‘living with uncertainty’ which summarised the entire diagnostic journey for all study participants. Findings suggest a need for better awareness and information for people living with dementia at all phases and time points in the condition, which may be fostered by embedding these in early clinical encounters.

Carbon footprint mitigation on vacation: A norm activation model

The norm activation theory and past research suggest that ecologically appropriate behaviors increase when individuals (a) ascribe personal responsibility (AR) to protect the environment and (b) are aware of the consequences (AC) of their actions. We examined the influence of AR and AC on ecological norm salience and reported pro-environmental behavior while people were on vacation. Data were obtained from a random sample of the general public in the Netherlands (n=1144, response rate=88%). As predicted AC influenced AR. Norm salience partially mediated the influence of AR and AC on reported behavior. As AR and AC increased, norm salience increased; this model accounted for 32% of the variance in the norm concept. As all the three constructs (i.e., AR, AC, norm salience) increased, respondents were more willing to engage in pro-environmental behavior. The partial mediation model accounted for 44% of the variance in reported behavior. Findings here support the continued use of the norm activation model to explain tourist behavior. Management implicationsThis article demonstrated that to mitigate unintended negative environmental consequences of tourists on holidays, managers should be aware of:●How travelers' sense of entitlement, the symbolism of freedom from everyday expectations, and a lack of awareness of their impact can lead to negative ecological behaviors.●Messaging that makes travelers aware of the consequences of their actions can increase their ascription of responsibility toward the environment and promote pro-ecological behaviors.●Messaging that increases the salience of descriptive and injunctive norms can guide travelers' behavior to act in more pro-ecological ways.

Food risk in Ireland: consumer perceptions, trust and dependence

It has long been acknowledged that consumer confidence, risk consciousness and consumption behaviours alter in times of food crisis, often influenced by the significant media attention given to such issues. What is less apparent, however, is how consumers conceptualise, respond to and mitigate food risk in everyday, non-crisis scenarios. Drawing on empirical research conducted with consumers across the Republic of Ireland, this paper addresses this gap by examining how consumers assess and perceive food risk outside of the specific conditions created by major food scares such as BSE. Unpacking results from eight consumer focus groups, several themes are explored in this regard relating to everyday consumer perceptions, awareness, experiences, expectations and connectivity with food risk. Providing conceptual and empirical insights, this includes exploration of themes concerning: (1) food risk consciousness and the presence of a variegated food risk society; (2) perceptions of risk coming from the ‘outside’ into Ireland and related spatiality of trust; and (3) differences between consumer food risk beliefs and practices. Unpacking the conundrum of low consumer awareness of risk in the face of increasingly risky and complex contemporary food chains, this paper is relevant to food practitioners, policymakers and scholars alike. It demonstrates the value of including consumer opinion in food risk regulatory agendas to increase transparency, accountability and trust in food governance systems. The need for increased consumer reflection on food risk is also proffered, linking this with broader requirements to challenge prevailing risky food provisioning systems.

‘A TANGLE OF PEOPLE MESSING AROUND TOGETHER’

This paper explores how Taiwanese women's variety television shows mediate social expectations about women's work, both waged and unwaged. In particular, I argue that the 2011 women's variety programme Shounü Buman Zu 《熟女不 滿族》, lit. unsatisfied mature-women tribe) negotiates both the feminization of everyday domestic risk and expectations surrounding the embodied practices of women's affective labour. I propose that the programme's mediation of these issues takes place at three levels: thematic, performed and formal. First, offering ‘expert’ advice on managing the opportunities and risks associated with women's everyday lives in late-modern consumer culture, the discussion themes on Unsatisfied Shounü readily lend themselves to analysis in terms of the feminization of risk and risk management. Second, the embodied performances of the programme's presenters – including their speech, movement and on-screen interactions – model hegemonic formations of feminine habitus, especially the emotional work it involves. Third, the formal properties of this genre, especially the use of post-production effects, instantiate an amplification of the bodily-affective work of normative feminine social interaction. In representing the labours of femininity on these three levels, these programmes make readily visible some of the defining features of available formations of feminine subjecthood in Taiwan today, while highlighting commercial television's role in the socialization of women's affective capacities.

How to deal with sociocultural pressures in daily life: reflections of adolescent girls suffering from eating disorders.

Adolescent girls with eating disorders experience unattainable and contradictory expectations in daily life, which create stress and negatively affect their self-evaluation. Disordered eating may function as a way of seeking control and consistency. In order to make progress in the understanding of eating disorders, the aim of this study was to describe how adolescent girls with eating disorders reflect upon ways of dealing with sociocultural pressures in daily life. Eighteen interviews with girls aged 15–19 years were analyzed using a phenomenographic approach. The results were summarized into three conceptions: “Striving to be oneself ” (conception A) was described as the most desirable, but also the hardest. “Adapting to various situations” (conception B) was used without much reflection, as long as it worked, but when this way of dealing with everyday expectations was unsuccessful it was evaluated negatively. “Presenting oneself in a positive light” (conception C) was described negatively even when it was successful. Within these conceptions, the participants described various strategies that could be used more or less effectively depending on the circumstances. A common theme was their difficulties in finding a balance between trying harder to live up to perceived expectations from others on one hand, and trying to accept the situation as it was, without trying to change themselves or the situation, on the other hand. The participants believed that their eating disorder was partly a result of being unable to deal with sociocultural pressures in an effective way, and they experienced a conflict between societal values of being assertive and values of being interpersonally oriented. Implications for treatment are discussed.

Everyday expectations of the state during Pakistan's early years: Letters to the Editor, Dawn (Karachi), 1950–1953

AbstractAccessing the day-to-day, albeit pressing, concerns of Pakistanis in the early 1950s can be difficult as a result of the relative paucity of relevant primary material. One set of sources, however, are the letters written to the editors of contemporary newspapers during this period, in which correspondents outlined their expectations of, made demands on, and aired their frustrations with, the everyday state in the years following independence and Pakistan's creation. This paper draws on a sample of this correspondence on the letter pages of Dawn (Karachi) during 1950–1953 in order to explore the views of ordinary citizens as they grappled with problems of housing, transport, food rationing, water shortage, and corruption.

Cape Fear and the Verdict: Law, Morality and Violence

As a staple feature of popular culture, films shape our everyday understandings and expectations of relationships among law and violence. This paper compares two films, Cape Fear (1992) and The Verdict (1982). The analysis focuses on moral, jurisprudential and social meanings through which narratives provide validity and legitimacy for consenting to law and limiting violence. These films provide sharply different narratives of the capacity of law to control, direct, and limit violence. At one extreme, Cape Fear shows the total absence of legal validity, a descent to anomie and the eruption of violence. At the other end of the continuum, The Verdict demonstrates how, despite their imperfections, legal institutions provide a setting for realizing shared morality, establishing solidarity and truth, and exposing and limiting violence. By analyzing these films, we can more fully realize that our expectations of law to limit violence cannot be isolated from broader issues of solidarity, morality and social relations.

What Do I Get? The Everyday Politics of Expectations and the Subprime Crisis

Were Americans who agreed to subprime loans stupid? This article suggests not, and that individual choices on home loans reflect a welfare trade-off steeped in social norms. These norms provide a range of choices for individuals' intentional rationality, from which decisions can be legitimated among their social peers. To understand individual choices about taking on a home loan, such actions must be interpreted within the context of the dominant welfare trade-off within a society over how one ensures income over their life cycle. This can be understood comparatively and also over time. This article situates the American experience among other advanced industrialised economies to locate its particular variety of residential capitalism and why their experience is more mild than wild. It then assesses change over time in the US case, arguing that the subprime crisis requires us to consider the everyday politics of expectations. Seen over time, everyday expectations about how the economy works provide constraints on the capacity of economic and political elites to change the system. They also encourage institutional experiments to cope with crises. I discuss this in the context of institutional experiments in response to the 1980s crisis in the US and the role that community activists played in linking credit access to rights discourses from the 1930s and 1960s. I then discuss how this politics has played out in the current crisis, providing a broader perspective on the politics of the subprime crisis and why it's not just the economy, stupid.

Everyday Water: cultures in transition

In this paper we will present the Everyday Water project as a case study of recent cultural research on domestic water use and its application to natural resource policy and practice. This project is innovative not only because it is a research partnership between a development company and a university but also because of the cultural research approach the project brings to the issue of water resource sustainability and management. The Everyday Water project moves away from thinking of water as a discrete resource or utility, and instead understands its consumption in terms of shifting definitions and uses of services, cultural traditions, and the intersection of everyday practices and expectations with socio-technical systems. The findings so far indicate that while people are prepared to take some DIY measures to save water while they are ‘stuck’ within current socio-technical systems, many can imagine alternatives, and would be prepared to do more with improved knowledge, better leadership, fewer obstacles, and more incentives to bring about a shift to a different kind of water culture.

Liberalism and its Discontents

Agents in contemporary Western societies find themselves in an odd situation. On the one hand, we seem to have no realistic alternative to liberalism; that is, we know of no other approach to human society and politics that is at the same time as theoretically rich and comprehensive as liberalism and also even remotely as morally acceptable to wide sections of the population in Western societies, as they are now in fact constituted.' Liberal ideas permeate our social world and our everyday expectations about how people and institutions will and ought to act; they constitute the final framework within which our political thinking moves. Prima facie nonliberal forms of habitual belief, such as those associated with certain religions, forms of nationalism, residual class enmities, and so on, still, of course, exist, but they seem to be, at best, isolated and localised foreign bodies in a universe, the overall structure of which is essentially liberal; in societies that are or are aspiring to be 'Westem', even these nonliberal ideological fragments sometimes adopt protective colouration in the form of the best veneer of compatibility with liberalism they can muster. On the other hand, there are signs of a significant theoretical, moral, and political disaffection with some aspects of liberalism. Liberalism has for a long time seemed to lack much inspirational potential; it is good at dissolving