Narrating Trauma and Suffering: Towards Understanding Intersubjectively Constituted Memory

Erinnern ist ein komplexer und fehleranfälliger Prozess, dies teilweise auch, weil es sich nicht um einen ausschließlich individuellen Akt handelt. Nicht nur der Gegenstand des Erinnerns, sondern auch die Art und Weise, wie wir erinnern, sind eingebettet in spezifische soziale Kontexte und Teil ko-konstruierter Weltsichten einerseits und Ausdruck persönlicher Bedürfnisse und Perspektiven andererseits. In Forschungsinterviews ist zusätzlich die Beziehung zwischen der interviewten und der interviewenden Person wichtig für die Frage, wie Erlebtes erinnert und erzählt wird. All dies verdient Beachtung wenn wir als Sozialwissenschaftler/innen versuchen, den Sinn und die Motive "hinter den Erzählungen" zu entziffern. In diesem Beitrag zeigen wir, wie Interviewte, die über längere Zeiträume traumatischen Erfahrungen ausgesetzt waren, ihre Leidensgeschichte reflektieren und artikulieren. Um nachvollziehbar zu machen, wie persönliche Erinnerungen gelebter Erfahrung mit sozial und kontextuell vermittelten Werten und Beziehungen interagieren, greifen wir auf die Erzählungen früherer politischer Gefangener in Südafrika und in der ehemaligen Tschechoslowakei zurück; zusätzlich auf die Erzählungen südafrikanischer Straßenkinder und Frauen mit HIV/AIDS. Indem wir deren Erinnerung über ihr Leidenserleben interpretieren, versuchen wir zu zeigen, welche hermeneutische Herausforderung aus der besonderen Natur des Erinnerns erwächst. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902144El recuerdo es un proceso complejo y notablemente falible. Esto es en parte porque la memoria no es un acto exclusivamente individual. No solo lo que recordamos sino la forma en la que recordamos es influenciada por circunstancias sociales y visiones del mundo co-construidas, así como por nuestras necesidades y perspectivas personales. En el contexto de la investigación con entrevista, la relación investigador-participante también interviene en como la experiencia es recordada y narrada. Todos estos factores necesitan ser tomados en cuenta cuando, como investigadores sociales, intentamos revelar los significados y motivos que subyacen en lo que los participantes dicen. Este artículo pretende mostrar cómo los entrevistados que han soportado experiencias traumáticas por períodos de tiempo prolongado recuerdan, reflexionan y articulan su sufrimiento. Para ilustrar cómo las memorias personales de las experiencias reales vividas se entrecruzan con valores y relaciones social y contextualmente incrustadas, recurrimos a las narrativas de ex prisioneros políticos en Sudáfrica y de la antigua Checoslovaquia. Presentamos también narrativas de niños de la calle sudafricanos y de mujeres que viven con VIH/SIDA. Cuando interpretamos los datos en profundidad, que muestran cómo los participantes recuerdan sus experiencias de sufrimiento, encontramos que la verdadera naturaleza de la memoria plantea un desafío hermenéutico. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902144Remembering is a complex and notoriously fallible process. This is partly because memory is not an exclusively individual act. Not only what we remember, but the way we remember is influenced by social circumstances and co-constructed worldviews, as well as by our personal needs and perspectives. In the context of the research interview, the researcher-participant relationship also mediates how experience is re-membered and narrated. All these factors need to be taken into account when, as social researchers, we attempt to unpack the meanings and motives that underlie what research participants say. This paper aims to show how interviewees who have endured traumatic experiences for prolonged periods of time remember, reflect on and articulate their suffering. To illustrate how personal memories of lived, real experiences intertwine with socially and contextually embedded values and relationships we draw on the narratives of former political prisoners in South Africa and in erstwhile Czechoslovakia. We also present narratives of South African street children, and women living with HIV/AIDS. When interpreting the in-depth data that show how participants remember their experience of suffering, we find that the very nature of memory poses a hermeneutical challenge. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090214

Emotions and Belonging: Constructing Individual Experience and Organizational Functioning in the Context of an Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) Program

The analytical approach of this article is inspired by C. Wright Mills’ (1959) notion of “the sociological imagination.” Individual experience is viewed through the lens of the wider social context, particularly that of the organization. The socio-organizational context is then viewed through the lens of individual experience. The aim of this bi-directional gaze is to explore the relationship between individual experience and wider society. And in doing so, to identify and reveal the shared motifs—the significant, recurrent themes and patterns—that link and construct personal experience and social world. The aims, findings, and research processes of the original study are rooted in the instrumental epistemology of program evaluation. Specifically, a mixed-method implementation-evaluation of a local non-governmental organization’s Orphans and Vulnerable Children program. The aim of this article is to take the analyses and findings of that evaluation beyond its epistemic roots. Qualitative data were disentangled from the confines of thematic analysis and freed into their original narrative form. This allowed for a deeply reflexive “second reading,” which brings whole narratives into a dialogue with original findings, contextual factors, and sociological discourse. Key conceptual anchors are located in Vanessa May’s ideas on the self and belonging, and in Margaret Wetherell’s writings on affect and emotion. These are important aspects of working with children, particularly orphans and vulnerable children in South Africa, where many fall through the cracks of government’s social services. A second, deeper, qualitative reading of the narratives of children, their parents/caregivers, and the organization’s staff, explores three key pathways of individual and group experience that are inextricably linked to emotions and belonging, and which co-construct the social functioning of the organization itself.Dziekan Wydziału Ekonomiczno-Socjologicznego (B18112CZAS1175.01; MPK: 2122524000)

Dealing with Feeling: Emotion, Affect, and the Qualitative Research Encounter

Emotion and affect are different, yet intricately interwoven. Emotions such as fear, joy, or sadness are biological in as far as they are physically felt, but they are relational in as far as they are more fully experienced. Affect arises out of the relational quality of emotion—it consists of the myriad ways in which emotions are embodied, expressed, and enacted.Emotion and affect are influenced by their physical and symbolic contexts. In terms of physical context, data for this article were collected from two different research studies and several sites in the Free State Province of South Africa. Two forms of data were collected: verbal data and images/artworks. In terms of symbolic context, these verbal and visual forms of language and their functioning were explored to generate insights on the social construction of emotion and affect.Margaret Wetherell’s work provides a theoretical basis for analyzing emotion and affect. Rather than conceptualizing emotion in terms of obscure or esoteric formulations, her “practice-based” approach grounds the study of emotion by examining its manifestation in actions. When taken together, action and practice imply pattern and order, form and function, process and consequence.Both projects featured in this paper are sensitive studies that stir emotion. This is fertile ground for exploring emotion and affect in participants’ narratives. It is also fertile ground for exploring how emotion and affect may influence the qualitative researcher and the research process itself. Accordingly, this paper offers an additional layer of analysis on the functioning of intersubjectivity, power, emotion, and affect in the research encounter. Concluding insights endorse the practice of mindfulness as a fruitful approach to manage researcher subjectivity in the qualitative research encounter

Sexual and reproductive health perceptions and practices as revealed in the sexual history narratives of South African men living in a time of HIV/AIDS.

Abstract The frequent positioning of men's sexual risk-taking as driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa has triggered interest in men's sexual and reproductive health (SRH) perceptions, attitudes, and practices. Much research, however, presents men as a homogenous group, and focuses on the quantifiable aspects of male sexual behaviors, providing an inadequate basis for understanding men's SRH needs and addressing the gendered aspects of HIV prevention. This study used sexual history narratives to yield more nuanced and contextualized understandings of male sexuality as it relates to SRH. Fifty sexual life history individual interviews and 10 focus-group discussions (FGDs) with men, as well as 25 sexual life history interviews with women, were conducted with participants purposively sampled from three age categories: (18-24, 25-55, and 55+ years), a wide range of cultural and racial backgrounds, and in urban and rural sites across 5 provinces in South Africa. Interviews and FGDs elicited stories of participant's early knowledge of sex and sexual experimentation and then explored sexual relationships and experiences in adulthood-including engagement with HIV risks and SRH management. The data were analyzed using a thematic approach. Many male participants conformed to dominant norms of masculinity associated with a high risk of sexually transmitted infections including HIV, such as having regular unprotected sex, reluctance to test for HIV, and poor SRH-seeking behaviors. Yet, the narrative accounts reveal instances of men taking steps to protect their own SRH and that of their partners, and the complex ways in which hegemonic gender norms influence men and women's SRH. Ultimately, the study points to the value of sexual biographies for gaining a deeper understanding of male sexuality, and the social structures, meanings, and experiences that underlie it. Such insights are critical to more effectively engaging men in HIV prevention efforts

Training for Advanced Research in the Narrative Study of Lives Within the Context of Political and Educational Transformation: A Case Study in South Africa

Es un hecho ampliamente aceptado que las letras y las ciencias sociales en Sudáfrica se han estancado desde el fin de la lucha anti-apartheid en este país. Este artículo argumenta que un programa en El estudio narrativo de la vida ofrece una plataforma para establecer y fortalecer un componente significativo de la capacitación de científicos sociales y humanos. Su esencia está relacionada epistemológicamente al conocimiento indígena, a la transmisión cultural y al compromiso comunitario y por eso puede contribuir a la democratización del conocimiento. El programa está situado en un ambiente de aprendizaje participativo y la meta de los supervisores para los estudiantes es que asimilen nuevo conocimiento en un nivel profundo, se involucren de modo crítico con él y lo apliquen en formas que demuestran su entendimiento sólido del contenido y de los processos de investigación. Además de este enfoque sobre la tesis como producto, la supervisión también se preocupa por la persona como producto.El programa tiene como meta la construcción de la capacidad de los estudiantes para manejar y aplicar metateoría, teoría sustantiva y metodología cualitativa. La epistemología del Programa en el estudio narrativo de la vida está basada ampliamente en la tradición fenomenológica/interpretativa y opera en su mayor parte en el contexto de una teoría idealista del conocimiento. El programa subraya, empero, la necesidad de superar los antagonismos a menudo irresolubles entre sujeto y objeto, micro y macro, objetivista y constructivista, y estructura y agencia. Por esta razón, se sensibiliza a los estudiantes para discernir entre contextos biográficos, institucionales/organizacionales y contextos sociales en los que se deben analizar las narrativas.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130285Es kann inzwischen als hinreichend belegt gelten, dass die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften in Südafrika seit dem Ende der Anti-Apartheid-Kämpfe in diesem Land stagnieren. In diesem Beitrag vertreten wir die These, dass es mit dem Ph.D.-Programm zur narrativen Untersuchung lebensgeschichtlicher Erzählungen gelungen ist, eine Plattform zu schaffen, mit der ein wesentlicher Aspekt der Ausbildung von Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftler/innen implementiert und gestärkt wird. Epistemologisch bestehen Verbindungen zu indigenem Wissen, kultureller Weitergabe und gemeinschaftlichem Engagement. Auf dieser Grundlage kann das Programm zu einer Demokratisierung des Wissens in Südafrika beitragen. Das Programm ist in einer partizipatorischen Lernumgebung angesiedelt. Die Betreuenden verfolgen das Ziel, die Studierenden beim Wissenserwerb auf einer tiefen Ebene zu unterstützen, sich mit diesem Wissen kritisch auseinanderzusetzen und es so anzuwenden, dass ihr Verständnis der Inhalte und der Forschungsprozesse deutlich wird. Weiterhin bezieht sich die Betreuung nicht nur auf die Abschlussarbeit als Produkt, sondern hat ebenso die Persönlichkeit der Forschenden im Blick.Ziel des Programms ist es, den Studierenden metatheoretisches, fachlich-theoretisches sowie qualitativ-forschungsmethodisches Wissen zu vermitteln und sie bei der Anwendung dieses Wissens zu unterstützen. Das Programm zur Untersuchung lebensgeschichtlicher Erzählungen basiert im Kern auf der phänomenologisch-interpretativen Tradition und operiert innerhalb einer idealistischen Wissenstheorie. Zugleich betont das Programm die Notwendigkeit, die Gegensätze zwischen Subjekt und Objekt, Mikro- und Makroebene, Objektivismus und Konstruktivismus, Struktur- und Handlungsebene zu überwinden. Entsprechend werden die Studierenden dafür sensibilisiert, zwischen den biografischen, den institutionellen bzw. organisatorischen und den sozialen Kontexten zu differenzieren, innerhalb derer die Analyse von Erzählungen stattfindetURN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130285It is widely accepted that the humanities and social sciences in South Africa have stagnated since the end of the anti-apartheid struggle in this country. This article argues that a programme in The Narrative Study of Lives provides a platform for establishing and strengthening a significant component of the training of social and human scientists. Its essence is epistemologically related to indigenous knowledge, cultural transmission and community engagement, and it can therefore contribute towards a democratisation of knowledge. The programme is situated in a participatory learning environment and the supervisors aim for students to assimilate new knowledge at a deep level, engage critically with it and apply it in ways that demonstrate their solid grasp of content and research processes. In addition to this focus on thesis-as-product, supervision is also concerned with the person-as-product.The programme aims at building students' capacity to master and apply metatheory, substantive theory as well as qualitative research methodology. The epistemology of The Narrative Study of Lives programme is largely based on the phenomenological/interpretivist tradition and it largely operates within an idealist theory of knowledge. The program does emphasise, however, the need to straddle the often-irresolvable antagonisms of subject and object, micro and macro, objectivist and constructivist, and structure and agency. For this reason students are sensitised to distinguish between the biographical, institutional/organisational and the societal contexts within which narratives should be analysed.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs13028

Key editorial and business strategies: a case study of six independent community newspapers

[From the introduction] The Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI) conducted this study with the goal of assisting small independent newspapers by exploring and publicising the many challenges that they face in their efforts to become sustainable enterprises. The intent is to reveal key business and editorial strategies successful publications have adopted to assist them in overcoming these challenges. To this end, the SPI conducted in-depth case studies of six successful South African newspapers serving their local communities. Newspapers were selected from a pool of twenty newspapers, which were nominated as successful ventures by the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) and the Association of Independent Publishers of South Africa (AIP). All twenty newspapers were sent questionnaires. These collected information on each newspaper’s background, money matters, the composition of staff, and the manager’s perception of the opportunities and difficulties facing the small independent community newspapers. Based on the researchers’ interpretations of responses in the questionnaires, the SPI selected six newspapers for the case study phase of the research. The selected newspapers are: KZN Community Newspaper, Southern and Soweto Globe, North Coast Courier, Eastern Free State Issue, Ikhwezi News and Limpopo Mirror. The SPI’s researcher spent a minimum of a week at each newspaper using interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of the information given in the questionnaires. Interviews were conducted with management, staff members, advertisers and readers. The issues covered in management and staff interviews ranged from those relating to business and editorial strategies to probing how people experience the workplace, their local media contexts and the wider media environment. Advertisers and readers were asked how they perceive the performance of the different publications. The value of these case studies is that they provide the reader with an overview of the challenges facing small independent community newspapers and the range of best practices and strategies they use to succeed. By sharing and disseminating this information the SPI hopes to contribute to the sustainability of small independent community newspapers

Unpacking the dynamics of double stigma : how the HIV-TB co-epidemic alters TB stigma and its management among healthcare workers

Background HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are intricably interlinked in South Africa. The social aspects of this co-epidemic remain relatively unexplored. More specifically, no research has quantitatively explored the double stigma associated with HIV and TB in this context, and more specifically the impact of the co-epidemic on [1] the stigmatisation of TB and [2] the TB stigma mangement strategy of covering (i.e. the use of TB as a cover for having HIV). The current study aims to address this research gap by disentangling the complex mechanisms related to HIV-TB stigma. Methods Using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), data of 882 health care workers (HCWs) in the Free State province, South Africa, are analysed to investigate the link between the stigmatization of HIV and TB and the stigma management by those affected. The current study focuses on health care workers (HCWs), as both TB and HIV have a severe impact on this professional group. Results The results demonstrate that the perceived link between the epidemics is significantly associated with double HIV-TB stigmatization. Furthermore, the link between the illnesses and the double stigma are driving the stigmatization of TB. Finally, the link between HIV and TB as well as the stigmatization of both diseases by colleagues are associated with an increased use of covering as a stigma management strategy. Conclusions This is the first quantitative study disentagling the mediating role of double stigma in the context of the co-epidemic as well as the impact of the co-epidemic on the social connotations of TB. The results stress the need for an integrated approach in the fight against HIV and TB recognizing the intertwined nature of the co-epidemic, not only in medical-clinical terms, but also in its social consequences

Reflecting on Female Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery and (Dis)Empowerment

This project aims to unwrap some of the complexities related to female beauty and the body. It reflects on the second wave radical feminist view that beautifying the female body serves to attract male approval via the male gaze, both of which are deeply entrenched in patriarchal power. This perspective positions cosmetic surgery as a disempowering act for women. In riposte, we turn to third wave liberal feminist ideas to engage with the narratives of ten participants who tell of their personal experiences of, and motivations for, undergoing a cosmetic intervention. We undertake an in-depth exploration of these lifeworld experiences and the interplay of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the women’s encounters. Findings suggest that a cosmetic intervention is often obtained for the self as opposed to satisfying the “other.” Importantly, cosmetic interventions allow a process to occur in which an individual’s physical body becomes better aligned to her sense of self. From this liberal feminist perspective, cosmetic surgery is positioned as an empowering act.Dziekan Wydziału Ekonomiczno-Socjologicznego (B18112CZAS1175.01; MPK: 2122524000)

Beauty and the Cosmetic Secret

Cosmetic surgery is often linked to the perception that women who resort to cosmetic interventions to alter their physical appearance are vain, superficial, and narcissistic. Few investigations have acknowledged and explored the individual’s personal motivations and experiences of her action and choice with regards to aesthetic surgery. By focusing on subjective experience, alternative insights can be gained on the cosmetic procedure(s) and on how their reshaped body influences an individual’s lifeworld experience. The article explores the perceived benefits and consequences of reshaping, enhancing, and/or reducing a perceived flaw or shortcoming of the body. From this exploration the focus moves to the individual’s subjective and intersubjective perceptions: how she motivates and justifies her physical transformation whilst keeping private, and at times hiding, her surgical intervention. Drawing on narratives from several women, we attempt to understand how they experience cosmetic surgery in terms of their personal sense of self and their everyday social reality.Dziekan Wydziału Ekonomiczno-Socjologicznego (B18112CZAS1175.01; MPK: 2122524000)

Reducing HIV- and TB-Stigma among healthcare co-workers in South Africa: Results of a cluster randomised trial.

RATIONALE: The HIV and TB co-epidemic has a severe impact on the South African healthcare workforce and health system. HIV- and TB- stigma directed from healthcare workers (HCWs) towards colleagues not only has a negative impact on the mental health and well-being of the HCWs, but has been identified as a barrier to their own health-seeking behaviour. It also increases the strain on the health system due to absenteeism. OBJECTIVE: This cluster-randomised trial tested an intervention to reduce HIV- and TB-stigma among HCWs. The intervention, based on the theory of Diffusion of Innovations consisted of training healthcare workers as change agents in a Social and Behavioural Change Communication workshop to help them change stigmatising attitudes in the workplace. This was supported by a social marketing campaign. METHODS: Eight hospitals in the Free State province were randomised into intervention and control group in a stratified study design. 652 respondents randomly drawn from the hospitals were surveyed on aspects of HIV and TB stigma once in 2016 and again in 2018. Since the study only used four hospitals per intervention arm, cluster-based summaries were compared when analysing the intervention effect, using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. To explore how the intervention worked, 24 qualitative focus groups were conducted following the intervention. RESULTS: The quantitative test did not show a significant intervention effect on stigma between intervention and control groups. Qualitative evidence reported new awareness and changed behaviour related to HIV- and TB-stigma among individual HCWs, but a combination of factors including strong social hierarchies in the workplace and the down-scaling of the original version of the intervention seemed to reduce the impact. Conclusion The findings did not indicate a significant intervention effect, but show the potential of using HCWs as change agents to reduce HIV and TB stigma in their local communities