Search Results (41)

The increasing presence of racialized and immigrant students and educators challenges school institutions to critically examine whose knowledge, leadership, and practices are recognized, legitimized, and valued. Within this context, the integration of immigrant and racialized professionals becomes critical and raises questions about equity, representation, and the reproduction—or disruption—of racial hierarchies. Institutional ethnography is used to analyze how ethnocultural diversity is addressed by three school principals of immigrant origin as well as on a systemic level. The findings highlight how these leaders navigate, negotiate, and reshape leadership practices within normatively white Francophone minority institutions, illuminating both the constraints imposed by institutional norms and the varied ways leaders mobilize their positionality to enact change. As such, the study reveals contrasting conceptions of leadership as modeling. Hélène leads by example, seeking to inspire teachers and students by embodying an alternative leadership, which might be labeled as “quiet leadership”. By contrast, Sylvain and Armand lead primarily through rules, structures, and institutional alignment. As such, their leadership may be labeled legitimate and uncontestable. The study suggests that transformation is negotiated differently depending on leaders’ socialization, institutional positioning, and perceived freedom to act. Full article

The transformation of religious authority in the digital age is shaped by the interactions between human actors, digital media and algorithmic systems. This study uses digital ethnography to examine how religious authority is constructed and negotiated on digital platforms used by Muslims in Indonesia and globally. This study focuses on seven authoritative figures in the digital Islamic landscape, representing different spectra of authority, from traditional pesantren in Indonesia to transnational apologetics and urban liberalism. The findings reveal patterns of authority delegation in which digital platforms replace human roles in da’wah and Islamic institutions. Religious authority is formed through articulative work that connects the Sunnah, intermediaries (religious scholars), and congregations. Public search data show that digital spaces function as a medium of distribution, where religious authority is shaped by audience responses, message repetition, symbolic affiliation, and the dynamics of debate. This study highlights the role of algorithmic culture and authority representation aesthetics in mediating religious authority in the digital age. Algorithms shape exposure and reach audiences, and representational aesthetics are crucial for disseminating religious content. The study concludes that clerical authority in the digital era results from technocultural mediation, in which the cleric becomes both a figure and representation calculated by machines and validated by the audience’s participation. Full article

Poverty reduction, which is central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, drives strategies like poverty alleviation relocation. China’s poverty alleviation relocation program represents a systematic government project to achieve national modernization. However, a holistic perspective of examining the process of reconstructing the social space of resettlement areas in poverty alleviation relocation is relatively limited. Drawing on spatial production theory, this study examines the mechanisms of spatial reconstruction in the Mu’en Di Resettlement Area in China from a holistic perspective, focusing on institutional, material, and spiritual spaces. This study primarily employs field-based ethnography, supplemented by a text analysis of policy documents. The findings reveal that the reconstruction of social space in resettlement areas constitutes a dynamic arena of interactions among state planning, market regulation, and migrant adaptation. This study offers insights for the practice of spatial reconstruction for impoverished migrants and emphasizes the importance of empowering migrants as active agents in this process. Full article

This paper critiques the discursive knowledge productions in V. S. Naipaul’s Among the Believers by challenging the authority of its purported firsthand observations of practising Muslims across four Muslim-majority societies. It argues the book’s discursive knowledge production is not grounded in empirical ethnography but is instead manufactured through specific narrative and rhetorical strategies. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (deterritorialization), Homi Bhabha (mimicry and ambivalence), and Paul de Man (prosopopoeia), the study demonstrates how Naipaul constructs a civilizational hierarchy by positioning himself against anthropological knowledge, trivializing or appropriating peripheral writers, selectively manipulating canonical and non-canonical texts, and orchestrating encounters with interlocutors. The analysis examines how these techniques create a narrative backdrop for critiquing Islamic institutions and practices, including Sharīʿah, religious pedagogy, and educational systems such as the pesantren. Through Orientalist framing, selective historicism, and rhetorical ventriloquism, Naipaul consistently represents the Islamic world as a site of civilizational deficiency in contrast to his ideal of a Western ‘universal civilization’. The paper further engages the writings of key intellectuals—Geertz, Illich, Foucault, Iqbal, and Maududi—to counter Naipaul’s civilizational diagnosis and to foreground alternative internal critiques of modernity, politics, and education. It concludes that Naipaul’s treatment of Islam participates in a longer discursive tradition shaped by Enlightenment-derived narratives of cultural hierarchy rather than neutral ethnographic inquiry. Full article

This article develops the analytical concept of post-liturgical female rituality to examine informal religious practices created by Western Ukrainian female labor migrants in Israel. Drawing on approaches that conceptualize ritual as flexible, embodied, and processual, it focuses on women’s ritual activities that take place in close temporal and symbolic proximity to official church liturgy while remaining outside canonical frameworks. Rather than directly challenging institutional religion, these practices extend and reinterpret patriarchal liturgy through gendered forms of ritual engagement. The analysis is based on qualitative research among Ukrainian Greek Catholic women in Israel, including 27 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and digital ethnography. The findings highlight three interconnected dimensions: collective gatherings following church services; post-liturgical practices involving food, singing, and embodied performance; and national-religious rituals expressing emotional belonging to Ukraine in the context of war. The article argues that post-liturgical female rituals constitute a distinct form of women’s religious agency that operates within institutional Christianity while reworking its meanings, contributing to feminist scholarship on ritual, migration, and war. Full article

Social media platforms have become central infrastructures for disaster communication, yet their role in shaping ethnic cohesion in post-conflict societies remains insufficiently examined. Sri Lanka, marked by a legacy of ethnic conflict, provides a critical context for exploring how moments of crisis are narratively and symbolically negotiated online. This study employs a qualitative digital ethnographic approach to analyze publicly accessible social media content circulated during a recent national disaster. Data were collected from Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok between 1 and 10 December, yielding an initial corpus of 344 posts, of which 200 were purposively selected for in-depth analysis following the removal of duplicated and near-identical content. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three dominant and interrelated narrative patterns: expressions of solidarity, resource sharing and mutual aid, and visual–symbolic representations of unity. These narratives were articulated through inclusive language, unity-oriented hashtags, depictions of material assistance, and imagery emphasizing co-presence across religious and institutional lines. Engagement metrics were examined as indicators of narrative resonance within platform visibility structures. The findings suggest that social media temporarily foregrounded discursive cohesion and symbolic unity during the disaster period. However, these representations should be interpreted as context-specific and performative rather than as evidence of durable inter-ethnic integration. This study contributes by demonstrating how social media platforms operate as spaces for the performative articulation of ethnic unity during disasters in post-conflict contexts, using a digital ethnographic approach to methodologically and empirically research digital ethnography, disaster communication, and social cohesion in post-conflict settings. Full article

This article examines the everyday dynamics of informal activities in touristified urban environments through a qualitative case study of Porto, Portugal. Drawing on an urban ethnography combining observation and semi-structured interviews, we analyse how individuals providing tourism-related services perceive their role within informality, how they articulate their agency, and how their practices contribute to the everyday production of the tourist experience. The study shows that engagement in informal tourism work is structured by intersecting legal, economic and institutional constraints that channel professional trajectories into unregulated or semi-recognised forms of labor. Individuals display significant agency through adaptive strategies, craft-based skills and relational networks that enable them to navigate surveillance, seasonality and spatial exclusion. We argue that these practices operate as a form of urban tourism scaffolding, to conceptualise informal tourism practices as a contingent support structure that sustains tourist experiences beyond formal planning and infrastructure. Although situated in precarity and vulnerability, these practices produce structural effects on the urban tourism offer by filling gaps, organizing encounters and animating public space. By conceptualising informal tourism work as a processual and relational support structure rather than as marginal spontaneity or residual activity, the article highlights the need to reconsider informal labour as a constitutive dimension of tourist cities. Full article

This paper presents the results of a comprehensive technological study of three bronze sculptures from the Jin Empire period (1115–1234 AD) from the collection of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IHAE FEB RAS). Using photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), the production techniques were reconstructed, differences in alloy composition were identified, and specific features of the casting processes were determined. Tomographic analysis revealed two fundamentally different manufacturing approaches: a multi-stage technology involving the use of different alloys and the assembly of separately cast elements, and a single-cast technology with a homogeneous structure. Elemental analysis of the three sculptures using EDS demonstrated significant compositional variability—from 21% to 67% copper and from 9% to 69% tin in different parts of the objects—confirming the complexity of the technological processes. An expanded study of 20 bronze sculptures using portable X-ray fluorescence analysis (pXRF) allowed for the identification of four typological alloy groups: classic balanced lead–tin bronzes (Cu 30–58%, Sn 16–23%, Pb 16–28%), high-lead bronzes (Pb up to 52%), high-tin bronzes (Sn up to 30%), and low-tin alloys (Sn less than 11%). The morphological features of the sculptures suggest one of their possible interpretations as ancestor spirits used in ritual practices. The research findings contribute to the study of Jurchen metallurgical traditions and demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinary, non-destructive analytical methods for reconstructing the technological, social, and cultural aspects of medieval Far Eastern societies. Full article

In the UK, there are significant gaps in our understanding of the systems, processes and procedures that govern access to housing among refugees. Responding to these gaps, this paper presents research findings that offer insights into the institutional coordination of homelessness and housing insecurity in the lives of newly granted refugees navigating the ‘move-on’ process in Wales. Drawing on data from focus groups, peer research, practitioner interviews, observation and text analysis, this paper takes an approach informed by Institutional Ethnography (IE) to examine the gaps between refugees’ lived experiences of homelessness and housing precarity and what is happening institutionally in terms of homelessness prevention and response. In doing so, this paper shows the ‘move-on’ process to be a disruptive mechanism of forced displacement into homelessness and precarious housing. Meanwhile, the institutional preoccupation with private rented sector solutions shifts the focus away from what is politically ‘off the table’ for newly granted refugees in terms of state homelessness response. Ultimately, this paper calls for a reframing of homelessness prevention strategies to account for the institutional processes that variably condition refugee displacement following a grant of status in the UK. Full article

The cult of Queen Saint Elizabeth constitutes one of the most persistent manifestations of popular religiosity in central Portugal, especially in Coimbra. Following her death, popular veneration of this saint rapidly consolidated, later legitimized by her beatification in 1516 and canonization in 1625. This article aims to understand how Elizabethan devotion currently constructs an identity in Coimbra, Portugal. To characterize the pilgrimage and expressions of faith, I observe the biennial festivities, the processional routes, sacrifices, adherence, and generational beliefs in this feminine cult, relating them to the pursuit of health. The article studies the main institutions that regulate devotion in modern times (notably the Confraternity of Queen Saint Elizabeth) and explores some processes of its patrimonialization and touristification. Finally, I also analyze the performativity of rituals and the identity of pilgrims, highlighting how expressions of faith also constitute social, cultural and economic practices. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork, interviews and documentary analysis. The ethnography (still ongoing) on this very Portuguese pilgrimage already reveals points of differentiation and of commonality with other more famous pilgrimages, such as Fátima and Lourdes, while remaining a significant and unique part of the character of popular religiosity and the local identity of Coimbra. Full article

This article examines Turkish wedding ceremonies within the German-Turkish diasporic context, viewing them as dynamic sites of cultural citizenship and diasporic belonging. While existing scholarship has largely concentrated on the institutional aspects of integration and citizenship, this study redirects focus to the vernacular, performative, and visually mediated expressions of identity evident in everyday diasporic life. Employing digital ethnography and visual discourse analysis, the research investigates user-generated content on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, specifically content tagged with keywords like “Turkish wedding Germany”. The analysis reveals how wedding rituals serve as public performances where national symbols, religious practices, traditional music, and attire converge to express collective identity, assert cultural visibility, and negotiate belonging within the German socio-political landscape. The study identifies three interconnected themes: the reproduction of national imaginaries and symbolic belongings, the continuity of heritage and tradition, and the ritualization of religious practices in transnational contexts. By emphasising the embodied and affective dimensions of these performances, the article illustrates how mediated marriage rituals function as hybrid cultural practices that challenge marginalisation and promote diasporic connectivity. This research contributes to broader discussions on mediated diasporic identities by providing a comprehensive view of how everyday cultural performances serve as symbolic tools for maintaining a sense of home beyond national boundaries. Full article

This article explores how Afro-Colombian rural communities in the Caribbean region reclaim their territorial rights through the social construction of habitat. Drawing on four years of participatory action research with the Ma-Majarí Community Council in El Níspero, Montes de María, the study analyzes how traditional housing practices—rooted in ancestral knowledge, oral traditions, and collective memory—function as tools of cultural affirmation, political resistance, and re-peasantization in a post-conflict context. The research highlights the strategic role of Life Plans (Planes de Vida) as instruments of self-governance and territorial justice, challenging extractive development models and institutional neglect. Through visual ethnography, architectural surveys, and community-led housing initiatives, the study reveals how Afro-rural architecture embodies autonomy, resilience, and the right to remain in territory. Housing is not merely a physical structure but a living system of identity, memory, and future-making. This work contributes to broader debates on rural social movements, ethnodevelopment, and post-conflict reconstruction, proposing an architecture of recognition that centers cultural specificity and community agency. Full article

This article illuminates the cosmology of Raa Haqi (often called Dersim Alevism or Kurdish Alevism), a rarely examined strand within Alevi Studies. Existing scholarship’s emphasis on identity politics and sparse ethnography has left Raa Haqi’s mythological and cosmological dimensions underexplored. This paper approaches Raa Haqi through a dual authority framework: (1) Ocak lineages and Ocak–talip relations—sustained by kinship institutions like kirvelik, musahiplik, and communal rites such as the cem—and (2) jiares, non-human agents from the Batın realm that manifest in Zahir as sacred places, objects, and animals. Methodologically, I conduct a close, motif-based reading of folktales compiled by Caner Canerik (2019, Dersim Masalları I), treating them as ethnographic windows into living theology. The analysis shows that tales encode core principles—rızalık (mutual consent), ikrar (vow), sır (the secret knowledge), fasting and calendrical rites, ritual kinship, and moral economies involving humans, animals, and Batın beings. Dreams, metamorphosis, and jiare-centered orientations structure time–space, ethics, and authority beyond the Ocak, including in individual re-sacralizations of objects and sites. I conclude that these narratives do not merely reflect belief; they actively transmit, test, and renew Raa Haqi’s cosmological order, offering Alevi Studies a theory-grounded, source-proximate account of Kurdish Alevi mythic thought. Full article

This study interrogates the interplay between architectural practice and ethnographic inquiry to elucidate human spatial experience across time and culture. Employing a mixed-methods design that integrates computational bibliometric analysis with thematic coding of international academic literature, the research identifies six thematic domains—memory, pedagogy, urban injustice, institutional care, domesticity, and vernacular epistemes. These domains reveal how ethnographic methods, though increasingly incorporated in architectural discourse, are frequently relegated to an instrumental role focused on design optimisation rather than the critical examination of cultural practices and power structures. The findings underscore that architecture functions as both a technical and cultural medium, simultaneously shaping and reflecting human behaviour and social relations. By foregrounding ethnography as a tool for capturing situated, embodied knowledge, the study advocates for a reconceptualisation of architectural practice that embraces reflexivity, inclusiveness, and contextual sensitivity. In doing so, it contributes to interdisciplinary debates central to anthropology, challenging established epistemological hierarchies and highlighting the potential for transformative, culturally informed spatial design. Full article

This study explores the governance and implementation of local labor market programs (LLMPs) in Swedish municipalities, analyzing the tension between national mandates and local policy practices. Drawing on institutional ethnography (IE), intersectionality, and emotional labor theories, we examine interviews with politicians and managers from eight municipalities. Politicians frame LLMPs as budget-driven initiatives, depoliticizing local labor market issues to comply with national policies like the January Agreement. This approach prioritizes efficiency, workfare models, and quick labor market entry, often sidelining individualized support. In contrast, managers describe their role as navigating policy constraints while addressing diverse local needs. They emphasize the challenges of aligning “one-size-fits-all” activation strategies with the realities of their participants, advocating for flexibility and adaptation within national frameworks. These contrasting perspectives reveal how LLMPs, although locally implemented, are shaped by textually mediated national policies, which influence local governance practices. Politicians focus on the need to meet national objectives, while managers struggle to reconcile these goals with participant-centered approaches. This study contributes to the understanding of how LLMPs operate within a governance framework that prioritizes efficiency over holistic support, highlighting the limitations of workfare-oriented policies and their implications for labor market integration. Full article