The mobility and identity of a Pehuenche community as expressed through their material culture (Alto Biobío, Chile)

This research focuses on the changing role of mobility within one Pehuenche comunidad, Cauñicú, which is part one of twenty legally recognised Pehuenche comunidades in southern Chile, South America. Working within an interdisciplinary perspective, I use archaeological, ethnographic, and historical sources, adopting a diachronic view to reflect on the processes of change that this social group has gone through: from highly mobile pastoralist in the Colonial period, to becoming validated officially as ´indigenous communities´ or comunidades indígenas by the Chilean state in the current context of globalisation. A defining characteristic of the Pehuenche has been the seasonal movement of some families from their annual residence in the lower valleys in colder seasons, to the highland pastures in summer, where they take their livestock and collect pinenuts from the Araucaria trees. However, this seasonal movement is in decline, and pinenuts may never have been as important a resource as the ‘Pehuenche’ ethnonym suggests. This research includes original ethnographic fieldwork to study how the socio-political organisation, economy, and perception of the landscape and their own past, as well as state policies have influenced the material culture and settlement organisation. This generates a landscape in which present and past material culture co-exist and can be explained from, and through, their cycle of mobility, with a strong sense of identity embedded in these aspects of Pehuenche culture. This maintenance of practices such as rituals, seasonal movements, and the material expressions connect the present Pehuenches to past ways of life. This approach gives importance to the historical processes of how mobile groups interacted with colonial societies and responded to changes through their material culture. It also serves to reflect on their collective identity, which is not only sustained through their current, more limited, mobility in a context of a globalised wider society, but in certain characteristics of their daily and ritual material assemblages

On the linguistic constitution of research practices

This thesis explores sociologists' routine research activities, including observation, participant observation, interviewing, and transcription. It suggests that the constitutive activities of sociological research methods - writing field-notes, doing looking and categorising, and the endogenous structure of members' ordinary language transactions are suffused with culturally methodic, i.e. ordinary language activities. "Membership categories" are the ordinary organising practices of description that society-members - including sociologists - routinely use in assembling sense of settings. This thesis addresses the procedural bases of activities which are constituent features of the research: disguising identities of informants, reviewing literature, writing-up research outcomes, and compiling bibliographies. These activities are themselves loci of practical reasoning. Whilst these activities are assemblages of members' cultural methods, they have not been recognised as "research practices" by methodologically ironic sociology. The thesis presents a series of studies in Membership Categorisation Analysis. Using both sequential and membership categorisational aspects of Conversation Analysis, as well as textual analysis of published research, this thesis examines how members' cultural practices coincide with research practices. Data are derived from a period of participant observation in an organisation, video-recordings of the organisation's work; and interviews following the 1996 bombing in Manchester. A major, cumulative theme within this thesis is confidentiality - within an organisation, within a research project and within sociology itself. Features of confidentiality are explored through ethnographic observation, textual analysis and Membership Categorisation Analysis. Membership Categorisation Analysis brings seen-but-unnoticed features of confidentiality into relief. Central to the thesis are the works of Edward Rose, particularly his ethnographic inquiries of Skid Row, and Harvey Sacks, on the cultural logic shared by society-members. Rose and Sacks explicate the visibility and recognition of members' activities to other members, and research activities as linguistic activities

Revisiting the past: social organisation of remembering and reconciliation

The thesis examines social practices of reconciliation regarding British prisoners of war's experience of captivity by the Japanese in World War II. It draws on theoretical issues of social remembering, discursive psychology and discourse analysis. It concerns the social organisation of identity and accountability, i.e., ways in which issues of identity, blame, apology and forgiveness concerning past actions and events are used to address the significance of reconciliation. Talk and texts are examined to understand how private and collective memories of the past are mobilised and made relevant to present and future lives of the POWs. [Continues.

The interface between global hegemony and cultural marginalization : agency, education and development among indigenous peoples

307 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-307).This thesis seeks to conceptualize an educational process that would allow Indigenous peoples to engage in a truly endogenous development, in which the elements of their ways of life that are most important and central to them are preserved and developed through their own agency and resistance, while the elements they think worthwhile of the hegemonic system which attempts to assimilate them, often destructively, through its development models, especially its associated educational models, may be selectively incorporated into their society on indigenous terms and subordinated to their own endogenous development agenda. The research will proceed on the basis of a comparative study of three cases: the Karretjiemense of the Great Karoo of South Africa, the Maori people of New Zealand, and the comprehensive policy of the Bolivian government ("plurinationalism") regarding autonomous Indigenous groups. By researching and discussing these three cases, the key features of turangawaewae, noetic spaces, revalorization, and the middle ground as educational process consistent with a truly endogenous development with clear objectives and operational guidelines will be formulated

Stories of extractivism and transformation

Diese Studie befasst sich mit den durch den Bergbau verursachten Umwelt- Sozial- und Territorialkonflikten in der Region Tarapacá, deren Probleme nicht nur mit den Umweltauswirkungen, sondern mit der allgemeinen Behandlung der Natur zum Zwecke des Profits und des Exports verbunden sind. Die Monographie konzentriert sich auf die Konfrontation zwischen dem Staat, den indigenen Gemeinschaften und den Bergbauunternehmen und beschreibt nuanciert die vielen Beziehungen und Verflechtungen zwischen ihnen. Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit stehen die verschiedenen politischen, wirtschaftlichen, institutionellen und kulturellen Elemente im Zusammenhang mit der Entwicklung von Bergbau und ihre Folgen und Interdependenzen die in den einzelnen Kapiteln beschrieben und dargestellt werden. Im Rahmen nationaler Umweltvorschriften, die die Entwicklung des Bergbaus und anderer Tätigkeiten mit großen Auswirkungen auf die Umwelt zu regulieren versuchen, generiert der heutige ressourcenabbau bestimmte Vereinbarungen mit den lokalen Gemeinschaften die in der Nähe der Bergbaugebiete leben. Das Fehlen von Vereinbarungen kann zu Konflikten und Widerstand seitens der Gemeinschaften führen. Dadurch könnten bestimmte Bergbauprojekte mit hohen Investitionskosten gestoppt oder verzögert werden. Auf diese Weise werden Institutionen, unternehmerisches Engagement, Partizipation und Widerstand in komplexen Beziehungen miteinander verwoben. Die Arbeit integriert auch einen historischen Rahmen in Anbetracht des früheren Salpeterabbaus in der Region und der Entwicklung der Chilenischen Ressourcenpolitik des 20. Jh. mit starken Einfluss auf die nationale Vorstellung vom Bergbau als grundlegende Wirtschaftstätigkeit für die nationale Entwicklung. Sowohl werden auch die Merkmale des chilenischen Neoliberalismus und die Rolle des Bergbaus anhand einer Extraktivismus Kritik behandelt.This study addresses the environmental, social, and territorial conflicts caused by mining in the Tarapacá region, whose problems are linked to environmental impacts and the general treatment of nature for profit and export. The study focuses on the confrontation between the state, indigenous communities, and mining companies and describes the many relationships and interconnections between them in nuanced terms. This work focuses on the various political, economic, institutional, and cultural elements associated with mining development and their consequences and interdependencies, which are described and illustrated in each chapter. In the context of national environmental regulations that seek to regulate the development of mining and other activities with significant environmental impacts, contemporary resource extraction generates certain agreements with local communities living near mining areas. The lack of agreements can lead to conflict and resistance from communities, and this could stop or delay specific mining projects with high investment costs. This way, institutions, corporate engagement, participation, and resistance become interwoven in complex relationships. The work also integrates a historical framework considering the former saltpeter mining in the region and the development of Chilean resource policies of the 20th century, with a strong influence on the national conception of mining as a fundamental economic activity for national development, discussing at large the characteristics of Chilean neoliberalism and the role of mining

‘Slobs and yobs’: representations of youth in the UK newspapers 1st January to 30th June 2005

Many authors have pointed to the ways in which newspapers negatively stereotype young people. This thesis aims to engage with and contribute to this debate through a contemporary discursive analysis of newspaper representations of youth, in The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Daily Mirror during the period 1(^st) January to 30(^th) June 2005. My aim is to make explicit the discourses, both contemporary and historical, that circulated in the press during this period. It is through such discourses that young people were identified, explained and represented at this juncture. It will be argued that those young people deemed problematic by the press are represented in particular classed ways and understood through a discourse of 'underclass'; by which young people are constructed as victims of their families. Further, in 2005, as in the nineteenth- century, the poor working-class (understood as uncultured/uncivilized) are blamed for societies ills and such a discursive configuration has inevitable consequences and effects for both young people and their families

Critical Moments of Meaning and Being: Narratives of Cancer during Young Adult Life

Emerging conversations within oncology have drawn more attention to cancer among young adults (ages 18-45). Recent research has illuminated many of the psychosocial difficulties young adults face as they go through the many trials and tribulations of chronic illness. However, a subject still understudied, much is unclear about the personal as well as the cultural implications of being diagnosed during this period of time. In a book of cancer stories, performer and young adult cancer patient Kairol Rosenthal (2009) expressed her frustration with what she saw as “stereotypes” promulgated by the limited public discourses that exist on the subject (p. 7). She sought to counterbalance these representations with stories capturing the “complexities of our real daily lives” (p. 7). Indeed, in oncological discourses young adults tend to be cast in oversimplified terms, based upon cultural expectations about what young adulthood should be and pressures to conform to those standards. Intersecting with dominant discourses within narrative identity development, two imperatives are placed upon young adults’ stories: integration of different life experiences and selves into a coherent narrative and developing a sense of self-authorship in the direction of one’s life. What seems to be lost in these imperatives within the existing research is what is at stake for individual lives (a phenomenological perspective) and how those stakes are negotiated or contested with hegemonic trajectories of life (a critical perspective). Receptive to Rosenthal’s critique of dominant discourses around cancer and young adulthood, the purpose of this thesis was to explore the complexity and diversity of young adults living with cancer. More specifically, I intended to interrogate some of their existential and biographical challenges as expressed in their narratives of cancer, as well as their engagements with ideological constructions of young adulthood, namely, the expectations of narrative coherence and self-authorship. This research marked a departure from most studies on the subject in its qualitative methodology (i.e., narrative analysis) and in its explicit evaluation of the effects of cultural discourses on young adults’ attempts to make meaning. More generally, this research shows the importance of language—in discourses, narratives, and metaphors—in constructing and communicating illness experiences. For this project, I gathered a mix of written and oral narratives (through semi-structured interviews) from 21 participants from across Canada. The foci of analyses were on what could be called narrative ‘moments of meaning’ and ‘moments of being,’ that is, situated expressions of how they made sense of their worlds and themselves. Many of these were critical moments in the sense of questioning and resisting dominant discourses of cancer and young adulthood. Their moments of meaning often expressed negotiation of personal desires and innovative intentions with familiar cultural narratives or “prototypical plots” (Good, 1994)—including stories of battling cancer, embarking on a life journey, nearing recovery, encountering unpredictability and mystery, and living with chaos. These moments of meaning served an array of purposes well beyond the expected function of constructing a coherent narrative. When telling of identity disruptions and the liminality of cancer, participants produced both more orderly moments of being (e.g., survivor, patient, or warrior identities) and more liminal moments of non-being (e.g., victim, phoenix, or trickster identities). Self-authorship seemed to be present among the former, while the latter expressed less control and certainty of being—which was not always seen as a problem. These moments of being and non-being were collaborated and contested within the intersubjective spaces of their clinical relationships, local worlds, and cancer patient communities. More specific to their age group, their moments of being and non-being often related to what may be understood as developmental identities, including the ‘traditional milestones’ such as individual autonomy, family (i.e., marriage and parenthood), and vocation (i.e., getting an education and building a career). In their struggles they sometimes reaffirmed these cultural ideals toward identity integration and other times resisted them as “normalizing ideologies” (Becker, 1997) of young adulthood. As part of these larger negotiations of meaning and being, the participants expressed struggles to understand the moral significance of their illnesses. Confronted with what may be called “causal ontologies” of suffering (Shweder, 1997), they spoke of different etiological models of cancer’s origins as well as reconciliatory models for living with cancer in the future. Their narratives sometimes led toward “remoralization” (Kleinman, 1988)—couching experiences of suffering in terms of a moral order (narrative coherence) and personal responsibility (self-authorship)—and sometimes led away from it, depending on whether they believed their illnesses originated from events in their personal and social lives. Overall, the participants in this study communicated complex and potentially chronic existential challenges. In many ways their narratives resisted dominant representations of young adults with cancer—and of cancer patients in general—suggesting that such representations need to be rethought. Their critical moments of meaning and being may serve as counternarratives to the stereotypes of concern to Rosenthal and many other cancer patients. Specifically, their narratives revealed the merits and limits of the ideological construction of young adulthood as a time of narrative coherence and self-authorship. This study has important implications for future health research and psychosocial support in the field of oncology; building upon a “narrative medicine” (Charon, 2006), sensitivity to how language is used among young adult cancer patients may lead toward more inclusive clinical practices

World financial orders and world financial centres :an historical international political economy

PhD ThesisAttempts to comprehend contemporary world finance are confronted by a dual problematic: inquiry encounters not only significant change that cannot easily be captured, but also the predominance of neo-classical economics as a mode of knowledge. By taking as its starting point existing research in the field of International Political Economy (IPE) and grounding inquiry in an 'Historical IPE' approach, 'World Financial Orders and World Financial Centres' offers an alternative mode of knowledge of contemporary world finance. An Historical IPE of world finance proceeds by focusing upon the changing organisation of world credit practices since the seventeenth century. World credit practices are organised in the context of the structures of power in successive social orders, that is, world financial orders. Relative stability in world financial orders is reproduced by structures of authority which articulate interdependent relationships between state, civil and market institutions in the organisation of world credit practices. World financial centres (WFCs) are identified as necessary to an understanding of world finance in two main senses. First, WFCs are the key social spaces for world finance, where world credit practices and the material, ideational and institutional forces that frame them become centralised. Second, WFCs are key spaces of authority in world finance, the social loci for the reproduction of world financial orders. It is shown that periods of relative stability in successive world financial orders tend to coincide with the dominance of a single WFC. With the present standing of New York, London and Tokyo as a 'triad' of WFCs, contemporary world finance is characterised by its 'unstable reproduction'.Economic and Social Research Council

The great divide? Occupational limbo and permanent liminality amongst ‘teaching only’ staff in higher education

In this paper, we contribute new theoretical perspectives and empirical findings to the conceptualisation of occupational liminality, specifically in relation to so-called ‘teaching-only’ staff at UK universities. Here, we posit ‘occupational limbo’ as a state distinct from both transitional and permanent liminality; an important analytic distinction in better understanding occupational experiences. In its anthropological sense, liminality refers to a state of being betwixt and between; it is temporary and transitional. Permanent liminality refers to a state of being neither-this-nor-that, or both-this-and-that. We extend this framework in proposing a conceptualisation of occupational limbo as always-this-and-never-that. Based on interviews with 51 teaching-only staff at 20 research-intensive ‘Russell Group’ universities in the United Kingdom, findings revealed participants’ highly challenging occupational experiences. Interviewees reported feeling ‘locked-in’ to an uncomfortable state by a set of structural and social barriers often perceived as insurmountable. These staff felt negatively ‘marked’ (Allen-Collinson, 2009), subject to identity contestation as academics, and were found to engage in negative, often self-deprecatory identity talk that highlighted a felt inability to cross the līmen to the elevated status of ‘proper academics’ (Bamber et al., 2017). The findings and the new conceptual framework provide sociological insights with wider application to other occupational spheres