Challenges and Solutions in Ethnographic Research


Book Description

Challenges and Solutions in Ethnographic Research: Ethnography with a Twist seeks to rethink ethnography ‘outside the box’ of its previous tradition and to develop ethnographic methods by critically discussing the process, ethics, impact and knowledge production in ethnographic research. This interdisciplinary edited volume argues for a ‘twist’ that supports openness, courage, and creativity to develop and test innovative and unconventional ways of thinking and doing ethnography. ‘Ethnography with a twist’ means both an intentional aim to conduct ethnographic research with novel approaches and methods but also sensitivity to recognize and creativity to utilize different kinds of ‘twist moments’ that ethnographic research may create for the researcher. This edited volume critically evaluates new and old methodological tools and their ability to engage with questions of power difference. It proposes new collaborative methods that allow for co-production and co-creation of research material as well as shared conceptual work and wider distribution of knowledge. The book will be of use to ethnographers in humanities and social science disciplines including sociology, anthropology and communication studies.




Perfected Fables, Now


Book Description

Since the mid-1960s, Gordon Rohlehr has been an incomparable recorder and analyzer of Caribbean literature and culture, and their intersection with history and politics. Rohlehr doffs the costume of the carnival figure of the "Bookman," the recording Satan of the devil band, who walks with his book in which he writes down the names of the damned. And here we have the clue to the fact that along with the serious analysis of calypso; his summing up of what is essential in the work of Derek Walcott, Earl Lovelace, and V.S. Naipaul; and the essays of remembrance for those like Walcott, Lloyd Best, Pat Bishop, Tony Martin, and others who have made their earthly exits, there is a devilish humor at work. This comes out particularly in an essay that joyfully demolishes an attempt to characterize the Caribbean in any other than its own terms, and the subservience of Trinidad's rulers to the neo-colonialisms of tourism, visiting American ships and the U.S. embassy.




Performing Kinship


Book Description

In the highland region of Sullk'ata, located in the rural Andes, individuals negotiate the affective bonds and hierarchies of their relationships by sharing food, work, and stories. In this book the author reveals the ways in which relatedness is evoked, performed, and recast among the women of the Sullk'ata.




Sensitive Objects


Book Description

Some objects seem especially personal and important to us - be it a quickly packed suitcase, an inherited vase, or a photograph. In Sensitive Objects the authors discuss when, how, and why particular objects appear as 'sensitive'. They do so by analyzing the objects' affective charging in the context of historically embedded practices. Sensitive Objects is a contribution to the upcoming field of 'affect research' that has so far been dominated by psychology and cultural studies, and the authors examine the potential for epistemic gain by connecting the studies of affect with the studies of material culture. The contributors, predominantly ethnologists and anthropologists, use fieldwork to examine how people project affects onto material objects and explore how objects embody or trigger affects and produce affective atmospheres.




The Senses of Modernism


Book Description

In The Senses of Modernism, Sara Danius develops a radically new theoretical and historical understanding of high modernism. The author closely analyzes Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, and James Joyce's Ulysses as narratives of the sweeping changes that affected high and low culture in the age of technological reproduction. In her discussion of the years from 1880 to 1930, Danius proposes that the high-modernist aesthetic is inseparable from a technologically mediated crisis of the senses. She reveals the ways in which categories of perceiving and knowing are realigned when technological devices are capable of reproducing sense data. Sparked by innovations such as chronophotography, phonography, radiography, cinematography, and technologies of speed, this sudden shift in perceptual abilities had an effect on all arts of the time.Danius explores how perception, notably sight and hearing, is staged in the three most significant modern novels in German, French, and British literature. The Senses of Modernism connects technological change and formal innovation to transform the study of modernist aesthetics. Danius questions the longstanding acceptance of a binary relationship between high and low culture and describes the complicated relationship between modernism and technology, challenging the conceptual divide between a technological culture and a more properly aesthetic one.




Transcultural Cinema


Book Description

David MacDougall is a pivotal figure in the development of ethnographic cinema and visual anthropology. As a filmmaker, he has directed in Africa, Australia, India, and Europe. His prize-winning films (many made jointly with his wife, Judith MacDougall) include The Wedding Camels, Lorang's Way, To Live with Herds, A Wife among Wives, Takeover, PhotoWallahs, and Tempus de Baristas. As a theorist, he articulates central issues in the relation of film to anthropology, and is one of the few documentary filmmakers who writes extensively on these concerns. The essays collected here address, for instance, the difference between films and written texts and between the position of the filmmaker and that of the anthropological writer. In fact, these works provide an overview of the history of visual anthropology, as well as commentaries on specific subjects, such as point-of-view and subjectivity, reflexivity, the use of subtitles, and the role of the cinema subject. Refreshingly free of jargon, each piece belongs very much to the tradition of the essay in its personal engagement with exploring difficult issues. The author ultimately disputes the view that ethnographic filmmaking is merely a visual form of anthropology, maintaining instead that it is a radical anthropological practice, which challenges many of the basic assumptions of the discipline of anthropology itself. Although influential among filmmakers and critics, some of these essays were published in small journals and have been until now difficult to find. The three longest pieces, including the title essay, are new.




World War II and the Caribbean


Book Description

World War II and the Caribbean focuses on one of the most exciting periods in the history of the region as the Caribbean territories faced incredible upheaval and opportunity during the war years. Local operations, cultural mores and the region's international image were forever changed by its pivotal role in the war effort. The chapters in this volume respond to the need for information and analysis on the wide-ranging impact of the war on territories in the region (English, French, Spanish and Dutch). The contributors cover topics such as the economic consequences of wartime activity (the food crisis and the decline of the agricultural sector), while highlighting the opportunities that arose for industry and enterprise in the Caribbean; the accommodations made by the European imperial nations and their attempts to tighten control over their Caribbean territories during the war; the intervention of the Americans in the region; the social impact of the war (the migration of German-speaking refugees and other groups) and the effects on Caribbean societies of this contact; and the impact of the war on public health and the broad spectrum experiences of women (as volunteers, nurses and sex-workers). This well-researched volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of military and conflict history, twentieth-century Caribbean history, and the general reader.




Social Psychological Dynamics


Book Description

The work contains seventeen articles reflecting scholarship in traditional and emerging areas of social psychology. Major topics addressed include the subjective evaluation of emotions; the psychology of values; self-definition; priming and racial stereotyping; selfrepresentation; self-harming; negative communications; visual communication and emotion recognition; comparative studies of values; duration of romantic relationships; interpersonal attraction; social psychological antecedents of burnout; social integration and language effects on bilinguals. "The diverse set of chapters in this unique volume speaks to the question of whether social psychological theories and principles are universal. The authors take the reader on a fascinating tour, highlighting some of the many domains and places in which social psychology has been applied. Some answers are provided, but equally richly many questions are raised. The approaches taken, notably the comparative approach adopted in several of the chapters, will challenge social psychologists to think about both how they conceptualize social problems and how they do and should research them." --Miles Hewstone, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Oxford "This volume offers a truly panoramic picture of how scientific social psychology can address timely social issues. The editors recruited outstanding scientists spanning eleven nations to produce a collection that is as impressive in its remarkable diversity of nations as well as topics and methods. An ideal reader for a course in methods or social psychology." --Harold Takooshian, Past President, APA division of International Psychology




Changing Cuba-U.S. Relations


Book Description

This book analyses the evolving engagement of the United States and Cuba, along with the impact of this relationship on Cuba-CARICOM relations and the Caribbean. Through a Caribbean perspective, the chapters discuss the implications of the U.S.-Cuba relationship economically, institutionally and developmentally. Based on the findings of their research, the authors provide policy recommendations to CARICOM on potential areas for enhancing relations between CARICOM and Cuba, drawing on fieldwork and interviews with policymakers, academics, non-governmental organizations, and regional experts.




Autoimmune Neurology


Book Description

Autoimmune Neurology presents the latest information on autoimmune neurologic disease, the immune response to the body where organs run wild, causing the immune system to attack itself. Autoimmunity is a main element in numerous nervous system diseases and can target any structure within the central or peripheral nervous system. Over the past 20 years, significant advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of autoimmune disorders, including the use of biomarkers has led to new diagnosis and treatment options. Neurologic conditions associated with autoimmune reactions include dementia, neuromuscular disease, epilepsy, sleep disorders, diabetes, and other common neurologic disorders and disease. This current tutorial-reference will be a must-have title for clinical neurologists, research neurologists, neuroscientists, and any medical professional working with autoimmune disease and disorders. - Includes comprehensive coverage of autoimmune neurology - Details the latest techniques for the study, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases and disorders, including dementia, neuromuscular disease, epilepsy, and sleep disorders - Presents a focused reference for clinical practitioners and the clinical neurology and neurology research communities