Social Movements and Ethnographic Methodologies: An Analysis Using Case Study Examples

This paper defines and discusses the viability and applicability of specific ethnographic methods for the study and theorising of social movements and related social mobilisation. Ethnographic methods are shown to be one tool in a box of available methods, but are perhaps especially suited for the in‐depth study of social movements and social networks. Pros and cons of such methods are identified, using examples drawn from an ethnographic narrative comprising over a decade of research; ethnography of UK environmental direct activists, and more recent ethnography of UK publics engaging with human genetic technologies. Ethnography enables developments in latent social interactions to be identified in the field, providing data sources that inform social analysis and the development of theoretical stakes. This ethnographic narrative has contributed to the theorising of complexity in movement collective identity and complex social mobilisation patterns; namely the theorising of social movement. Findings can be disseminated to a range of stakeholders, including the research participants. Thus, ethnography can be both a method for studying social movements and a means of ‘upstream’ public engagement, understanding what is happening at the grassroots, with the aim of enabling capacity building between all actors in the research process. This methodological rationale is defined as ‘action research’.     

Negotiating and Practicing Performance: An Ethnographic Study of a Musical Open Mic in Brooklyn,New York

This qualitative study explores amateur musicians and their performance negotiations at a weekly “open mic” in Brooklyn, New York. These musicians and their performance negotiations are juxtaposed against the larger cultural structures of musical scenes and musical art worlds. Opportunities and pathways are few for amateur musicians to practice and negotiate the craft of performance. This study examines the negotiation of the presumed boundaries between musical practice and performance within an open mic scene constructed by and for amateur musicians who are marginal to the larger musical art world.     

The New Immigrants and the Making of a Multicultural Society: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Ethnographic Approaches

This article discusses the work and personal experience of the exile, Egyptian novelist and short story writer, Albert Cossery. Selections of his prose which revealingly portray lower class life in Egypt in the first half of the twentieth century are considered, granting us a candid view of life as lived by the masses of Egyptians during this period. Also investigated is Cossery's personal development as an Egyptian Greek Catholic intellectual whose education and cultural inclination predisposed him to write in French. His life is of particular interest because it mirrors some typical dilemmas faced by minority intellectuals during the transformation of a developing nation from foreign rule to national independence.     

城镇化快速发展时期新型农村社区建设实践研究

近年来,随着城镇化进程的加快,新型农村社区发展迅速。新型农村社区建设以节约土地为动力,提高农民生活水平为目标,营造一种新的社会生活形态。通过以四川省成都市、江苏省苏南地区、浙江省嘉兴市、天津市等地的新型农村社区建设实践为例进行分析,研究其主要特点和经验。在此基础上,总结出政府主导、推进土地规模经营、农业产业转型、城乡资源统一配置、土地制度创新等有益启示,以推动新型农村建设的健康发展。     

Neighborhood Wisdom: An Ethnographic Study of Localized Street Knowledge

Qualitative Sociology - There is a dearth of research on the characteristics, value, and scope of street knowledge. The few studies that exist suggest that, once acquired, street knowledge is used...     

Emerging Rural Settlement Patterns and the Geographic Redistribution of America's New Immigrants*

Abstract This paper analyzes geographic patterns of population concentration and deconcentration among the foreign‐born population during the 1990–2000 period. A goal is to examine whether the foreign‐born population, including recent arrivals, are dispersing geographically from metro gateway cities into rural and other less densely populated parts of the country. The paper also evaluates the so‐called balkanization hypothesis, which is that immigration flows run counter‐cyclical to the redistribution trends of the native‐born population, while reinforcing spatial isolation and immigrant segregation. Data for U.S. counties or county equivalents come from the 1990 and 2000 U.S. Census (Summary Files 1, 3 and 4). Our results suggest that America's immigrant population is dispersing spatially. Immigrants are less concentrated today than in the past and they are less segregated from other population groups, including their own racial group and whites. However, changes over the past decade have been modest. The immigrant population, even in 2000, remained considerably more concentrated than the native‐born population. The empirical results provide little evidence of geographic balkanization.     

Between Spatial and Social Segregation among Immigrants: The Case of Immigrants from the FSU in Israel

Studies on immigrants' residential concentration have reported mixed findings. Some have argued that immigrants' residential concentration is a necessary step in the process of their social integration because there the newcomers find housing and employment opportunities as well as social support. As they learn the language and improve their socioeconomic status, they move to neighborhoods where they share space with the native population. Others have argued that the ethnic neighborhood delays the process of social integration in the new society because it nurtures informal ethnic social networks that provide incomplete information and retard the process of language acquisition. The study reported here investigated the effect of motivations, perceptions of attitudes of the host society, acculturation and socioeconomic factors on immigrants' residential concentration. It also sought to expand previous research by examining the relationship between immigrants'residential concentration and social relationships with nonimmigrants. Data for the study were collected in 1999 through a survey of immigrants from the FSU who had settled in one northern city in Israel after 1989. The results show a negative relationship of socioeconomic status and fluency in Hebrew with the percentage of immigrants residing in a given neighborhood. The higher the socioeconomic status and the more fluent the immigrant in Hebrew, the lower the percentage of immigrants in his or her neighborhood. Immigrants who expressed a proactive motivation for migration resided in neighborhoods with a low percentage of immigrants. Immigrants' residential concentration was not found to be related to the development of social relationships with the local population. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Immigrants and ‘New Poverty’: The Case of Canada1

Studies of the economic status of recent immigrants to the United States have questioned the generalizability of some earlier findings based on assimilation theory. In Canada, however, little research has been done on this issue, and that has left mixed results. The present study attempts to address the economic performance of immigrants in Canada through an examination of their poverty status. This is particularly important now because, since the late 1980s, many industrial nations including Canada have been subjected to an unexpected surge of poverty known as ‘new poverty.’ The findings indicate that immigrants in Canada are consistently overrepresented among the poor; that their poverty rates are particularly high in larger cities, which have larger concentrations of immigrants; and that among immigrants, the poverty rates are higher for visible minorities, who are mostly recent immigrants. One particularly surprising finding was that the second‐generation immigrants, who were expected to outperform their parents, had higher poverty rates. A series of logistic regression models are developed to shed some light on the possible reasons behind these trends. Of the three sets of potential contributors – human capital, assimilation and structural factors – the first two were found more relevant. The models also revealed that the human capital factors were less rewarding for immigrants than natives.     

Alternative Economic Strategies in Low‐Income Rural Communities: TANF,Labor Migration,and the Case of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation*

Abstract The premise of current welfare policies is that recipients are avoiding work and that requiring work will end welfare dependency. Unemployment is equated with labor market inexperience and economic inactivity. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a poor rural community with high unemployment, contradicts these assumptions. Many Lakota individuals have off‐reservation wage work experience; there simply are not enough local jobs to absorb their human capital. Lakota households, however, are involved in a complex combination of socially embedded economic activities outside wage work. Imposing the premises of TANF on Pine Ridge results in indirect pressures toward urban migration and cultural assimilation. Furthermore, by imposing rigid notions of work, TANF runs the risk of destroying the economic flexibility that makes survival possible for poor households in Pine Ridge. Welfare and development policies need to reflect the real economies of rural American Indian reservations rather than those of superficially assimilated and economically imagined communities.     

城郊社区外来工文化生活状况的调查研究——以浙江绍兴城郊社区为例

关注城市农民工生活现状,保障他们的合法权益,使他们在异乡能安居乐业,更好地为当地经济建设和社会发展服务,深受各级政府组织关注。本调查的关注点是城郊社区外来工的文化生活状况。调查显示,该市城郊社区外来工收入相对较高,但影响外来工文化生活质量的主、客观因素依然存在,仍迫切需要政府、社会和用工单位的关心帮助和积极引导。     

Social Contacts and the Economic Performance of Immigrants: A Panel Study of Immigrants in Germany

Using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we examined the impact of social contacts on immigrant occupational status and income. In addition to general social contacts, we also analyzed the effects of bonding (i.e., co‐ethnic) and bridging (i.e., inter‐ethnic) ties on economic outcomes. Results show that general social contacts have a positive effect on the occupational status and, in particular, annual income of immigrants. We also find that bridging ties with Germans lead to higher occupational status, but not to increased income. These effects remain visible even when social contacts are measured (at least) 1 year prior to the economic outcomes, as well as when earlier investments in German human capital are considered. Finally, we show that co‐ethnic concentration in the region of residence weakly affects economic returns to German language proficiency and schooling.     

Social Construction of Cultural Identity: An Ethnographic Study of Korean American Students

Identity is regarded as a cultural and historical product of constant negotiation processes influenced by specific social and cultural contexts. This study examines Korean American students' ethnic identities in terms of peer group, family, and media influences. A "thick analysis" based on 6-month participant observations and interviews in two Korean American communities was undertaken. Although they were born and grew up in the United States, most of the interviewees at both universities expressed that they were Korean (or Korean American) rather than American. Specifically, it was found that their family played an important role in teaching them the Korean language and customs in the early period of identity construction. Following, Korean videos, mobile phones, and the Internet were the main media through which these Korean Americans learned about Korean culture and society, and increased intra-ethnic communication within the diasporic Korean American community context.     

New Patterns of Internal Migration in Emigrant‐Sending Communities: the Case of China

Despite the large number of migrants at both international and internal scales in developing countries, literature on building the links between the two migration processes is still lacking. Using survey data from China's Fujian Province, we elaborate a novel link between international and internal migration processes by examining the response of internal migration to international migration in the migrant origins. Our findings suggest that emigration of one individual initially deterred the internal migration of other family members. Yet, over time individuals from emigrant‐related households had an increasing propensity to migrate internally. During the internal migration process, emigrants’ family members received greater financial returns and had reached farther destinations than other internal migrants. Those emigrant‐related internal migrants with enhanced economic profiles would benefit their domestic destinations in a variety of ways. These benefits support a more optimistic view on the impact of international migration on the development of migrant‐sending countries.     

The Volunteer Citizen After Welfare Reform in the United States: An Ethnographic Study of Volunteerism in Action

In the United States, neoliberal strategies for social, economic, and state organization have been accompanied by frequent calls for volunteers to solve serious social problems. A case study of a community mobilization of middle-class volunteers to provide one-on-one support to families in poverty shows both possibilities and limitations. Volunteers provide social support to families in poverty, thus alleviating social isolation. Volunteers learn about systemic forces that cause poverty, its effects on families and communities, and about themselves and their capacities to engage in poverty work. However, social isolation is but one of many problems associated with poverty, and even a more knowledgeable amateur volunteer corps cannot take the place of substantial social, economic, and political change.