Breaking silence: Some fieldwork strategies in cloistered and non-cloistered communities

This paper deals with some of the linguistic difficulties I encountered during fieldwork conducted among cloistered and non-cloistered communities of Roman Catholic nuns. I illustrate here the necessity for taking both active and passive research modes—that is, moving from observer to participant and back—in order to counteract problems related to interaction styles, lack of language, meaning inversions, and silence as a mode of communication. These problems represent a continuum—a progression from least to most problematical in terms of the connection between researcher and researched. I argue that by adopting a stance appropriate to the groups being studied—that is, by using both active and passive research strategies with equal rigor—many linguistic barriers can not only be overcome, but usedas sources of important data.     

论法人类学的研究方法

法人类学是法学和人类学交叉、互渗而形成的新兴学科,它为法学研究提供了一套新的视野和方法。把法律视为文化现象是法人类学的基本出发点,案例方法、田野工作和跨文化比较则是法人类学研究的基本方法和手段。结合西方法人类学家的相关论述,试对法人类学的研究方法进行简要的介绍。     

Towards a Theoretical Ethnography of Migration

Ethnographers' long-standing interest in migration has taken on new significance as researchers grapple with globalization on the ground. Building on the transnationalism literature, I explore how recent appeals to use local archival work and revisits to achieve historical depth can be applied fruitfully to ethnographies of migration. I argue for multi-sited fieldwork in countries of migrants' origin and destination and the removal of national blinders so that both domestic and international migrations are brought into the same frame for comparison. Finally, I amend the extended case method by arguing for the engagement of case studies with theoretical research programs in ways that attend to the representativeness of the case. The utility of these strategies is demonstrated with examples from the migration literature and five years of ethnographic fieldwork among Mexican migrants.

Adult probation and Parole Services in Victoria

Abstract

The first practicum is often regarded as a critical transition period in the development of a professional social worker, but little is known about the way students interpret their experience, assess their competence and/or re-evaluate their commitment to this career. The present study relies on interview data provided by fourth year social work students at the University of Tasmania. Its findings show what types of learning experience students deem to be significant and how they develop a sense of professional competence. Implications of the findings for professional bodies, training institutions, supervisors and students are discussed.     

“田野工作的想象力”:在科学与艺术之间——以《大河移民上访的故事》为例

田野工作具有实证性格与人文气质的双重特性,所谓“田野工作的想象力”介于科学的探究与艺术的想象之间,将真实的观察和想象的再现紧密结合在一起。本文以《大河移民上访的故事》为例展示了“田野工作的想象力”的一种可能性。从田野与理论的关系来看,田野研究的基本问题既不是从经验现实中直接生发出来,也不是从中层理论中推演出来,“田野工作的想象力”的空间是由经典理论的问题域给定的,但在实际进入田野后,理论的力量需要完全融化在对经验现实的敏感中。从微观与宏观的关系来看,复杂性成为田野工作由微观通向宏观的关键所在。这种复杂性表现在诸多方面：对“家乡社会学”的自然正当性的反省;对功能主义分析范式的突破;把行动者分析而非结构分析作为田野工作的焦点;将历史视野带入田野中。“田野工作的想象力”具有手工技艺的特点,其养成需要特别的耐心。     

The Ethnographic Turn: Fact,Fashion, or Fiction?

Commentators have suggested that a qualitative turn occurred in the social sciences in the last couple of decades of the twentieth century. We examine evidence on publication patterns, finding that the ethnographic turn consisted more of a proliferation of specialty journals than increased publication in mainstream sociology journals. This difference is important because it moves methodological debate inside the community of qualitative scholars, changing the focus from a contrast between qualitative and quantitative methods to questions about the relative merits of different styles of ethnographic work. Thus far, our data suggest, the main effect of the ethnographic turn may have been to institutionalize a set of labels rather than a set of practices.     

经济管理类专业生产实习改革初探

生产实习模式的创新是经济管理类专业教学改革的重要内容。分析了构建经济管理类专业生产实习校内实验室的必要性与可行性 ,并以信息技术为依托 ,设计、探讨了构建校内生产实习基地的具体方案。     

Observed successful collaboration in social work practice: coherent triads in Swedish juvenile care

The purpose of this study is to analyse observed situations of successful cooperation, even if it unfolds during shorter interaction sequences. The aim is to analyse how and when the actors within juvenile care in Sweden present successful cooperation, and which interactive patterns are involved in the construction of this phenomenon. Forming the empirical basis for this study are 119 field observations of organised meetings and informal meetings before and after organised meetings, during visits to youth care institutions in Sweden, social services offices, and the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care. In this study, markers are used to define successful cooperation in the empirical material, so that actors who belong to at least three different categories will be identified (coherent triad). The professional actors can also shape a coherent triad with young people or parents in cases where past conflicts arise. When some professionals create a distance from other professional partners, conflicts can be erased so as to generate new conditions for coherence of the triad. Construction and reconstruction of collaboration success is an ongoing, interactive process. Presentation of the proper interaction moral is created and re-created during interactions and appears in the myriad of everyday interactions.     

Bridging the contradictions of social constructionism and psychoanalysis in a study of workplace emotions in India

This paper makes a contribution to the study of emotions in organizations by offering a systematic juxtaposition and cross-fertilization of psychoanalytic and social constructionist approaches. These two traditions have found it hard to communicate in the past when addressing organizational emotions. Points of similarity and tension between them are discussed in connection with two critical case studies of female Indian managers discussing their emotions at the workplace. These were obtained during field work in which emotions were studied through narratives generated by a free-association interview approach. Both the emotions described in the narratives themselves and the emotions of the interview encounter were analysed, as resources for a rapprochement of contrasting perspectives on emotion. This rapprochement acknowledges the psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious dynamics shaping the emotional lives of individuals and groups, while also honouring the social constructionist emphasis on how emotions are influenced by social, cultural and discursive practices.     

Sexual Harassment and the Construction of Ethnographic Knowledge

It is not uncommon for women researchers to experience sexualized interactions, sexual objectification, and harassment as they conduct fieldwork. Nevertheless, these experiences are often left out of ethnographers’ “tales from the field” and remain unaddressed within our discipline. In this article, we use women's experiences with harassment in the field to interrogate the epistemological foundations of ethnographic methodology within the discipline of sociology. Based on more than 50 qualitative interviews, we examine three “fixations” of contemporary ethnography that inform women ethnographers’ understandings of and reactions to harassment in the field. These fixations are solitude, danger, and intimacy. Our data show that these fixations not only put researchers in danger but also have implications for the construction of ethnographic knowledge. They contribute to silence surrounding sexual harassment, and are motivated by and reproduce androcentric norms that valorize certain types of fieldwork. We argue that acknowledging and analyzing experiences with harassment and other unwanted sexual attention in the field is part of a more fully developed understanding of ethnographic research itself.