From “Swinging Hard” to “Rocking Out”: Classification of Style and the Creation of Identity in the World of Drumming

This article takes a social constructionist approach to the study of a seldom considered subculture—the “world” of drumming. I describe this subculture from both the “etic” and “emic” perspectives, showing how drummers and drumming are perceived and experienced by the musicians themselves (insiders) as well as the “outside” public. The main focus is on the drummers' intersubjective “mental maps” of their world, specifically exploring how they create musical and personal identities by adhering to a rigid classification scheme surrounding “styles” of drumming. I demonstrate how drummers use drumming equipment, personal appearance, education, and “purist” attitudes to separate styles of drumming and to construct distinct social selves. Of special interest is how drummers are cognitively socialized into “thought communities” which teach and reinforce attitudinal and behavioral norms. I conclude with a discussion of the possibilities of applying my analytical framework to other worlds of music and art, as well as some forms of occupational and avocational specialization.     

The meaning of family-like care among operators of small board and care homes

Thirty-six operators of small board and care homes were interviewed to explore how they conceptualize the care that they provide to frail, elderly persons. The meanings these operators attach to the care they provide reveal, through stories of “why” and “how” they provide care, both shared meanings and dimensions of difference in how they view their work. A range of motivations (the “why” of care), from altruism to economics, combine with varied styles of service delivery (the “how” of care), from full domestic integration to separate domains, to create a typology of meanings in this form of residential care. Implications of these dimensions for quality of care and social policy are derived from this typology.     

“Not everything that counts can be counted”: Assessing ‘success’ of EU external migration policy

In the context of the ongoing “migration crisis” the externalization of EU migration policy has continued. EU policy documents argue that cooperation with non‐EU countries is essential in order to manage migration flows. But how successful is this policy? The public policy literature teaches us that “policy success” can be defined in varying ways: as goal achievement; as political success; in terms of norms; in terms of the costs associated with the policy; temporally; and in the light of external factors. An application of this analytical framework to the EU Mobility Partnerships uncovers conceptual and methodological challenges, and above all highlights the need for evaluation of EU external migration policy to be taken more seriously.     

Prom Dreams and Prom Reality: Girls Negotiating “Perfection” at the High School Prom*

Adolescent girls are often assumed to be extremely vulnerable to media influences; however, this study argues that girls actually negotiate meaning from media texts. Content analysis of teen prom magazines is combined with ethnography to explore how magazine texts operate within their readers’ worlds. This article argues against two commonly accepted dictates. First, I propose that popular magazines for adolescent girls are more complicated than previously acknowledged and do not rely on a singular message of perfection derived from beauty and heterosexual romance. And second, how girls engage with the magazines is more complicated than prior research has argued; girls use “strategic selectivity” (a term proposed to explain how girls make meaning of cultural texts) to negotiate the dominant meanings found in prom magazines and other cultural texts.     

“I Stay by Myself”: Social Support,Distrust, and Selective Solidarity Among the Urban Poor

Significant debate exists about whether the black urban poor rely on each other for support. Currently, two perspectives dominate: the pervasive solidarity perspective, which asserts that support is widespread in poor, black communities, and the distrust‐individualism perspective, which claims that, in these communities, pervasive distrust undermines social cohesion and people use individualistic strategies for solving problems. Based on fieldwork in an African American public housing development, I present the concept of selective solidarity, which suggests that social life in these communities is neither as cohesive nor as individualistic as what past perspectives suggest. With selective solidarity, people rely on one another for support but selectively choose exchange partners, restricting exchange networks. Selective solidarity helps us understand how people manage sentiments of distrust while developing strategies for coping with material deprivation. Findings also have implications for the study of urban poverty. While my informants frequently stated that they “stay by themselves,” which implies individualism, they actually have meaningful exchange relationships. I argue that this contradiction suggests that they have multiple frames for approaching social life. We must consider such frames to avoid drawing misinformed conclusions, such as that the urban poor do not have supportive relationship when in fact they do.     

“I'm the Next American Idol”: Cooling Out,Accounts, and Perseverance at Reality Talent Show Auditions

Drawing on fieldwork at American Idol auditions, I describe how contestants come to accept their fate after being cut from the competition. I revisit Goffman's metaphor of “cooling the mark out,” especially the cooling out strategy of offering people another chance to qualify for roles at which they failed. Contestants' desires to audition and audition again after failure are driven by meritocratic ideals. They develop accounts in line with these ideals to explain how despite being rejected they are talented and can still excel in the future. This study contributes to literature on “cooling out” by highlighting how people draw on larger systems of meaning—ideologies supporting meritocratic values in the case of Idol contestants—when making sense of their failures.     

INTERPRETING THE SOCIOLOGICAL CLASSICS: CAN THERE BE A “TRUE” MEANING OF MEAD?

Many sociologists have tried in vain to find the “true” meaning of the classic works in the discipline. An interactionist perspective suggests that this search is not a valid one for sociologists, especially symbolic interactionists. Although there can be no “true” meaning, some authors use conventions of writing that make their work more or less clear. Using Mead's Mind, Self and Society as an example, we discuss the dimensions of clarity. We then argue that the sociological classics should be read to (I) simulate new theories and research (pragmatic analysis), (2) determine how sociologists have used that classic to support or refute particular theories or perspectives (rhetorical analysis), and (3) provide information about the sociological concerns of the author and his/her contemporaries (historical analysis).     

THE FAMILY CRISIS INTERVENTION LITERATURE: WHAT IS MEANT BY “FAMILY”?*

Family crisis intervention is a rapidly growing area of clinical care in family therapy which lacks clear conceptualization, especially with respect to how “family” fits into crisis intervention theory. This paper integrates recent concepts from the family therapy literature into three views: family as background, family as context, and family as a unit. The family crisis intervention literature (56 publications) is reviewed and categorized according to these three views. Clarity in how “family” is viewed and consistency between theory and practice are examined. Recommendations for improving the conceptualization of “family” in family crisis intervention theory and practice are made.     

Considering Alternate Sources of Role Identity: Childless Parents and Their Animal “Kids”

Identity theory posits that role identity is negotiated between human social actors and is based in broader cultural expectations about how particular statuses should be performed. I argue that the formation of role identity in actors can also occur in relationship to nonhuman actors, if they are perceived as minded. Depending on context and human perception, identity can be formed as a result of interaction and developing “theory of mind” with nonhuman animals, directly implicating the animal. Using in‐depth interviews of childless and childfree companion animal owners, I demonstrate the existence of a parent identity in childless participants that would not otherwise be present were it not for interaction with the animal “child.” This identity is confirmed in participant narratives describing substantial behavioral output aligned with the U.S. cultural ideal of “parent.” Likewise, I find that significant others provide external support for the enactment of this role identity, allowing participants to verify self‐in‐situation. Overall, my analysis emphasizes the importance of considering nonhuman sources as occupying counterstatus positions in the formation of role identity while highlighting how these relationships affect interaction in the childfree and childless home, thus expanding scholarly understanding about both identity formation and emerging family types.     

Second‐Generation “Return” to Greece: New Dynamics of Transnationalism and Integration

Based on in‐depth narrative interviews with 64 second‐generation Greek‐Germans and Greek‐Americans who have “returned” to Greece, this article explores intersections between return, transnationalism and integration. Having grown up with a strong Greek identity in the diaspora, second‐generation “returnees” move to Greece mainly for idealistic, lifestyle and life‐stage reasons. However, most find living in Greece long‐term a challenging experience: they remark on the corruption and chaos of Greek life, and are surprised at the high level of xenophobia in Greek society, not only towards foreign immigrants but also towards themselves as “hyphenated Greeks”. The “return” to Greece provokes new “reverse” transnational links back to their birth country, where they still need to keep in touch with relatives and friends, including caring obligations towards parents who remain abroad. Some contemplate another “return”, back to the US or Germany.

Policy Implications

• Policymakers responsible for integration should not assume that the second generation has no connections with its parents' country of origin.
• In the diasporic home country (in this case Greece), more effort should be made to facilitate the reintegration of the second generation returning ‘home’ and to break down discrimination towards hyphenated Greeks.
• Greek policymakers should pay heed to homecoming second‐generation Greeks in order to benefit from their bicultural insights into how Greek society can be improved, especially as regards efficient public services, transparent employment opportunities, better environment management, gender equality, and the elimination of racism and discrimination.

     

The epistemic dimension of European integration

This paper departs from the assumption that European integration – in addition to the dimensions of political institutions, markets, and European Union (EU) law – also comprises an epistemic dimension. This dimension contains the concepts and meanings that tell us what an integrated Europe “is,” how it works, and how we could evaluate it. Against this background, the paper develops an account to discuss the role of EU studies in the broader process of European integration. Its particular focus is on how EU studies co-produce conceptual discourses and representations of the EU together with EU politics. Moreover, these concepts and representations inform institutions that link those academic communities to the EU and make the development of EU studies a partial dimension of European integration.     

Adolescent Depression as a Contributing Factor to the Development of Substance Use Disorders

An exploratory investigation of the variables linking adolescent substance abuse and depression was conducted using the “grounded theory” qualitative research approach. A convenience sample was drawn from African American adolescents, aged 12 to 18 years, who reside in a public housing community in Baltimore, Maryland. The results revealed approximately 5% of the sample openly admitted to using drugs because they are sad, feel like a failure, lack energy and because they have family problems. Moreover, 26% of the respondents reported drinking alcoholic beverages; 26% of the population reported smoking marijuana and 16% of the respondents reported they smoke cigarettes. Additionally, life stressors (i.e. an absent parent from the home, childhood illnesses, family discord, living in kinship or foster care environments, living in single-parent households and unemployment) are adversely impacting the lives of African American adolescents residing in a public housing community.     

“Home” for Now or “Home” for Good?

ABSTRACT

This article explores accommodation experiences of East Europeans in London. Based on in-depth interviews with recent Polish and Lithuanian migrants it highlights a range of accommodation strategies that they exercise living in London. The article argues that instead of being passive users of the housing services in the immigration country, East European migrants skillfully manipulate the British housing market in order to achieve maximum benefit from the limited housing options available them. In this way, the article reflects on the dilemmas of making “home” and contributes to the theoretical refinement of the concept of “home” in the context of temporary accommodation.     

“Those foreigners ruin everything here”: Interactional functions of ethnic labelling among pupils in the Netherlands

This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of ethnic labelling practices by examining their interactional functions among secondary school pupils in Venlo, the Netherlands. Pupils with migration backgrounds often labelled themselves and others “Turk,” “Moroccan,” or “foreigner,” and labelled others “Dutch.” The paper highlights that ethnic labelling can be understood not only as identity construction, but also as interactional work. I build on membership categorization analysis (MCA), complemented by conversation analysis (CA), to analyse how pupils’ use of ethnic labels evoked an expert role which altered interactants’ power positions; and how, often, pupils engaged in jocular mockery with ethnic labels and in that way mitigated the effects of exclusionary and stigmatizing discourses about people with migration backgrounds. Finally, I argue that pupils’ labelling practices had locally occasioned meanings and functions, but that they ultimately reflect wider‐spread systems of categorization and marginalization of people with migration backgrounds in the Netherlands.     

Slaps,Punches, Pinches—But not Violence: Boundary‐Work in Nursing Homes for the Elderly

This article presents an analysis of boundary work in the context of care for the elderly, where violence appears to be widespread but is still relatively unacknowledged. Talk about aggressive patients was formulated in a particular way among workers in a nursing home. Nursing home staff described how the elderly residents sometimes slapped, pinched, or hit them. Although staff members could describe these acts as intentional, although they could hold patients responsible, and although this violence could end in injuries, demarcations were made such that aggressive acts were constructed as somehow not really “violence.” As “violent” is an inherently exclusionary label, this downplaying can be seen as an effort to avoid pushing persons outside the boundary of normalcy and of continued acceptance. Placing the elderly's violence outside the boundaries of violence means that the elderly remain “care takers,” the staff “caregivers,” and the nursing home a “caring context.”     

The meanings of citizenship: media use and democracy in South Africa

In 1994, South Africans embarked on a project to create new meanings of citizenship in order to transcend the disenfranchisement and divisions created by apartheid. This article examines the context in which new forms of citizenship are evolving in South Africa and how South African citizens use the media to give meaning to concepts such as “an active public sphere,” “civic agency” and “participatory politics.” The objective of the research is to provide information about the way in which the media contribute to the quality of democracy in South Africa through mediating citizenship in a way that improves prospects for citizens to exert influence over public decisions. As has been the case in other post-authoritarian and postcolonial settings, the continuation of existing unequal relationships to government persists even when new democratic spaces have opened up. This article interrogates the assumption that media are central to citizens’ political and civic engagements in a transitional society marked by persisting inequalities. This interrogation draws on empirical research with citizens to investigate the question that the media are central to constructions of citizenship and participation and engagement with democratic processes. Our research finds that young South Africans interviewed are disengaged from politics and find that the media does not speak to or connect with their everyday lives. They view the state on both national and local levels as not being prepared to listen to their experiences, ideas or conditions of life. While the respondents trust the media as credible institutions, they do not experience the media as being relevant to their lives. The perceived disinterest of the state and the lack of relevance of the media, work together to create a sense of powerlessness and inability to influence policy-making among the young people interviewed. For the media to intervene in this state of affairs, it would have to create more opportunities for young people to participate directly in meaning production through the media, starting by listening more closely to their experiences in order to respond to their concerns in a relevant way.     

Representations of “the West,”“Japan,” and “the Periphery” in the Discourse of Lafcadio Hearn Studies

The purpose of this article is to analyze representations of “the West,”“Japan,” and “the Periphery” in the discourse of research on Lafcadio Hearn (“Hearn studies”) from pre‐war Japan. The nature and construction of nationality will be analyzed by examining where the representations of “the West,”“Japan,” and “the Periphery” intersected. During the 1900s, researchers in the field of Hearn studies recognized that “Japan” lacked—and thus sought—a universality similar to what existed in “the West.” The tone of the discourse shifted during the 1910s through 1920s however, and what came to be emphasized was “Japan's” peculiarity. By the 1930s through 1940s, “Japan” aimed to show to “the West” a new universality that was different from what existed in Europe and America. Yet simultaneously, in order to legitimize its representation of its self, “Japan” portrayed “the Periphery” as an object that was both excluded and absorbed or appropriated into that image. On the one hand, “Japan” received and internalized the Orientalist viewpoint of “the West.” In fact, “Japan” was always conscious of its self‐image as something to display to “the West.” On the other hand, in order to create that self‐portrayal, both a representation of “the Periphery” and a reflection from that same “Periphery” were essential. While representations of “Japan” were produced, reproduced, and reinforced through interactions with “the West” and “the Periphery,” the intersecting behavior of these three entities also points to a residual ambiguity in “Japan's” nationality. By analyzing the discourse in Hearn studies, this paper reveals how the interaction between “Japan” and the two others of “the West” and “the Periphery” helped construct and destabilize its nationality.     

Take Me “Home”: Return Migration among Germany's Older Immigrants

This paper examines the determinants of return migration as foreign‐born men approach old age in Germany. Return migration in later life engages a different set of conditions from return migration earlier on, including the framing of return as a possible retirement strategy. Using 23 years of longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel, this paper investigates how social and economic resources of immigrant men influence decisions to return “home.” Results suggest that immigrants from former guest worker recruitment countries within the European Union are more likely to return than non‐EU immigrants. In addition, return migrants are “negatively selected” so that those with the least education and weakest attachments to the labor force are more likely to emigrate. However, findings vary greatly depending on the immigrant's age and country of origin. Results from this paper highlight the heterogeneity of older immigrants and the factors that motivate their return “home”.