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1 – 10 of 347The purpose of this paper is to set the groundwork for a new methodological movement. The author claims that methodological strategies must take as their object the laws with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to set the groundwork for a new methodological movement. The author claims that methodological strategies must take as their object the laws with found sexual identity, or rather should be “fucking with” law by creatively confronting, occupying and agitating limiting ethical frameworks that control access to the field. The movement is ethnographic, since it finds research ethics and “straight” academic space to be where these rules are the most harmful in limiting access to the field, for female researchers, in particular.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach (but also to some extent the target) is on Deleuzian and post-Deleuzian’s philosophy, whose theoretical leaps have sought to shift and cause slippage in laws of sexual identity. However, when these laws are tested by researchers proposing to access the field, specifically ethnographically and autoethnographically, it is clear they have not “slipped” at all. This is clear through the questions raised by ethics committees. Fucking law, therefore, becomes a methodological movement intimately connecting ethical agendas and sex as an encounter in the field.
Findings
The author claims that the methodological movement of “fucking” law captures, or at least attempts to capture, the slipperiness of the body, the encounter, the research project and sex itself. The movement, “fucking law”, is essential in agitating and occupying the limiting institutional research agendas and their ethical frameworks.
Practical implications
The implications of “fucking law” will be necessarily unpredictable, but the main practical and connected social implication is questioning as to why more women are not practically questioning arguably one of the biggest questions: the ethics of sexuality. Fucking law argues for the questioning of these laws with bodies, and experimenting with philosophies which underpin and create institutional ethical rules.
Originality/value
This is the first work of its kind by a female autoethnographer challenging the ethics of sexuality, arising from a participatory field project. It also evaluates and confronts the ethics of the field as a whole: from the researcher herself, to her academic environment and sexual life, to the field itself and the writing up of the project.
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Four male undergraduates at Cornell University post on the internet the “Top 75 reasons why women (bitches) should not have freedom of speech.” Reason #20: “This is my dick. I'm…
Abstract
Four male undergraduates at Cornell University post on the internet the “Top 75 reasons why women (bitches) should not have freedom of speech.” Reason #20: “This is my dick. I'm gonna fuck you. No more stupid questions.”
Mandy Wilson, Sherry Saggers and Helen Wildy
This paper aims to illustrate how narrative research techniques can be employed to promote greater understanding of young people's experiences of progress in residential alcohol…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to illustrate how narrative research techniques can be employed to promote greater understanding of young people's experiences of progress in residential alcohol and other drug treatment.
Design/methodology/approach
Narrative inquiry is used to explore client understandings of what characterises progress in treatment for young people attending a residential detoxification and a residential rehabilitation service in Perth, Western Australia. This article focuses on stories of progress collected through in‐depth qualitative interviews, observation and participation with clients of the two services, over a five‐month period.
Findings
Analysis of data revealed that young people were able to vividly describe their progress through treatment, and their drug taking trajectories can be conceptualised along five stages. The authors prepared narrative accounts to illustrate the features characteristic of each stage as identified by the young people. These composite narratives, written from the perspectives of young people, are presented in this article.
Practical implications
Clients’ own perceptions of their journeys through drug treatment might enable staff of such services to collaborate with the young person, in shaping and positively reinforcing alternative life‐stories; from those of exclusion and disconnection, to narratives of opportunity, inclusion and possibility.
Originality/value
Harmful adolescent drug and alcohol use is on the rise in Australia and elsewhere. However, our knowledge of how young people experience progress through residential treatment for substance use is limited. This paper highlights how creating narratives from young people's own stories of progress can broaden our knowledge of “what works” in residential youth alcohol and other drug treatment services.
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The Drifters are ten long-term unemployed British men. The Drifters’ unemployment is consensual: the men believe they have chosen to “not work” and rely upon welfare benefits for…
Abstract
Purpose
The Drifters are ten long-term unemployed British men. The Drifters’ unemployment is consensual: the men believe they have chosen to “not work” and rely upon welfare benefits for their socio-economic survival. The purpose of this paper is to present micro sociological analysis of the Drifters’ existences which focuses upon first, exploring why the Drifters’ consensual unemployment has resulted in them experiencing high levels of stigma in their everyday lives; second, analysing the Drifters’ (micro) relationships with (macro) unemployment policies.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary, qualitative data were elicited from the Drifters during two phases of fieldwork. In both phases of fieldwork, the author conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews and participant observation-based research with the Drifters to generate data on how the men subjectively experience and account for the intersection of consensual non-work, welfare reliance and stigma in their lives.
Findings
In the pseudonymous locale where the Drifters reside (Dramen) displaying a willingness to work is – despite high rates of local unemployment – a social expectation and marker of “respectable” masculinity. By living lives of consensual non-work and welfare reliance, the Drifters violate a localised cultural code and are accordingly stigmatised. Rather than attempting to manage their stigma, the Drifters ritually indulge in secondary deviant behaviours. This amplifies the Drifters’ statuses as reviled agents. The Drifters lack employment options. The Drifters have been able to successfully exploit unemployment benefits. Accordingly, the Drifters’ non-work is somewhat inevitable, rather than lamentable, as many citizens in Dramen believe; and as wider current right-leaning political and media rhetoric relating to unemployment implies.
Originality/value
Examinations into the lives of non-consensually unemployed males exist. However, the lives of males who are unemployed apparently consensually – i.e. out of choice – remain under-researched. This paper functions as a micro empirical corrective, which diversifies the way male unemployment in capitalist societies can be viewed; and which offers a fresh look at how proposed unemployment welfare reform may impact the Drifters and the group in British society which the Drifters represent more broadly.
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Prison social environments play an important role in the health of prisoners. How they respond to imprisonment is partially dependent upon how effectively they integrate into an…
Abstract
Prison social environments play an important role in the health of prisoners. How they respond to imprisonment is partially dependent upon how effectively they integrate into an institution’s social structure, learn to fit in with others and adapt to and cope with becoming detached from society, community and family ‐ hence, how they personally manage the transition from free society to a closed carceral community. This paper reports on findings of an ethnography conducted in an adult male training prison in England, which used participant observation, group interviewing, and one‐to‐one semi‐structured interviews with prisoners and prison officers. The research explored participants’ perceptions of imprisonment, particularly with regard to how they learned to adapt to and ‘survive’ in prison and their perceptions of how prison affected their mental, social and physical well‐being. It revealed that the social world of prison and a prisoner’s dislocation from society constitute two key areas of ‘deprivation’ that can have important health impacts.
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Daniel Briggs, Sébastien Tutenges, Rebecca Armitage and Dimitar Panchev
This article aims to offer an ethnographic account of substances and sex and how they are interrelated in the context of one holiday destination popular among British youth…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to offer an ethnographic account of substances and sex and how they are interrelated in the context of one holiday destination popular among British youth. Current research on British youth abroad and their use of substances is based almost exclusively on survey methods. Similarly, the same research works do not explore, in sufficient detail, sexual relations outside of those purely between British tourists.
Design/methodology/approach
The article is based on 38 focus groups, observations, and informal conversations undertaken in San Antonio, Ibiza during the summers of 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Findings
The paper complements current knowledge on sex and substances abroad by discussing the role of promotion representatives, strippers and prostitutes, and the use of drugs and alcohol, emphasising how substances feature in the promotion of sex. Bakhtin's concept of the “carnivalesque” is adopted to understand these behaviours.
Originality/value
Current research is almost exclusively based on sex between tourists; therefore, sexual encounters with other social players in holiday resorts have been largely neglected.
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Ling Zhang, Wei Dong and Xiangming Mu
This paper aims to address the challenge of analysing the features of negative sentiment tweets. The method adopted in this paper elucidates the classification of social network…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to address the challenge of analysing the features of negative sentiment tweets. The method adopted in this paper elucidates the classification of social network documents and paves the way for sentiment analysis of tweets in further research.
Design/methodology/approach
This study classifies negative tweets and analyses their features.
Findings
Through negative tweet content analysis, tweets are divided into ten topics. Many related words and negative words were found. Some indicators of negative word use could reflect the degree to which users release negative emotions: part of speech, the density and frequency of negative words and negative word distribution. Furthermore, the distribution of negative words obeys Zipf’s law.
Research limitations/implications
This study manually analysed only a small sample of negative tweets.
Practical implications
The research explored how many categories of negative sentiment tweets there are on Twitter. Related words are helpful to construct an ontology of tweets, which helps people with information retrieval in a fixed research area. The analysis of extracted negative words determined the features of negative tweets, which is useful to detect the polarity of tweets by machine learning method.
Originality/value
The research provides an initial exploration of a negative document classification method and classifies the negative tweets into ten topics. By analysing the features of negative tweets, related words, negative words, the density of negative words, etc. are presented. This work is the first step to extend Plutchik’s emotion wheel theory into social media data analysis by constructing filed specific thesauri, referred to as local sentimental thesauri.
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The behavior of British youth abroad has caused considerable concern over recent years. This is because many British youth engage in binge drinking, drug use, sex behavior and…
Abstract
Purpose
The behavior of British youth abroad has caused considerable concern over recent years. This is because many British youth engage in binge drinking, drug use, sex behavior and other risk behaviors – especially in the Balearics, Spain. While research has documented levels of alcohol use, drug use, risk and sex behaviors on these islands, it tends to rely on survey data. This article aims to offer some contextualization to the British youth holiday experience and to examine why such behaviors might take place.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses ethnographic methods (observation, open‐ended focus groups) with British youth in San Antonio, Ibiza. Over the course of one week in July 2010, 17 focus groups were undertaken (n=97 aged between 17 and 31). Observations were conducted in bars, clubs, beaches, and general tourist areas.
Findings
The data suggest that young people engage in these behaviors not only to escape the constraints of work and family but also because they are exciting. The data also indicate that these behaviors appeared to help British youth construct life biographies which were integral to their identity construction. The findings are also considered within the social context of Ibiza which also played a role in promoting these behaviors.
Originality/value
No ethnographic research exists on the topic of British youth and their behaviors abroad. Previous research is mostly epidemiological survey research which does not adequately consider the social meaning and context for the behavior of British youth abroad.
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David Shepherd, Emma Beatty, Mark Button and Dean Blackbourn
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of media coverage on offenders convicted of occupational fraud and corruption in the UK. It examines the extent of media…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of media coverage on offenders convicted of occupational fraud and corruption in the UK. It examines the extent of media coverage and provides insights into the experiences of offenders.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based upon interviews with 17 convicted offenders, and on a content analysis of one national and two regional newspapers in the UK.
Findings
The findings suggest that offenders convicted of occupational crime and corruption are more likely to experience media coverage than previously assumed and that personal digital criminal legacies create long-term labels which lead to economic strains and social fractures that hinder productive reintegration into society.
Research limitations/implications
The research is limited by a small sample frame in the UK. Nevertheless, the findings suggest further research is required as they have important implications for privacy and rehabilitation.
Practical implications
In particular, offenders and their families need support in dealing with their personal digital criminal legacies, accessing their privacy rights and coping with the strains created by online stigmatisation. From a policy perspective, the existing regulatory framework that supports rehabilitation in the UK, especially the increasingly archaic Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, requires close examination and debate to ensure it is fit for the digital era. The findings also suggest that policies, practices and responsibilities of the public sector in employing offenders need to be examined.
Originality/value
It is a rare study of white-collar offenders after their release from prison. The findings are of relevance to criminal justice policy makers, rehabilitation services and academics.
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In the past little has been written on the subject of industrial sabotage. Even the broader consideration of “resistance” of which sabotage could be considered part has been…
Abstract
In the past little has been written on the subject of industrial sabotage. Even the broader consideration of “resistance” of which sabotage could be considered part has been little attempted outside the glamorous subject of strikes. Taylor and Walton adopt an approach derived from the social psychology of deviance, relying on verbal accounts, press reports or hearsay for their data. Their emphasis is on rendering the act meaningful. Brown adopts a perspective which extends their definition of sabotage from deliberate damage to the machine, product or work environment to include deliberate bad workmanship and the withholding of effort. Consequently, he views it as an additional mechanism for negotiating terms and condition of employment, and is concerned with its effectiveness as a strategy.