World of Our Mothers Study of Jewish and Italian Immigrant Women, 1980-1983

This qualitative study examines the life stories of 100 Jewish and Italian immigrant women who built their lives and families in New York in the wake of World War I. The women had all immigrated to the United States by 1927 and were at least 13 years old at the time of immigration. All the women settled in and around New York City upon arrival in the U.S. The women (61 Jewish, 39 Italian) participated in structured interviews covering topics such as immigration, marriage, age, language, home life, food, children, family size and sexuality, home economy, entrepreneurship, work outside the home, health, education, welfare, religion, politics, philanthropy, popular culture, and godparents. The participants were recruited through announcements in the media and elsewhere. Some women contacted the project directly, while other women's families initiated the meetings.The Murray Archive holds additional analogue materials for this study (paper schedules with notes, typed transcripts of interview tapes, and a small number of corresponding audiotapes). If you would like to access this material, please apply to use the data. Audio Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. There are 160 audio files available

Politeness and leadership discourse in New Zealand and Hong Kong: a cross-cultural case study of workplace talk

Norms of what are considered appropriate and polite ways of communicating are situated in the cultural context in which interactions occur. This crucial role of culture is particularly apparent in a workplace setting: norms regarding appropriate ways of integrating the competing discourses of power and politeness at work are strongly influenced by wider cultural expectations. Drawing on naturally-occurring data recorded in business meetings in New Zealand and Hong Kong, and using Locher and Watts' (Journal of Politeness Research 1: 933, 2005) framework for analyzing relational work, this paper explores how leaders from two white-collar organizations achieve their various workplace objectives while simultaneously adhering to culture-specific politeness norms and expectations. The analysis focuses on just one of the discursive strategies which these leaders employ when performing relational work: humour. This strategy constitutes a versatile and multi-functional tool which assists leaders in achieving their various leadership objectives. It is particularly useful for building rapport with subordinates and mitigating the impact of negatively affective speech acts. The analysis explores how the leaders' use of humour is consistent with culturally specific politeness norms negotiated in the leaders' community of practice; and how by drawing on it the leaders also meet cultural expectations concerning the enactment of effective leadership