In-depth Biographical Interviews Research Articles

Encountering infrastructural interruptions and maintaining transnational lives amongst foreigners in China

ABSTRACT Drawing on in-depth biographical interviews with foreign scholars in China (hereafter ‘FSC’), this paper examines the impact of various infrastructural interruptions on the transnational lives of mobile individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how the labour of maintenance and resourceful quick-fixes employed by FSC constitute infrastructuring strategies in times of isolation and uncertainty. Specifically, the paper first asks how specific COVID-19-induced infrastructural barriers, such as tightened visa policies, mandatory PCR testing for border crossing, and suspended flights, intersect with the (im)mobility experiences and trajectories of FSC. Second, the paper investigates how these individuals navigate and cope with infrastructural glitches by fashioning a set of infrastructuring strategies to maintain transnational lives within the pandemic context. In doing so, this paper develops a deeper understanding of not only the generative but also destructive capacities of infrastructural processes in terms of their transformative effects on migrant identities, aspirations and lived experiences, further revealing the fragility, incompleteness and situationality embedded in migration infrastructures. More critically, this paper theorises how infrastructural interruptions constitute the necessary social-temporal conditions in which individuals’ infrastructuring strategies emerge through acts of waiting, adaptation and maintenance.

African-Caribbean women ageing without children: Does African-Caribbean culture and religious identity shape their experiences?

This study examines the cultural, social, and religious contexts of African-Caribbean women ageing without children. Drawing on in-depth biographical interviews with ten African-Caribbean women, the study aimed to develop insight into the experiences of women who were growing older without children. Thematic analysis highlighted the implications of early socialization and the complex intersections between childlessness, cultural and religious identity, and gender. The findings suggest that culture and religious beliefs were key factors in shaping the women’s earlier socialization and views on family life, children, gender and marriage. However, there was variation in the extent to which some women’s earlier socialization was retained into adulthood. Some women let go of earlier beliefs and practices, whereas others chose to keep the ones that they felt were important to them, which often influenced their decisions, choices and pathways regarding having children.

Experience of Late Miscarriage and Practical Implications for Post-Natal Health Care: Qualitative Study.

Miscarriage is the most common reason for pregnancy loss, affecting around one in four pregnancies. It is classified as a traumatic event, associated with an increased risk for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, alcohol dependence, somatic symptoms, sexual dysfunction, suicide, and complicated grief. This study aimed to analyse experiences of late miscarriage and to describe practical implications for post-natal health care based on characteristics of pregnancy loss revealed in a qualitative study. Seven women who had late miscarriages participated in in-depth biographical interviews. A phenomenological thematic analysis was applied. Experiential characteristics of late miscarriage were described by four themes and 13 subthemes: the initial splitting state (Dissociation, An Opened Void, An impaired Symbiosis, and The Body is Still Pregnant while the Psyche is Mourning); Betrayal of the body (Symbolic Experience of Internalised Death, Shocking Materiality of the Ongoing Miscarriage, Lost control of the Body, and Confusing Body Signals); Disconnecting (Depersonalising Medical Environment, Guilt Falsifies perception, and Retreat as a means of Self-Preservation); and Reconnecting (Collecting Shatters and Reinterpretation of Maternal Identity). Based on the results of the experiential analysis, another four themes represent practical recommendations for post-natal health care: Informing, Opportunity for Goodbye, Attention to Emotional Wellbeing, and Respectful Hospital Environment.

School Environment Perceptions of the Young Women with Anorexia: Biographical Reconstruction

Anorexia nervosa is the restrictive eating disorder and women are at the highest risk of its development in their teens. Although existing Western scientific literature provides some information on this condition among schoolers, there is the lack of qualitative descriptions that may shed light on the actual experiences and assumptions about the school environment which get girls with anorexia, who continue their education in school or finished it in non-Western countries. In this paper, to show how girls with anorexia perceive school environment I examine 50 in-depth biographical interviews with women who have been diagnosed with anorexia from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan (aged between 14–25 years old). These interviews were combined with the collection of ego networks, using concentric circles methodology, and analysis of unsolicited online diaries belonging to these girls. The data was harvested in the Summer-Autumn of 2020. First, the data analysis revealed four meanings that anorexia has for women in connection with schooling: anorexia as a distraction from education, anti-stress remedy, hobby, and part of a general perfectionist orientation. Second, the data demonstrated the roles of teachers and classmates in the entire system of social connections that the girls with anorexia have, and their importance for the development of the girls’ views on food and body image. Findings suggest that although schools emphasize perfectionism, academic achievements, and disciplinary culture, the school’s role in the life of girls with anorexia is greatly determined by parental attitudes towards education.

Mujeres mayores activistas: trayectorias y experiencias en movimientos y organizaciones sociales en Chile

This article reports on a study that aimed to explore the political trajectories and experiences of older Chilean women, in their spaces of political participation and activism. Through a qualitative and inductive methodology, we conducted in-depth biographical interviews with female activists over 60 years of age, who inhabit and reflect on various positional fields of social and political life in Santiago de Chile. We analyse and interpret the produced data from the perspective of feminist gerontology and intersectional studies. The results allow us to conclude that political participation and female activism in old age is articulated on the basis of three axes: the place of the biographical and socio-historical trajectory of political participation and activism throughout life; the experiences and situations of violence and discrimination based on gender and age, and the deployment of certain strategies of collective agency resistance. We reflect on the collective action of older women, and on how the historical intergenerational debt and the politicization of old age females can find a place in the multiple contexts in which the current feminist movement is developing.

Narratives of the urban-rural divide: learning trajectories of three women returnees to a small mill town

ABSTRACT This paper explores learning trajectories in becoming ‘rural women’ in Sweden, by using a biographical and socially-situated learning perspective. The data is based on in-depth biographical interviews with three young women who moved between rural and urban areas, and finally decided to return to a rural area. The findings show three learning phases: the mythical, the questioning and the self-positioning phase. Furthermore, the paper identifies four types of learning spaces of urban and rural areas: an imagined, a career-related, a cultural-emotional and a biographical learning space. The paper offers valuable insights about everyday life learning and identity development in young adulthood, and how stereotypes of rural areas negatively impact on young adults’ views of themselves and their life choices.Keywords: young female, rural/urban dived, countryside returnees, learning space and trajectories, biographical learning.

Os aprendizados da luta política: trajetórias militantes das mulheres no MTST

Political engagement is constituted, among other factors, by the educational processes experienced in the dynamics of political movements. In this article, we will discuss the nuances and specificities of the learning experiences of women militants of the Homeless Workers' Movement in the Metropolitan Region of Sao Paulo, in three distinct stages: the encounter with the MTST; the involvement in the struggle; and the continuity of militancy beyond the conquest of housing. The article is based on the results of a qualitative research approach, which collected data from in-depth biographical interviews and observation of the spaces of political action of these women, between 2015 and 2018.

New dynamics of religious death culture in Bulgaria in the post-socialist transition period

ABSTRACT Is there a ‘resurrection’ of death in the post-socialist countries brought about by a rediscovery of religious norms and values in the context of the global processes of (de)secularisation? Based on a sample of 20 in-depth biographical interviews with men and women 75 years old and over from Bulgaria, this paper examines the complex dynamics of the privatisation and liberation of religiosity from the grasp of the communist regime. This religiosity developed along with the surge in the interest in Christian rituals, including Christian funeral and mourning, with their reinvention and integration into systems of personal values. However, it lacked the understanding of the Orthodox religious ideas of (preparation for) the afterlife. What emerged was an original death culture, driven largely by pursuits for a reconfirmation of family, national and anti-communist identity. It reproduced an unstable knowledge about the formal aspects of rituals and, paradoxically, was permeated by internalised ideological patterns of mourning, enforced by cultural experts of the communist regime.

Pilgrimage and Religion: Pilgrim Religiosity on the Ways of St. James

Pilgrimages on the Ways of St. James are becoming increasingly popular, so the number of pilgrims registered in Santiago de Compostela has been rising continuously for several decades. The large number of pilgrims is accompanied by a variety of motives for a contemporary pilgrimage, whereby religion is only rarely mentioned explicitly. While pilgrimage was originally a purely religious practice, the connection between pilgrimage and religion is less clear nowadays. Therefore, this paper examines whether and in which way religion shows itself in the context of contemporary pilgrimages on the Ways of St. James. For this purpose, 30 in-depth biographical interviews with pilgrims are analyzed from a sociological perspective on religion by using a qualitative content analysis. This analysis reveals that religion is manifested in many ways in the context of contemporary pilgrimages, whereby seven forms of pilgrim religiosity can be distinguished. They have in common that pilgrims shape their pilgrim religiosity individually and self-determined, but in doing so they rely on traditional and institutional forms of religion. Today’s pilgrim religiosity can therefore be understood as an extra-ordinary form of lived religion, whose popularity may be explained by a specific interrelation of individual shaping and institutional assurance of evidence.

‘No longer invincible’: the impact of involuntary childlessness on older men

Background The global trend of declining fertility rates and an increasingly ageing population has led to increased scrutiny of parenthood. Although there are more childless men than childless women, there is very little research literature on the impact of male childlessness. The childless are absent from much social science literature, which has mainly focussed on family and women. Feminist studies into infertility and ageing have highlighted the absence of the male experience. Involuntary childlessness has been viewed as a complex bereavement formed by multiple losses. Distress levels in both men and women in this population have been found to be as high those with grave medical conditions. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine older men’s experience of involuntary childlessness. Methods This piece draws on my qualitative auto/biographical doctoral study that was framed by biographical, life course, gerontological, and feminist approaches. Data collection involved in-depth semi-structured biographical interviews with 14 self-defined involuntary childless men aged between 49 and 82 years from across the United Kingdom. A latent thematic analysis highlighted the complex intersections between agency, biology, childlessness, economics, mental and physical health, relationships, and socio-cultural structures. Major findings Findings countered the stereotype that men are not interested in reproduction. I argue that that involuntary childlessness should be considered as a significant factor in older men’s poor health and social capital. Conclusions This piece challenges the common narratives that the social, emotional, and relational aspects of involuntary childlessness do not affect men.

Resilience capacity and supportive factors of compulsory education in ethnic minority families: mixed methods study of Czech Roma mothers

ABSTRACT This mixed methods study from 2017 to 2018 documents the living conditions and Czech Roma mothers’ experiences of the education system. Based on a comparative analysis of quantitative survey data and in-depth biographical interviews, we focus on the mothers’ reflections of macro, meso and microsystem level primary education conditions and experiences. We especially draw upon racially/ethnically framed oppression and its interrelation with modes of communication between education facilities and families, as well as educational aspirations. The negative schooling experiences of Roma mothers and their children appear to oscillate at the intersections of race, ethnicity and social class. Our findings indicate the development of resilience and coping strategies, the overriding feature of which is a mode of family damage control and prevention rather than the pursuit of ambitious prospects when assisting children through the education process. At the same time, when seeking support, Czech Roma mothers preferably turn to informal education and the private sphere, rather than the formal education sphere.

‘Our biographies are the same’: Juvenile Work in Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations from the Perspective of a Collective Trajectory

AbstractRecent violence among drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) in Mexico has resulted in an ongoing demand for new recruits. Juveniles engage in a wide range of activities from lookouts in drug trafficking operations to high-risk activities, such as kidnapping and homicide. Based on ongoing ethnographic work in Mexico and referrals from correctional officials, we conducted in-depth biographical interviews with convicted and active cartel members (N = 79). Our data revealed that similar biographical experiences in communities characterized by a high degree of collectivism laid the groundwork for their entry and continued participation in criminal activity. Through inductive methods, we introduce a theoretical concept that we term a collective trajectory to help explain our subjects’ pathway and criminal careers in DTOs.

Динамика традиционных мобильных практик карелов-людиков

ABSTRACT Introduction: in Russian and foreign ethnology of recent decades, there has been an increased interest in the study of culturally organized mobile practices of peoples, both nomads of the North and those leading a sedentary lifestyle, in the past and in modern life. Without them, knowledge about the cultural heritage of the people will be incomplete. In addition, history makes adjustments to the types of movements that inevitably affect the life of different social groups (including peoples). The above arguments show that mobile practices among different peoples need special research, in particular among the Karelians and their ethnic groups. The traditional culture of movement of which has many gaps in study and has never been studied comprehensively and in dynamics. Objective: identification of some types of traditional mobile practices of the Ludian Karelians and their dynamics based on the analysis of several in-depth biographical interviews on this topic, recorded from women born in the 1930s. Research materials: field audio materials of the authors. Results and novelty of the research: for the first time some types of traditional mobile practices of the Ludian Karelians for long and short distances, associated with economic and leisure activities, travel beliefs and rituals have been identified. It is concluded that during the twentieth century they underwent significant changes associated with collectivization, the fight against religion, the Great Patriotic War, the development of industrial production and urbanization

Life Stories on the Social Image of Disability. An Educational Outlook

This paper forms part of the results of the ongoing doctoral thesis with the title Resilience and intellectual disability in residential environments using life stories. From a narrative and inclusive biographical approach, we delve deeper into the life history of four people who have been diagnosed with intellectual disability and who live in a residential environment in the city of Malaga (Spain). The field work was carried out using semi-structured and in-depth biographical interviews. The analysis reveals one of the conceptions that is a priority in this paper: the “social image” of disability, structured in three main areas for the purposes of this article: “the image of disability from social culture and identity”, “the image of disability from close contexts” and, lastly, “subversive experiences to the image of disability from inside”. In conclusion, there is a commitment to continue generating another social image of disability based on a more social and inclusive paradigm.

Holding onto Your Roots: Tatar-Language Rap in Post-Soviet Kazan

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyze the independent Tatar rap scene in two relevant contexts: the globalization of this musical culture and the post-Soviet nation-building efforts in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation). Having analyzed 29 in-depth biographical interviews with young rap scene participants and diary entries obtained in the course of a month-long participant observation, we conclude that the Tatar rap scene is a special case in Tatar urban youth culture, shaped by the younger generation of the Tatar-speaking intelligentsia (humanities graduates and creative professionals), and in opposition to both the cultural policy of Russification of the imperial center (i.e., Moscow) and the folklorized version of Soviet Tatar culture.

The educational trajectory of Newly Arrived Migrant Students: Insights from a structural analysis of cultural capital

ABSTRACTBackground: The recent influx of Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) in Western-European societies poses important educational questions about how best to support migrant students within the education system.Purpose: We sought to study how elements that are associated with cultural capital – namely a sense of entitlement and strategic knowledge – have relevance to NAMS’ educational trajectories. In studying the process of how cultural capital relates to educational careers, this study argues for a general shift from a resource-focused approach towards a strategy-focused approach to cultural capital.Sample: We collected data from 33 NAMS from six secondary schools in a city in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). A maximum difference approach was used: this allowed comparison of NAMS who followed the most academic track (general track) and the least academic track (vocational track) in secondary education in Flanders.Design and methods: We undertook 33 in-depth biographical interviews during which the NAMS reconstructed their educational trajectories. Data were analysed qualitatively. We used structural approach analysis to identify each narrative’s core structure. These structured fragments were then thematically coded.Results: Within the categories ‘a sense of entitlement’ and ‘strategic knowledge of the education system’, the analysis detected differences in strategies of action between pupils in the general track and in the vocational track.Conclusion: The findings offer insights that could support the development of better strategies to guide and support NAMS in education. As NAMS’ integration in the educational system appears to be a stretched and slow process of orientation, studying their trajectory has the potential to deepen our understanding of known mechanisms of the reproduction of inequalities in education.

Being a gerontologist: intersections between the professional and the personal in the Ageing of British Gerontology project

AbstractDespite the growth of cultural gerontology this century, relatively few gerontologists have interrogated their own experiences of ageing through a critical reflexive lens. This paper seeks to address this lack of attention by discussing some findings of the Ageing of British Gerontology project: a two-year (2015–2017) Leverhulme-funded study focused on identifying key developments and changes in gerontological research, theory, policy and practice in Britain since the founding of the British Society of Social and Behavioural Gerontology (now the British Society of Gerontology) in 1971. As part of our mixed-method study, we undertook 50 in-depth biographical interviews with ‘senior’ or retired individuals who have played a key role in the creation and development of gerontology in Britain. As well as focusing more widely on gerontological developments, we asked participants about the relationship between their professional insights into ageing and their personal experiences of ageing – both their own and that of loved ones. In this paper, we discuss the findings in relation to five key themes: health, illness and mortality; close personal relationships; work relationships; challenging ageism; and ageing selves. We found evidence that participants often drew upon their personal experiences of ageing in a range of contexts, including teaching and research. There were also numerous examples of professional insights informing personal decision-making, especially in relation to care of loved ones, though the emotionally challenging aspects of this emphasised the limitations of professional insights. Ultimately, we argue that the distinction between the personal and the professional is something of a false dichotomy, and there is often a complex interplay between the two aspects.

THE MANIFESTATION OF MULTI-LEVEL STIGMA IN THE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF TRANSGENDER OLDER ADULTS

Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) older adults experience disparities in mental health outcomes when compared to non-TGNC sexual minority older adults. Stigmatizing experiences are thought to influence these outcomes, but little is known about this process. Recent conceptualizations of stigma draw attention to multiple levels – individual, interpersonal, and structural – experienced by TGNC people of all ages. To explore how multi-level stigma manifests in the lives of TGNC older adults, we conducted a two-phase qualitative content analysis of in-depth biographical interviews with 88 TGNC adults aged 50 and older, from across the United States. Data were obtained from the photography and interview project To Survive on This Shore. Our interpretive analyses suggest that TGNC older adults’ development and well-being are impacted by multiple levels of stigma, which are dynamic and unpredictable, resulting in constant awareness of a changing social environment. Individual level stigma is experienced as ongoing vigilance about aspects of oneself that break gender norms, which is also marked by self-imposed social isolation and fears about accessing older adult services. At the interpersonal level, TGNC older adults navigate unpredictable interpersonal relationships, which manifest as fluctuating levels of love, acceptance, strain, and exclusion. Structural stigma manifests in the awareness of stigmatizing policies and systems but also in the conscious action of TGNC older adults to resist these structures. TGNC older adults promote supportive structural responses to stigma to both improve conditions for younger generations while also reducing experiences of individual and interpersonal stigma for themselves.

A temporal gaze towards academic migration: Everyday times, lifetimes and temporal strategies amongst early career Chinese academic returnees

Drawing on semi-structured in-depth biographical interviews with 60 early career Chinese academic returnees, this paper examines the temporal challenges involved in the personal and professional lives of mobile scholars. The key premise is that academic migration process may create temporal resources and opportunities for scholars to pursue career progressions and upward social status, but can also generate temporal constraints in their everyday life, bringing disruptions and discontinuities into their life course timelines. This paper highlights the temporal consequences of academic migration in relation to two perspectives: everyday times and individual lifetimes. Particularly, it also investigates how some returnees exercise agency and employ temporal strategies to alleviate the temporal dissonance produced in and through their moving process. This paper aims to demonstrate whether and how individual scholars confront temporal struggles on a daily basis and reconfigure life course trajectories while negotiating uneven academic mobility regimes. In doing so, the paper develops a temporally sensitive theoretical approach and unpack the multiple kinds of temporalities of academic labour in a cross-border setting, thus further advancing two streams of literature—academic migration and time in migration. Furthermore, it has drawn attention to the growing trend of temporariness and precariousness occurring in modern academia, especially in the context of migration. By examining the temporal tensions academic migrants encounter, this paper answers the call to reconsider the overly romantic engagements with academic mobilities and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the mobility experiences of the highly skilled.

Being a (Grand)Father: (Re)constructing Masculinity Through the Life-Course

Drawing on in-depth biographical interviews with 12 grandfathers of young grandchildren living in Czech Republic, this study explores how men perform and conceptualize their role of grandfather in relation to their previous role of father and their own family history. The analysis shows grandparenthood as an ambivalent space for the reconstruction of masculinity. One the one hand, grandparenthood was depicted by the participants as an important way of transitioning one’s own relationship to care and emotionality that enable them to relate to the care for young children outside the traditional frameworks of masculinity associated with the role of father. On the other hand, grandfather role represents an important tool for maintaining a connection with the ideal of hegemonic masculinity in older age and as a space for reconstructing the dichotomy between femininity and masculinity and the traditional dichotomies of care/work, activity/passivity, and private/public.