Sociocultural Trauma Research Articles

A qualitative exploration of Muslim American college students' experiences of discrimination and coping.

A majority of Muslim American college students have grown up exclusively within a post-9/11 climate of surveillance and discrimination. Recent events such as the Trump administration's "Muslim ban" and the Israel-Hamas War have led to additional spikes in Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslim Americans. Developmentally, college students are particularly susceptible to the impacts of discrimination because of the identity exploration that occurs during emerging adulthood. Yet, the effects of discrimination on Muslim American college students are understudied. This qualitative study sought to understand how 1.5- and second-generation immigrant-origin Muslim American college students (a) experience discrimination, (b) describe the emotional impacts of discrimination, and (c) cope with discrimination. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 Muslim American college students between the ages of 18 and 21 years (M = 19.85). Conventional content analysis yielded 14 themes and 9 subthemes. Themes consisted of pride in Muslim identity; complexity of visible markers of Muslim identity; stereotypes; microaggressions; multiple, intersecting forms of oppression; historical, ongoing sociocultural trauma; overt Islamophobia; fear, anxiety, and distrust; impact on identity; sadness and hopelessness about the future; intrapsychic forms of coping; relational forms of coping; shifting actions and behaviors; and generational differences in coping. Findings indicated that discrimination experienced by Muslim American college students is chronic, pervasive, and intersectional. Participants experienced discrimination at various stages in their development, across multiple contexts, and on account of multiple marginalized identities. Notably, participants' experiences of discrimination coexisted with a sense of pride in being Muslim. Implications for research and intervention are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Религия и ее значение в социокультурном бытии человека: духовно-практические смыслы семейно-родовой памяти

The connecting elements of the spirituality and religiosity of the individual are social meanings. The human mind rests on them in moments of truth. The authors analyze the basic foundation of spirituality of an individual - the family-patrimonial memory of the Siberian community. This is an element of spiritual life, capable of constructing social and cultural ethical meanings, determining the fate of people, comprehending one’s existence. Meaning is an epistemological value. It acts as a reference point for the need for a person’s religious choice. Family and tribal memory has a stabilizing cultural-creative function necessary for the reproduction and maintenance of the social order, enshrined in spiritual practices. Family and tribal memory is defined by the authors as a system of ideas, stereotypes, united by a value-semantic core (family solidarity in understanding one’s historical identity) with the spiritual and activity bases of mental structures for assessing the dynamics of historical events, filled with a variety of personal meanings at the level of semantic functions and variability of semantic interpretations. Family-patrimonial memory is narrative. The study of family mnemonic narratives allowed the authors to determine the significance of sociocultural trauma in the evolution of understanding of their religiosity by members of the Siberian territorial community. The array of interviews with the older generation of Siberians was divided into thematic clusters containing the semantic positions of performing spiritual practices or refusing them. These meanings are passed on by older generations to their grandchildren as a symbolic spiritual capital that influences the behavior of young members of the community. The unity of religiosity and the inconsistency of the content of social memory is devoted to the author’s study of the attitude towards religion of the multi-confessional Siberian community.

The phenomenon of Giampaolo Panza in the Discourse of collective trauma of Post-war Italy

The subject of the study is collective trauma and its manifestations in post-war Italy. The definition of collective trauma is given on the basis of the works of sociologists and its characteristics. The purpose and novelty of the work is to explain the "phenomenality" of the journalist and historian Giampaolo Pansa. The contribution he made to the Italian consciousness after the release of the books "Children of the Eagle" and "Blood of the Vanquished", devoted to methods of retaliation against fascist arbitrariness during the Italian Civil War of 1943-1945, consists in explaining the bilateral collective trauma that arose as a consequence of the ideology of fascism, affecting both its supporters and its opponents. The main conclusion of the study is the following. The method of J. Alexander's cultural sociology enriched with the existential grief of A.I. Etkind is analyzed. The meaning of socio-cultural trauma can be determined by answering the questions about what crisis events we are talking about, who is responsible for them, what are the consequences of traumatic actions. Turning these questions into a narrative is the most important problem for anthropology. The meaning of socio-cultural trauma can be determined by answering the questions about what crisis events we are talking about, who is responsible for them, what are the consequences of traumatic actions. Turning these questions into a narrative is the most important problem for anthropology.

Трансформация классической лагерной прозы в новейшей отечественной литературе

Introduction. In the classic sense, forced labor camp prose includes fiction and documentary texts created by immediate participants of the events described (Stalin’s purges of the 1920s–1950s), and thus being usually autobiographical by nature. The bulk of such prose works were created in the 1950s–1970s by such writers as A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Shalamov, E. Ginsburg, Yu. Dombrovsky, A. Zhigulin, etc. Goals. The paper attempts an analysis of features inherent to manifestations of the forced labor camp theme in contemporary Russian fiction, and relates such texts to existing visions of such prose. Results. As is evident, there can be no camp prose — in the mentioned sense — in 21st-century Russian literature but the sociocultural trauma experienced by individuals (and communities) proves so deep and fundamental for their consciousness and subconsciousness that it persists in Russian literary discourse to date. Family memories, archival documents, search for identity, keen interest in national and regional history, official and social mythology give birth to various author’s strategies of addressing this sensitive issue and working with it. These yield narratives that greatly vary in authors’ ideological and aesthetic viewpoints and give rise to enormous — and sometimes violent — controversy in contemporary cultural environment.

Wiedza wyciszana i jej status w strukturze środowisk wychowawczych - wybrane perspektywy teoretyczne

Introduction : The topic of analysis is socio-cultural practices of silencing and the status of unwanted and denied knowledge in the curriculum structure. Paradigmaticallly analyses are enrooted in the new sociology of education. In the structure of the paper there are distinguished three parts: the first one is focused on the chosen practices of silencing components of common knowledge, the topic of the second part is silencing the contents related to the socio-cultural trauma, the third one is related to the status of silenced contents in the structure of power. Research Aim : The analysis aims to emphasise the main theoretical perspectives and net of notions characteristic for the studies on silenced knowledge as well as indicating the views of applying theoretical matrices in identifying spaces of silencing in the curriculum. Evidence-based Facts : Studies on silencing processes are enrooted in the new sociology of education paradigm. They correspond with the research related to educational inequalities (of access to schools and chances of academic success) experienced by youth representing different identity features (related to ethnicity, gender, position in the stratification structure). In the studies characteristic for the new sociology of education, research was also focused on the characteristics of content transmitted in the curriculum. Realised since 70s, research has been related to discursive practices stimulating students’ educational activity or discouraging them from academic success. Mentioned issues correspond with the sociology of knowledge, collective memory and socio-cultural trauma. Summary : In the studies focused on the problems of silencing it is justified to consider theoretical matrices and nets of notions characteristic for the studies on collective memory, resistance, socio-cultural trauma. Mentioned components help identify practices of silencing the content and identities. They have application in the process of comprehension of the basis and aetiology of silencing strategies.

Integrating Sociocultural Trauma and Context in Conceptualizations of Attachment

ABSTRACT Bruce Herzog offers an important elaboration of a parent’s refusal to let go of a child and the subsequent psychological burden placed on the child. The pain of separation is underscored as the child must negotiate differentiation at a cost of losing connection to an overly demanding parent. This commentary focuses on the role of traumatic stress on parent-child attachments and the integration of sociocultural context into psychoanalytic conceptualizations of attachment and separation-individuation. In particular, I emphasize that a parent’s and a child’s ability to separate while maintaining loving connection with each other is dependent on specific conditions rooted in sociocultural context. I offer some considerations that extend Dr. Herzog’s analysis, calling attention to variations in sociocultural perspectives concerning separation-individuation.

The Sociocultural Trauma of Forced Migration and Displacement

Trauma occurs when individuals or groups encounter a horrific experience that leads to enduring imprints on their consciousness and memory, and results in a crucial alteration in how they perceive their identity, social surrounding, and even their future. The concept of trauma is firmly connected to war, conflict, and forced migration. Refugees face catastrophic life events when everything breaks apart. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in exploring trauma from different approaches, including sociological ones. Therefore, this article aims to review, explore, and analyze the concepts of cultural trauma, collective identity, and social trauma regarding the issue of refugees’ forced migration. The first part of the study focuses on reviewing related literature on cultural trauma and collective identity. Then, I investigate the concept of social trauma by considering forced migration, the host communities, the identity of forced migrants, and the role of the carrier groups. In this way, I attempt to present a comprehensive analysis of forced displacement from a sociocultural perspective.

Socio-Cultural Trauma and Gender Objectification in Haider's How It Happened: A Cultural Feminist Study

The research aims to pinpoint the socio-cultural suppressive crisis faced by the Pakistani women and tends to evaluate the standards through which Pakistani women are (mis)recognized through Shazaf Fatima Haider's How It Happened (2012). It focuses upon the internalized social norms regarding women's conduct to achieve perfection and a state of acceptability which have terrifyingly placed a question mark upon women's existence. Zeba, being the protagonist of How It Happened, undergoes anunnerving situation, being continuously displayed as an object for her marriage. Simone de Beauvoir's cultural feminist ideologies in her work, The Second Sex(1997), tend to deconstruct falsely existing cultural archetypes. She illustrates in her work the transformative stages of women's life beginning from the oppressive state towards the protesting state. Consequently, celebrating women's strength by acknowledging biological differences. Through the methodological application of a Textual analytical apparatus, this research tends to reverse the suppressive patriarchal patterns, bringing women from the periphery to the center, also providing a voice to silenced women entangled in the fabricated culture.

Социальные науки и глобальная турбулентность: перезагрузка мейнстрима

After the collapse of the bipolar world, the neoliberal mainstream emerged in the global hierarchy of social sciences, built on three axiomatic pillars: Western domination, capitalism (free market) and liberalism (the value of individual autonomy). Nowadays, one can more and more often witness criticism and disintegration of the mainstream, which claimed the universality of descriptions and legitimation of modern societies that have reached the end of history in the form of open-access liberal market democracies. The purpose of the article is to find out how transformations of the prevailing political and economic orders, configurations of the subjects of geopolitical dominance and their legitimate metaphors determine the direction of changes in the social sciences mainstream. The hypothesis of the research is that the prevailing principles of stratification and distribution of public resources will be less and less valuable and institutionally related to capitalism, market and democracy, since an appeal to the latter does not lead to an increase in the available opportunities for the majority of the population in practice. The global change in social ontology, the structure of economic reproduction and legitimate foundations of the political order bring about a drop in the credibility and relevance of mainstream concepts focused on the axiomatics of market values and liberal rhetoric. Intellectual attempts to restore the relevance of the neoliberal mainstream through the construction of local utopias (flat world, creative class, knowledge economy, etc.), the introduction of complementary concepts of civil repair (J. Alexander), sociocultural trauma (P. Shtompka), unworthy government (bad governance), dependence on previous development (path dependence) or gauge (N. Rozov) do not save from growing conceptual stretch. Formation of a society without tangible economic growth and a declining need for mass labor leads to the inevitable transformation of the mainstream. Alternative and peripheral theories that describe the contours of a global future mainly in non-market, non-capitalist and, possibly, non-liberal categories are becoming more influential. These are concepts that fix new formats for the distribution of public resources, less and less connected with the market, democracy and hegemony of the West, but increasingly – with rental mechanisms, distributive political regulation and differentiated value of different social groups for the national state. Acknowledgements. The article has been supported by a grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Expert Institute of Social Research (“опн”). Project no. 20-011-31025 “Alternatives to Political Mainstream amidst the Crisis of the Global World Order”.

Społeczno-kulturowe imaginaria epidemii i ich reprezentacje – wybrane matryce teoretyczne eksploracji

The topic of analysis are socio-cultural imaginaries of the pandemic. The assumption is that the pandemic may be characterized by reference to the imaginaries and system of knowledge related to the disease as well as is located in modern and postmodern imaginaries of risk, post-Anthropocentrism and trajectory of socio-cultural trauma creation process. The socio-cultural exemplifications of the presented thesis are transmitted by the media representations of the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper is composed of three main parts. The first one analyses the notions of an imaginary and socio-cultural trauma representation, the second part presents in the light of sociological and humanistic theories some selected exemplifications of pandemic representations and the third part is a summary.

«Имея пропитание, и одежду, и кров, удовлетворимся этим»

The article is devoted to the survival strategies of the population of the rear territories (drawing on the example of Molotov region) during the Great Patriotic War. The article is based on the methodology of sociocultural trauma. The strategies for biological adaptation to trauma associated with the need for physical self-preservation (food search, housing, providing clothes) are revealed. The narrative sources were used for the study: memories of eyewitnesses of the events: children of the war, home front workers; oral interviews were also involved, as well as written memoirs. As a result of the study it`s possible to conclude that the mechanisms of social adaptation of an individual in the conditions of the war trauma helped to survive in the rear with a shortage of food, a lack of comfortable living conditions, difficulties in providing clothes, as well as the need to work hard and be separated from relatives. Adaptation to the traumatic situation was associated with the need to adapt to difficulties and hardships as a survival strategy. The efforts of people were addressed at this time, first of all, to the issues of biological survival: providing food, shelter and clothing. The food shortage led to the fact that the state of hunger became constant, despite the existence of both state food supply strategies and self-sufficiency mechanisms that were actively used by the population. However, the search for food in the form of “sacking” was faced with tough prohibitive measures by government agencies. During the war, the housing situation in the rear deteriorated sharply, a large number of evacuated settled in existing residential areas. There were mainly state strategies for the distribution of living space: “compaction” and the construction of temporary housing – barracks and dugouts, which in general made it possible to adapt to the trauma of the war and allowed to survive in war conditions. Since the enterprises provided workers with work clothes, work clothes were becoming usual cloth for dailylife. Clothing was restored, changed, made in a handicraft way. Generally, adaptation to sociocultural trauma at the biological level for the population of the rear territories occurred on the verge of physical survival.

Researching the Effectiveness of Tree of Life: an Imbeleko Approach to Counseling Refugee Youth.

With the growing worldwide refugee crisis, there is a need for evidence-based interventions that specifically deal with the consequences of cumulative trauma-exposure in refugee youth. Refugee children have unique service needs and differ from their non-refugee peers in terms of sociocultural trauma, language, culture, and educational barriers. This article explains the complexities associated with understanding refugee youth and presents a proposal for studying the possible benefits of Tree of Life therapy. At the present time, Tree of Life therapy has no evidence-base because the published studies of Tree of Life with refugee and/or immigrant youth have sample sizes of one, six, eight, and twenty-nine. As a culturally-grounded, strength-based group counseling approach, Tree of Life therapy addresses traumatic experiences, recognizes participants' cultural differences, highlights individual skills, and aids in instilling both confidence and hope for the future. Ncazelo Ncube, the co-founder and main developer of Tree of Life, describes this therapy as a collective narrative practice that considers cultural beliefs and values (2006, 2010, 2018, 2019). The proposed research design is to study the effectiveness of the Tree of Life in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The research plan is to use pragmatic, group-randomized controlled trials in the "real world" settings of schools and agencies in each of the four countries. In addition, the article describes the development of the Roots and Wings Questionnaire for Children and Youth, a culturally relevant, child-friendly questionnaire. The Tree of Life is a readily available therapy with great potential for helping traumatized refugee youth as well as other trauma-impacted young people worldwide.

Consumer valorization strategies in traumatic extraordinary experiences

A cancer diagnosis can mark the beginning of one of the most resource-demanding experiences and traumatic journeys of one’s life. Surprisingly, little is known about how consumers assign value, namely valorize, in these complex, extraordinary experiences. Using sociocultural trauma perspectives and a qualitative study of cancer health consumers, we demonstrate that consumers valorize through the (re)construction of trauma memories and use three strategies: metaphorical framing, flesh-witnessing, and commemorating. These enable consumers to construct an enduring life story, to claim authority and knowledge of witnessing trauma, and to honor and preserve meanings and memories. We demonstrate that consumer valorization in a non-hedonic context is fluid, continuous, and embedded in broader sociocultural contexts. These findings contribute to the literatures of value, extraordinary experiences, and trauma.

Trauma transformacji w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej

Artykuł prezentuje wyniki badań nad traumą społeczno-kulturową w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej. Do weryfikacji teorii traumy zostały wykorzystane reprezentatywne dane sondażowe z Białorusi, Bułgarii, Węgier, Rumunii, Polski, Rosji i Ukrainy. Prowadzone analizy pokazały, że społeczeństwo postkomunistyczne negatywnie oceniło zmiany systemu gospodarczego i politycznego. Źródłem trau­my był spadek poziomu życia oraz wzrost przestępczości. Respondenci uważali, że w wyniku transformacji stracili na zmianach i pod wpływem powstałej traumy pesymistycznie oceniali przyszłość. Rekcją na pojawiającą się traumę była nostalgia za socjalizmem i bezpieczeństwem społecznym przezeń oferowanym. Czynnikami łagodzącymi szok w społeczeństwie postkomunistycznym było wykształcenie, młodszy wiek i orientacja proeuropejska.

Holokausto užmarštis kaip istorinis procesas: vabalninkiečių atminties atvejis

Straipsnyje pristatomas Vabalninko miestelio gyventojų atminties (nuo XX a. ketvirto dešimtmečio iki 2014 m.) apie kadaise gausiai čia gyvenusią žydų bendruomenę tyrimas. Interviu ir turinio analizės metodais surinkti duomenys leido atskleisti procesą, kurio metu miestelyje susiformavo dabartinė užmaršties ir neartikuliuoto nepatogumo būsena. Ją lėmė paties Holokausto sociokultūrinis trauminis efektas ir fundamentalūs demografiniai pokyčiai sovietmečiu, neskatinę tapatybės paieškų praeityje.

100 Years of Trauma: the Armenian Genocide and Intergenerational Cultural Trauma

ABSTRACTThe events of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, during which more than 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, has left a deep, painful scar on this small but prominent culture. Those who lived through the Armenian Genocide survived death marches, rapes, drownings, physical mutilation, and other such heinous crimes. As they have passed, it is being recognized that subsequent generations continue to fight for justice, manifesting their ancestral pain, sadness, and mourning for the loss of their family members. As sociocultural trauma has a multigenerational impact within families and communities and affects the feeling of membership and belonging within that community, understanding how previous traumas shape future generations of that group is important for clinicians. This article reviews the scarce research on intergenerational trauma in the Armenian community within the United States after the Armenian Genocide, using the constructivist self-development theory to provide clinical implications and suggestions.

“You have a secret that you don't want to tell me”: The Child as Trauma in Spanish and American Horror Film

“You have a secret that you don't want to tell me”: The Child as Trauma in Spanish and American Horror Film

Восприятие Майдана: социально-экономические основания идентичности в постсовременном обществе

Oleksiy Musiyezdov suggests that Euromaidan should be viewed as a “bourgeois revolution” driven by entrepreneurs and the creative class interested in self-realization within the context of global capitalism. While elaborating on this thesis, Musiyezdov reaches several important conclusions that far exceed the scope of his initial hypothesis. First, he notes that as a result of the Euromaidan revolution, the inclusive political concept of nation has taken over the exclusive, ethnocultural understanding of Ukrainness. Second, he observes the surge of social responsibility and initiative of citizens, as reflected in the volunteer movement, mutual assistance, and cooperation. Musiyezdov makes another important point in explaining the discontent in the Southeast regions of Ukraine that are most affected by separatist and counterrevolutionary attitudes and by the sociocultural trauma of structural deindustrialization in this former center of Ukraine’s industry.

Education as Catalyst for Intergenerational Refugee Family Communication About War and Trauma

This article describes influences on intergenerational communication within refugee families about sociocultural trauma and explores how education may positively affect this communication process. Drawing on qualitative research and grounded theory through a larger study concerning intergenerational effects of and communication about trauma in Cambodian American refugee families, this article highlights ways that education may contribute to healing broken narratives within refugee families affected by war and genocide. Although focusing on Cambodian American experiences, we suggest that the role of education may be similarly helpful in facilitating intergenerational communication for other individuals with personal and familial experiences with trauma, such as students from refugee families who have fled Vietnam, Somalia, Bosnia, and other sites of forced migration.

Clinical Tools to Facilitate Treatment of Childhood Traumatic Grief

Cohen and Mannarino (2004) define childhood traumatic grief (CTG) as “a condition in which trauma symptoms impinge on children's ability to negotiate the normal grieving process” (p. 819). Brown and Goodman (2005) add further clarification, “According to our current understanding of CTG and normal grief, thoughts and images of a traumatic nature are so terrifying, horrific, and anxiety provoking that they cause the child to avoid and shut out these thoughts and images that would be comforting reminders of the person who died. In contrast, a child who does not have intrusive reminders, or who did not experience the death as traumatic, is able to access the person in memory in a manner that is positive and beneficial to integrating the death in his or her total life experience” (pp. 255, 257). The distressing and intrusive images, reminders, and thoughts of the traumatic circumstances of the death, along with the physiological hyperarousal associated with such re-experiencing, prevent the child from proceeding in a healthy way with the grieving process. In addition, while such children are ordinarily excluded from studies of empirically validated treatment studies because of severity and co-morbidity of their conditions, clinicians often see youngsters where traumatic death has been superimposed on a history of multiple losses and in some cases socio-cultural trauma and/or major psychiatric disorders in the child or family. The projective drawing and storytelling strategies and the evocative technique described in this article are intended to offer clinicians additional tools to deal with such seriously impacted youth so that the trauma work can be approached in the relative safety of symbolism and metaphor prior to directly confronting the trauma events.