Suchergebnisse

During the last couple of years, sociological approaches in European studies have gained increasing attention from scholars. The 'usages of Europe' approach looks at the opportunities and resources that the EU provides for national actors to advance their interests, from a bottom-up perspective. As European rules on cross-border healthcare have been threatening the principle of the territoriality of healthcare services, the article analyses two cross-border healthcare projects in Austrian border regions to determine if and how actors' strategies have been Europeanised, and whether their actions could destructure national welfare boundaries. In order to explain how these regional actors incorporate European resources into their strategies a combination of the 'usages of Europe' approach with Historical Institutionalism is suggested. Adapted from the source document.

During the last couple of years, sociological approaches in European studies have gained increasing attention from scholars. The 'usages of Europe' approach looks at the opportunities and resources that the EU provides for national actors to advance their interests, from a bottom-up perspective. As European rules on cross-border healthcare have been threatening the principle of the territoriality of healthcare services, the article analyses two cross-border healthcare projects in Austrian border regions to determine if and how actors' strategies have been Europeanised, and whether their actions could destructure national welfare boundaries. In order to explain how these regional actors incorporate European resources into their strategies a combination of the 'usages of Europe' approach with Historical Institutionalism is suggested. Adapted from the source document.

The paradox of field research permits
The paradox of field research permits
This essay provides an account of the way in which permits for field research in South Sudan were obtained. It shows how, despite the fact that the new country did not have a formal procedure for researchers, doing fieldwork at South Sudans borders with DR Congo and Uganda would have been impossible without a few letters of endorsement signed by people within the South Sudanese government. This inherent contradiction is further complicated by a paradox: The security personnel at the border interpreted the letters differently than the staff in the government offices in the capital. The essay argues that the contradiction between practice and procedures and the paradox of variable legitimacies provide key insight in the everyday organization of the state in South Sudan, both in the center and in the periphery.

Bull sessions to protect intimate boundaries
Sven da Silva
During research for my MA thesis in Brazil I theorized slum politics by following a community leader. He was often bullying me. After an uncomfortable start of my fieldwork, I became interested in bull sessions, a term that describes well the development of my relationship with the community leader. Bull sessions encourage participants to speak about topics they would normally not talk about, yet participants are primarily concerned with impressing others rather that with the truth. These bull sessions guarded intimate borders. They masked a shared condition, namely that of the painful memories of being from the favela. I use this experience to make the methodological argument that – to create openness and stimulate and adventurous dialogue with informants – ethnographers should engage in bull sessions, but at the same time use their toolbox to separate performance from content. They should transparently place quotes in context for readers to make their own judgment.