Suchergebnisse

Building on observations from ethnography at the fin de siècle (Wellin and Fine, 2001), we address how ethnographers today approach their work tasks, incorporating new technology, emphasizing embodiment, sites of struggle, and increasing public engagement. We use the lens of the sociology of work to examine how ethnography has been shaped over the past 15 years, the lifespan of Qualitative Research. How do the challenges of occupational roles, places of research, and new forms of data gathering shape our collective work?

The authors argue that sociologists must use the investigation of interpersonal situations as a strategy through which 'culture' can be understood in practice. Culture includes a broad range of social processes, institutions, and value systems. In contrast to perspectives that treat groups and individuals as units to be shaped by powerful cultural forces, the authors contend that culture is established, manipulated, and promoted by individuals and groups. Microsituations serve as arenas of action in their own right, locations where culture is both produced and experienced. Drawing examples from five areas of microsociology-groups, cognition, identity/ self, performance, and emotion-the authors demonstrate how a distinctively microsociological perspective allows sociologists to examine how culture, across its various conceptions, has an effect on actors and, in turn, is affected by actors. By exposing the workings of culture in situ, microsociology forces us to theorize the connections between meaning, behavior, and structure. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]

The authors argue that sociologists must use the investigation of interpersonal situations as a strategy through which "culture" can be understood in practice. Culture includes a broad range of social processes, institutions, and value systems. In contrast to perspectives that treat groups and individuals as units to be shaped by powerful cultural forces, the authors contend that culture is established, manipulated, and promoted by individuals and groups. Microsituations serve as arenas of action in their own right, locations where culture is both produced and experienced. Drawing examples from five areas of microsociology—groups, cognition, identity/ self, performance, and emotion—the authors demonstrate how a distinctively microsociological perspective allows sociologists to examine how culture, across its various conceptions, has an effect on actors and, in turn, is affected by actors. By exposing the workings of culture in situ, microsociology forces us to theorize the connections between meaning, behavior, and structure.