Out of the ordinary: research participants’ experiences of sharing the ‘insignificant’

How do research participants feel about having their ‘ordinary’ lives researched? This article focuses on how research participants manage the sharing of details emerging out of their ordinary lives in the context of research – an activity which, for most, is outside of the ordinary. Despite two significant research turns – towards reflexivity and towards the ‘everyday’ – these experiences remain curiously neglected. Drawing on a study of small acts of help and support, I seek to push methodological debate about researching the ordinary beyond the technical challenges of surfacing or capturing the apparently mundane or ‘insignificant’. I do so by arguing that background feelings rooted in the living of, and sharing about, the ordinary are analytically important in their own right; that the ‘ordinary’ itself, therefore, has to be managed by research participants and researchers; and that Goffman’s notion of performance is a useful tool for understanding how this is done.     

Stress and Performance Standards: A Dynamic Approach to Time Spent in Housework

Daily logs collected over a 10‐week period from a small, nonrepresentative sample of young, childless married couples were examined. Housework was conceptualized as a daily decision predicated upon personal standards, social rhythms, and stress variables that shape the perception of need for housework. Findings indicate that home‐based stress, stress from outside the home, and standards are independent, additive predictors of housework time. In addition, stress and standards interact in ways suggesting that stress modifies the meaning of performance. High home‐based stress and low imported stress lead to more critical evaluations of ones' own performance and more monitoring of one's spouse's contributions. Husbands do more when wives do more, but only when wives import little stress from outside the home or perceive high demand for housework. Results are interpreted in terms of patterns of meaning and obligation.     

人民币汇率对我国原木进口价格的传递效应研究——基于汇率制度改革的视角

汇率是影响一国贸易价格的重要因素,原木是我国重要的原材料和进口产品,其进口价格对国内木材市场和林产工业具有重大影响,研究人民币汇率对我国原木进口价格的传递效应是探索国内木材市场价格变动规律的基础和重要依据。基于2004年1月至2019年6月的月度数据,同时考虑汇率制度改革的影响,运用自回归分布滞后模型研究人民币实际有效汇率对我国原木进口价格的长期和短期传递效应。结果表明,人民币汇率变动会引起原木进口价格反方向的变动;短期内汇率传递不完全,长期内汇率传递过度;人民币汇率制度改革对原木进口价格的汇率传递效应有影响,但作用较小。最后,提出了建立木材市场价格监测预警体系,加强国内木材储备林基地建设,促进原木的进口市场分散化程度等政策建议。