小说化:民族志书写的一种可能性

传统民族志的文化书写在小说与民族志之间人为划定了严格的界限,它重视概括性事实而回避故事讲述和故事中的单个人物,更谈不上中心人物的深度塑造。实验民族志这种书写范式的出现为借用小说叙事和人物塑造来集中地、戏剧性地展示对象的人文事实、心理事实及其内在意义提供了可能性。     

女性"隐形"地位的多元认知透视

在男性占主导地位的语言,诚如英汉语中"乞丐""医生"等职业术语和"chairman""hero"等官衔荣誉称呼之类的名词,一般性的人类泛指"a man","mankind"以及代词的非指示用法中,女性往往被置于"隐形"的地位。性别差异和性别歧视的现象已引起社会上各学科的普遍关注,然而,从认知角度对这一现象作出注解的文章寥寥。运用认知语言学中的原型和范畴理论、框架理论、心理空间和概念合成理论对此予以阐释,可为英汉语中这一现象的理论阐释提供全新的多元认知视角。     

族谱、村史与民族史——以丰台沟村为个案的村庄志文本分析

祁连山南北麓地区自古就是一条民族走廊。在古代，许多业已消逝的民族相互接触、彼此交流与汇聚并融合。本文以人类学田野调查所获辅以口述史的资料，推演出村庄志文本分析的典范。     

英汉语言中的性别歧视现象

Gender discrimination is felt and found universally, and sexism in language is no exception. Sexist languages exist in both English and Chinese. An analysis of linguistic sexism will promise us the assumptions that language is emblematic of and constitutive of social identity.     

Institutional Ethnography and Experience as Data

Experience, as concept, is contested among feminists as to its epistemological status, thus its usefulness in knowledge claims. Institutional ethnography (Smith 1987) is a feminist methodology that nonetheless relies fundamentally on people's experience. Not as Truth, nor the object of inquiry, but as thepoint d'appui for sociological inquiry. This article offers a demonstration of institutional enthnography using observational and interview data that show experience as methodologically central to a trustworthy analysis. A moment in the work lives of nursing assistants in a long-term care setting is captured by a participant observer. The analysis produces two lines of argument. One is methodological; it is argued that nursing assistants' experiences are an entry into the social relations of the setting that, when mapped and disclosed, make those experiences understandable in terms of the ruling arrangements permeating both the organization and their own experiences. The other argument is substantive; the inquiry uncovers how a quality improvement' strategy in a long term care hospital in Canada is reorganizing caregivers' values and practices toward a market orientation in which care appears to be compromised. Use of experience as data in this approach holds the analysis accountable to everyday/everynight actualities in a lived world.     

Asian Women,Job Training and the Social Organization of Immigrant Labor Markets

This paper examines the entry of Asian immigrant women into a gendered labor market via government-funded job training programs. The focus is on the intake processing of clients into an employment training program operated by a community based organization. The study reveals that women's family responsibilities and the cultural capital they bring function to screen them into or out of training programs and ultimately shape their location in the workforce. The study thus draws attention to how race, class, and gender enter into the organization of Asian immigrant women into the labor market. This investigation is based in institutional ethnography (Smith 1987), a research strategy which displays how activities in a particular setting are coordinated with more extended forms of social organization. The study shows that the overriding concern with successful placement in a job as mandated by government regulations is a critical factor in selecting the women for these programs.     

Whither practice-near research in the modernization programme? Policy blunders in children's services

In this article, we lament the effects of practice-distant research and associated policy initiatives on contemporary children's services in England. In the last decade, as a result of high profile inquiries into non-accidental child deaths, statutory children's social care services in the UK have been subject to a wide-reaching ‘modernization’ programme. We studied decision-making in the high blame environment of local authority children's services. Our research sought to examine the relationship between performance management and the impact of anticipated blame within the decision-making practices of those providing, supervising and managing these services. We show that systems and technologies can be developed which both assist the users in their daily work and achieve desired organizational goals, but without an ethnographically informed, practice-near approach, unsafe work regimes and practices can ensue.     

Spaces of Pride: A Visual Ethnography of Gay Pride Parades in Italy and the United Kingdom

Gay pride parades represent an active site of production of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), intersexual and queer identities, featuring a spatial and social articulation of political and human rights claims. While the multiplication of these events in different countries suggests the existence of a coherent and cohesive community which shares the same collective identity beyond national borders, different patterns in the organisation, part-taking and social and political connotations given to these events can be observed in different contexts. By means of a comparative visual ethnography of Italian and British Gay Pride Parades, this article investigates how the creation, mobilisation and challenge of quasi-normative LGBT identities occur within the spatial context of gay pride marches. It is argued, in particular, that while gay pride parades are sites in which the socio-political status quo can be successfully challenged, participants are also faced with the possibility of falling prey to dynamics of identity commodification and homonationalism which may ultimately deprive their claims of their subversive potential.     

Commercial discourses,gentrification and citizens’ protest: The linguistic landscape of Prenzlauer Berg,Berlin1

Since reunification in 1990, Prenzlauer Berg, located in the former East Berlin, has turned from a cheap and neglected area into a popular middle‐class neighbourhood. The area's new character is reflected in its linguistic landscape. These days the signs of posh shops and trendy bars adorn its streets. But alternative views are noticeable too. Graffiti is present even on the most expensively refurbished buildings and residents put up slogans to protest against their flats being refurbished and sold to new owners. This case study of the changing graphic environment of Prenzlauer Berg shows that, despite the strong influence of commercial discourses, the public space remains an area of contestation between civil society, private businesses and the state. The particular approach to linguistic landscape I developed combines textual and visual analysis with interviews with sign producers. This has enabled me to show how the linguistic landscape both reflects as well as shapes social change and urban development in Berlin since reunification. Seit der Wende ist der Prenzlauer Berg, zu DDR Zeiten vernachlässigt und heruntergekommen, zu einem der beliebtesten Stadtteile des neuen Berlins geworden. Der neue Charakter des Kiez, sichtbar an seinen renovierten Häusern und steigenden Mietpreisen, lässt sich auch anhand seiner sprachlichen Landschaft (linguistic landscape) erkennen. Heutzutage bestimmen die aufwendig gestalteten Schilder teurer Geschäfter und schicker Bars Prenzlauer Bergs Strassenbild. Es gibt aber auch andere Stimmen. Bewohner von Häusern, die an Investoren verkauft wurden und denen nun gesteigerte Mieten drohen, protestieren mit Plakaten gegen die Politik der Ankäufer. Fast keine der neu gestrichenen Fassaden ist frei von Graffiti und überall findet man Poster, die zu Demonstrationen und Unterschriftenaktionen aufforden. Ausgehend von Fotografien und Interviews mit den Autoren von Schildern, Plakaten und Transparenten zeigt der vorliegende Artikel, dass der öffentliche Raum – die Strasse – trotz der Dominanz kommerziellen Diskurse, ein Bereich bleibt, in dem Staat, private Inverstoren und bürgerliche Gesellschaft aufeinander treffen und ihre – oftmals im Konflikt zueinander stehenden – Meinungen zum Ausdruck bringen. [German]