Browsing by Subject "ethnography"
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Item An Ethnographic Study of a Refugee Family in the Initial Stages of Resettlement in a Major City in the United States(2012-01-10) Bezette, Noel; Liberman, Dr. Dov; Gore-Laird, Dr. Helen; Gaa, Dr. John; Zou, Dr. YaliThe researcher used ethnographic methods to catalog the experiences of a family of Burmese refugees re-settled in the U.S. Archival video footage from a documentary film was analyzed in the light of Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) Ecological Systems theory in order to understand: 1) the expectations the family had about life in the U.S. before coming, (2) the way the family acquired resources for setting up a household, (3) the nature of any social or kinship relational networks of which they became a part once arriving, (4) the nature of their institutional interactions with schools, resettlement agencies, or the organs of government, (5) the nature and effectiveness of any interagency collaborations designed to help the family with resettlement. The refugee family was interviewed at three distinct times: upon arrival, six months, and one year after arrival. Their responses to the interview questions were transcribed and then cataloged with respect to Ecological Systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Furthermore, key players in the resettlement experience also were interviewed. These participants included school personnel, the resettlement agency director and employees, a city and state level official, representatives of non-profit community assistance agencies, and a representative of a local Burmese community outreach organization. All were asked either about the family in this study or about the re-settlement experience in general, depending upon their acquaintance with the participating family. Their responses were also transcribed and cataloged with respect to Ecological Systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Through a process of data triangulation between the responses of the family and the other participants, the visual ethnographer identified which problems in resettlement consistently arise over time. Ecological Systems theory further informed the ethnographer as to the distance of the solutions to these problems from the family itself. The software application NVIVO, specifically designed for qualitative analysis, provided the heuristic consistency required to establish both inter-rater agreement and the identification of which issues consistently arise throughout the interview footage. Issues resulting from the analysis include, but are not limited to: communication with service providers, inequitable distribution of resources among agencies and states, language acquisition, low wages, and transportation difficulties and how they affect employment. Some of the problems are institutional, such as misinformation refugees receive at orientation prior to resettlement and lack of consortium among the involved agencies. Caseworkers are expected to serve an inordinate number of families whose language they may not know and for whom they are not properly trained to act as social service providers. Cultural differences cause problems when there are prioritizing decisions to be made concerning the purchase of supplies for the household, as what the families believe is important or acceptable does not always reflect the way their households are supplied when they arrive. Other issues involve the mental health of the family members themselves, and these arise when the cultural differences are in play.Item Ethnographic Studies of School Science and Science Communities(2012-07-16) Ayar, MehmetIn this dissertation I used the anthropological and sociocultural perspectives to examine the culture of school science and science communities. I conducted three independent studies. The first study is a meta-ethnography of three well-known case studies published in the literature. I analyzed these studies in order to identify the distinct characteristics of scientific communities and portray a picture of how science is practiced. The meta-ethnographic analysis reveals aspects of scientific practice that are insightful for the science educators and curriculum developers because these aspects are often neglected in school science even though they explain how science is done and accomplished in science communities. In the second study, I conducted an ethnographic research to explore the distinct characteristics of a scientific-engineering community. How the community members worked in collaboration as they conducted their research, how they negotiated and mutually agreed upon as they interacted and communicated with one and another and what they have learned through the process of these interactions were the units of the analyses. Findings reveal that the lead scientists' different working styles in the research center orchestrated learning and research. Ongoing communication and interdisciplinarity initiated collaborative partnerships with other communities and allowed the research groups to generate a shared repertoire to pursue the novelty in the process of knowledge generation. Mentorship was a catalyst for enculturation process, and it was on the trajectory of becoming an engineering university faculty. In the third study, I observed a science classroom over a period of time to explore the socio-cultural aspects of learning. I examined the social practices and the participants' interactions that establish and maintain participation, community, and meaning. In my analysis I investigated the extent to which students' participation and interaction formed a community of practice and fostered learning science. The three studies highlight the distinct characteristics of school science communities and science communities that are of importance for the efforts to better design learning environments. Translating the everyday activities of scientists and engineering researchers into school science communities can help enhance students' science learning experiences and cultivate a more informed understanding of science and engineering.Item Humor at work: using humor to study organizations as a social process(Texas A&M University, 2005-08-29) Lynch, Owen HanleyHumor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.Item Profiles in Courage: Practicing and Performing at Musical Open Mics and Scenes(2010-10-12) Aldredge, Marcus DavidThis dissertation explores the social patterns and cultural layers of musical "open mics" in New York City. The study uses a qualitative approach which includes methods such as ethnography, in-depth interviewing, historical and discourse analyses focusing on open mics and the popular musicians who attend and perform them. Open mics, short for "open microphones," are public events that allow musicians to perform songs without a pre-planned, formal booking with a club or venue. Owing a historical and discursive connection to the folk hootenannies and jazz jam sessions of the past, these events have proliferated and spread considerably across the United States since the 1990s since their development, by name, in the late 1970s. Open mics not only reflect a do-it-yourself and participatory cultural ethos manifested with other recent expressive cultural activities, but also demonstrate a growing interstitial "musical third place" residing between private practicing and public performance. Musical open mics as musical third places provide musicians and singer/songwriters to network with other musicians, practice new musical compositions and play when other performance opportunities are not readily available. It provides a means for musicians to "hone their craft" in terms of performance methods and also construct musical identities in the almost exclusive company of other working singer/songwriters. This "backstage region" is thus framed and keyed by the musicians onto a continuum between two theoretical poles: performance practicing and practicing performance. Performance practicing as defined in this study frames a more performance-oriented display for musicians in locations called "closed open mics" or COMs. These settings, also residing on a theoretical continuum are socially more exclusive in terms of performance types, the aesthetic careers of the performers, the genres represented and the sociological makeup of the setting participants in general. OOMs or "open open mics," on the other hand, usually have a more fluid, diverse sociological composition of musical performers, performance types, and musical genres played and represented in these mainly weekly events. Closed open mics align into more homogeneous, isomorphic settings comprising "local open mic scenes" and open open mics remain more heterogeneous, socially inclusive, and unsettled as "pre-scenes."Item Racializing the Migration Process: An Ethnographic Analysis of Undocumented Immigrants in the United States(2011-08-06) Molina, Hilario 1972-From the exterior, the United States has extracted natural resources and transformed the social dynamics of those living on the periphery, contributing to the emigration from Mexico and immigration to the United States. This,in turn,creates the racialization of the Mexican immigrant, specifically the undocumented immigrant?the "illegal alien." I argue that this unilateral interaction operates with a racial formation of the Mexican immigrant created by elite white (non-Hispanic) males. The anti-Mexican immigrant subframe and "prowhite" subframe derive from the white racial frame,which racializes the undocumented immigrant in the United States. In addition, the subframes are evident in the three stages of migration. The three stages consist of threefold factors: First, the exploitation of Mexican resources (natural and human) and racialized immigration policies; second, the social networks and smugglers, called coyotes, who assist the undocumented immigrant to bypass barriers; and third, the discrimination undocumented immigrants encounter in the United States by other people of color. This dissertation relied on the migration experience of thirty Mexican male day-laborers,living in Texas, to examine the white racial framing of undocumented immigrants. The findings demonstrate how the U.S. immigration policies and members of the host society persistently exhibit the white racial frame and its subframes. This study is essential, because, aside from noting the issues of unauthorized migration, it demonstrates how elite white males shape the dialogue on the discourse and all that surrounds the migration process.Item The Promises and Pitfalls of Modernity: An Ethnography of Young Catholic Women?s Media Practices for Claiming Cultural Citizenship in Urban India(2014-12-15) Doshi, Marissa JThis dissertation is an ethnography of the media practices of young Catholic women in Mumbai, India. Media practices are conceptualized as cultural practices via which the participants in this study claimed cultural citizenship in order to challenge discourses that yoke national identity with Hindu culture and construct Catholicism as ?foreign? and Catholic women as morally bankrupt and hypersexual. Media practices examined included practices related to photography, privacy, and safety using mobile phones and the consumption of television programs and movies. Through these practices, participants attempted to displace the link between Indianness and Hindu culture and show that Catholic culture can also reflect Indianness, when Indianness is defined in terms of being modern Indian woman because the discourse of modern Indian womanhood aligns with how middle-class Catholic culture is practiced in India. Indian modernity emphasizes cosmopolitanism and consumption (similar to Western modernity) but is also marked by an ongoing emphasis on valuing community building, particularly in the context of family. It is also gendered in that modern Indian women are expected to practice sexual sobriety. Through photography practices, participants showcased the various dimensions of Indian modernity. By using the mobile phone to ensure safety and privacy, participants navigated the gendered and classed dimensions of Indian modernity. Finally, media consumption patterns revealed how participants learned about and enacted Indian modernity. Thus, by expressing Indian modernity through their media practices, Catholic women claimed cultural citizenship.Item Volunteering as Performance: The Dynamic between Self-Interest and Selflessness within the Volunteer Industry(2013-04-26) Bernstein, Joshua DThis thesis investigates volunteering as performance. In exploring this topic I discuss a dynamic between self-interest and selflessness in the observable performance of service through the social mechanisms of volunteerism. I argue that self-interest is a prominent motivation for volunteering, but its overt performance is kept in check by norms that emphasize selflessness. My argument centers on addressing this lack of acknowledgement toward self-interest within vernacular culture. My research draws examples from an individual, organizational, and global volunteer perspective. Ethnographic research was conducted for this study with a student group that organizes one of the American Cancer Society?s Relay For Life fundraisers. Within this organization, I conceptualize volunteering as a performance that requires a social actor to not just ?do? service, but also ?show do? and/or ?explain show do? their behavior in front of an audience. This presentation culminates in a cultural performance where participants at Relay For Life perform a narrative of selflessness. Expanding my discussion of volunteering to a global perspective, my last chapter addresses volunteer tourism. I argue that the self-interest of both volunteers and volunteer travel companies reduces the recipients of volunteer tourism to essentialized and exociticized cultural "Others." I advocate for the overt acknowledgement of self-interest not only because self-interest is present, but also because it is a central dynamic that constructs volunteerism as performance.