| 1. |
- Vieira, Magdalena, 1975-
(författare)
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Moments on a City Bus : Micro-sociology of Non-verbal Interaction in Urban Bus-riding
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis seeks to contribute to research on social interaction in public (and semi-public) places in general, and research on non-verbal mundane interaction in these places in particular. By paying empirical attention to the non-verbal interaction that takes place in the context of riding a city bus – which is a contained and time-limited form of social activity – this thesis explores the theoretically rich source of information about mundane interaction that this specific social activity offers. By systematically applying a Goffmanian-informed conceptual framework to the analysis of data collected through participant observation, this thesis examines what this framework can offer to micro-sociological understandings of mundane non-verbal interaction. Moreover, this thesis investigates whether bodily cues for race, gender and age (and the sense of similarity and difference that they convey), play a role in the non-verbal mundane interaction that takes place in city busses. The assumption that mundane non-verbal interaction in a time- and space-constrained setting such as a city bus could be influenced by obvious phenotypical similarities and differences between the bodies of the people that engage in this interaction, is also hereby explored.The empirical material utilized in this thesis has been generated through a carefully designed study of city bus riding that relies on participant observation (over a period of 10 months), and is based on the operationalization of an array of parameters to study non-verbal interaction in a theoretically-informed and systematic manner. The analyses performed allowed for the methodical study of what time, space and phenotypical variations mean to the non-verbal mundane interaction that takes place in city busses (a total 200 hours of observations were recorded in systematized field notes resulting in 136 interaction moments, which were coded along 307 parameters using ATLAS.ti).The results suggest that while previous research on urban bus riding alludes to three dimensions of social interaction that are worthy of our attention – time, space, and (travelling) bodies – there is also a fourth dimension that scholars of social interaction (both verbal and non-verbal) ought to take into account (i.e. codes for interaction). The results indicate also that it is through the systematic attention to interaction moments (by acknowledging their dimensions, by taking into account features of gestures, and through detailed comparisons with other interaction moments) that we can achieve a deeper and detailed understanding of mundane non-verbal interaction in everyday life. Thus, by exposing new aspects of social interaction that future research can explore, as well as offering an array of new angles that it ought to consider (such as different aspects of intensity of involvement and types of territorial orientation to name but a few), this thesis expands the micro-sociological imagination of what mundane non-verbal interaction entails.This thesis proposes that there is nothing inconsequential or fleeting about mundane non-verbal interaction in everyday life. This thesis shows namely that in the mundane non-verbal interaction that takes place in the public spaces that are city busses, the socially coded bodies of the riders, and therefore also the phenotypical similarities and differences between them, may be a part of the interaction space created and reshaped in each interaction moment. Thus, not only is mundane non-verbal interaction full of events, rhythms, and nuances in intensity, this interaction seems also to be heavily mediated by the phenotypical cues that are imprinted in our bodies, which is why labeling this interaction ‘mundane’ is deceiving.
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| 2. |
- Lalander, Philip, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
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"Vi vet vad du behöver" : Konstruktion och motstånd av "ensamkommande" på HVB
- 2016
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Ingår i: Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift. - : Forsa. - 1104-1420 .- 2003-5624. ; 23:3-4, s. 219-238
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the article is to highlight and analyse how ”unaccompanied minors” view the staff at the residential care units (called HVB) where they live. Through repeated qualitative interviews with twenty young individuals over more than a year, the researchers have captured central themes. One such theme is the experience of being defined as a child by the staff. This can be provocative for the young people who feel they are not being acknowledged as competent actors. Another central theme is being described as homogeneous and primitive, as a person that needs to be processed to live up to a desired Swedishness. The informants experience their treatment as children and undeveloped immigrants as a solid structure, a power system that is hard to question since it is so well institutionalized. The article also describes sanctions used by the staff to discipline the residents. Such sanctions are often directed at limiting the possibilities for the young people to participate in social activities, but also at increasing surveillance and documentation. It is difficult for these young people to openly resist since they do not want to be punished. Resistance, thus, becomes hidden. The informants’ experiences show how difficult it is to develop a social environment in which they can feel truly recognized by the staff as complete human beings with valuable competences.
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| 3. |
- Hannerz, Erik, 1978-
(författare)
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Performing Punk : Subcultural Authentications and the Positioning of the Mainstream
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is about how and in opposition to what punk is defined and lived out by punks in Sweden and Indonesia. Arguing against the previous research’s presumption that subcultural meaning constitutes a single set of meaning, this study points to two patterned sets of meanings, each constructed out of several different definitions of the mainstream as well as the subcultural authentic. Consequently, a central research question concerns how to theoretically account for similarly structured and structuring heterogeneities across and between the Indonesian and Swedish cases. Drawing from extensive ethnographic fieldwork and interviews in which a variety of interpretations of punk have been explored, six different definitions of the mainstream are outlined. Each of these refers in turn to a particular script through which subcultural styles and identities are performed and authenticated as set apart. These different definitions are then combined into two patterned sets of meaning through a consistency in terms of how the binary subcultural/mainstream is worked and extended: A convex pattern, involves a boundary work to what is defined as external to punk, bending outwards. A concave points instead bends inwards, a boundary work against mainstream internal to punk. By showing how these patterns are interrelated spatially and symbolically, it is argued that subcultural meaning as well as the authentic have to be approached from within the subcultural. The mainstream is thus released from having an inherent meaning as “the outside,” “the dominant,” or “the commercial,” and more so, so is the subcultural and the subcultural authentic. Consequently, the same object can be performed differently, drawing upon different binaries, or through working the same binaries differently, to extend the subcultural through the use of analogies and metaphors. The total similarity between how punk is performed in Sweden and Indonesia, as well as the consistent differences between the two patterns, point to a relative autonomy of the subcultural. Different definitions of the subcultural authentic and the mainstream are therefore not a matter of commitment, or degrees of authenticity, but rather different means to communicate, interpret, and act upon the subcultural.
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