The Presentation of Self In Everyday Life
... Viewing identity as people's self-presentations responsive to the outside world (Goffman 1956), social media becomes a rich site for studying identity. As argued by Lin and Chen (2022, 154), social media provides unprecedented platforms for 'self-presentation and identity negotiation'. ...
... Being responsive to contextual expectations, individuals perform their identities in order to 'explain, justify and make sense of themselves in relation to others, and to the world at large' (MacLure 1993, 311). This performative nature of identity is illustrated by Goffman's (1956) work on the presentation of self in relation to social expectations. While contextual expectations shape individuals' identity constructions, individuals could also exercise a degree of agency to navigate, reinterpret, or resist the contextual impositions and create their own identifications. ...
... Theorizing identities as individuals' self-presentations in relation to the contexts (Goffman 1956), which are constructed through individuals' linguistic/semiotic practices and shaped by dominant discourses in their situated social contexts (Sunderland and Litosseliti 2002), we operationalize data analysis at two levels: linguistic/semiotic analysis and social analysis. First, as language-in-use, or semiotics-in-use more broadly, provides a window to examine individuals' stances and identifications (Clarke 2008), linguistic/ semiotic analysis aims to unravel the participants' identity constructions through semiotic choices. ...
... Producing authentic images and relationships implicates influencers in the study of performance and Ervin Goffman's (1959) notion of performativity and "strategic interactions." Here, a performer attempts to regulate an audience's exposure to the "front stage" and "backstage" elements of their personality. ...
Studies of social media influencers often focus on their ability to convey authenticity to their audiences. Influencer studies focused on individual influencers without acknowledging their belonging to larger collectives or how influencers are “legitimized” as belonging to that collective. This article argues that studying religious influencers is one way of exploring legitimacy on social media as distinct from authenticity; religious influencers implicitly belong to religious collectives that must legitimize these influencers as representatives of the collective. Using evangelical Christian celebrity influencers on Instagram as a case study, this article explores the heuristic of legitimacy and specific strategies these figures discursively and rhetorically employ to legitimize themselves within the collective. These tactics shed light on some of the social media operations of a fluctuating evangelical culture in the United States, and provide insights into the general processes of legitimation for influencers on social media today.
... In Chapter three, Campbell outlines her methodology for studying Christian digital creatives, ingeniously using Erving Goffman's dramaturgical analysis of the self (Goffman 1990), where humans, as actors on a social stage, make choices that present a specific image of who they are and how they want to be perceived, to analyze how they express and define their identity and authority through their digital work. Campbell emphasizes the significance of analyzing RDCs' media-making narratives and technological apologetics to comprehend in complexity their roles and assumptions about authority in digital and religious contexts. ...
The book Digital Creatives and the Rethinking of Religious Authority makes a valuable contribution to the study of how religious authority is evolving in the digital age. The author synthesizes previous research and introduces a new framework for categorizing types of religious authority in digital spaces. Building upon Anderson's earlier typology, Campbell significantly advances this framework through her original empirical research, which is based on a series of qualitative interviews with Christian religious digital creatives (RDCs). Campbell identifies nine distinct manifestations of RDCs, demonstrating how each type, through their actions, enacts media-making narratives and engages in technological apologetics. Her approach offers a systematic and more nuanced classification and conceptual understanding of diversifying religious authority, reflecting the current plastic religious landscape and setting her work apart from previous studies. The book serves as a useful resource for scholars, offering insights and inspiration for further studies on the transformation of religious authority in new, hybrid spaces.
... Impression Management Theory (Goffman, 1959;Naegele and Goffman, 1956) refers to the management behavior of strategically selecting, displaying, and presenting narrative information in corporate documents. When applied to the business field, this theory emphasizes managers' tendency to project a positive image of their company to various stakeholders. ...
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the narrative tone of annual reports is influenced by profitability, bankruptcy risk, and pandemic in the context of Vietnam. The study applies the necessary regression analysis steps such as ordinary least squares (OLS), random effects model (REM), fixed effects model (FEM), and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS). Bootstrapping and System Generalized Method of Moments (SGMM) methods are used to test the robustness and address endogeneity and dynamic relationships in the data. The findings show that net tones increase while negative tones decrease in companies with high profitability. Companies at risk of bankruptcy use more negative tone and less net tone than companies that are not at risk of bankruptcy. The study also affirms that bankruptcy risk moderates the relationship between profitability and negative tone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, companies used more positive and negative tones than they did before the pandemic. After the COVID-19 situation stabilized, positive tones were used more, and negative tones were used less than during the outbreak. The research results also recognized that companies do not intend to hide information through impression management when faced with difficult economic conditions. This study has practical implications for investors and information users when considering management disclosures through the narrative tone of annual reports. To our knowledge, this is the first study (1) in an emerging market in the East—where there are fundamental cultural and linguistic differences compared to Western countries, (2) to build a list of Vietnamese words and phrases expressing emotional nuances used in finance and accounting, and (3) refers to the narrative tone of annual reports across different groups of companies.
... To this end, we introduce AgentSense: Benchmarking Social Intelligence of Language Agents through Interactive Scenarios. We get inspiration from Dramaturgical Theory (Goffman, 1959), which conceptualizes social interaction as a theatrical performance in which individuals assume specific roles within various settings. We adopt a bottom-up approach, extracting scenarios from massive scripts to ensure that scenarios and social goals are diverse and grounded in real life. ...
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly leveraged to empower autonomous agents to simulate human beings in various fields of behavioral research. However, evaluating their capacity to navigate complex social interactions remains a challenge. Previous studies face limitations due to insufficient scenario diversity, complexity, and a single-perspective focus. To this end, we introduce AgentSense: Benchmarking Social Intelligence of Language Agents through Interactive Scenarios. Drawing on Dramaturgical Theory, AgentSense employs a bottom-up approach to create 1,225 diverse social scenarios constructed from extensive scripts. We evaluate LLM-driven agents through multi-turn interactions, emphasizing both goal completion and implicit reasoning. We analyze goals using ERG theory and conduct comprehensive experiments. Our findings highlight that LLMs struggle with goals in complex social scenarios, especially high-level growth needs, and even GPT-4o requires improvement in private information reasoning.
... Também é notável, comoGoffman (1959) ouBourdieu (1984) provavelmente concordariam, que todas as mentiras deliberadas são ou uma tentativa de determinar posicionamentos de classe social, por mais frívolos que sejam, ou de afirmar estrategicamente a conformidade ou não conformidade com compromissos válidos. No exemplo mais frívolo, quando mentimos para um adivinho, por exemplo, sobre um nome que ele está tentando adivinhar, estamos de fato estabelecendo se ele deve ou não ser tratado como possuidor de habilidades psíquicas sobrenaturais, pois isso implicaria sua colocação em uma classe social muito especial (e talvez frívola) de pessoas misteriosas que podem possuir poderes sobre-humanos e que devem ser indulgenciadas com nossa atenção, curiosidade e maior escrutínio (que geralmente custa dinheiro). ...
Este artigo orbita a promessa da Sociologia e apresenta a sociologia das promessas -- ou, mais precisamente, a ciência das promessas, destinada a tratar todas as curiosidades sociológicas e a abranger tudo o que é sociológico. Ao introduzir a Teoria Social Geral dos Compromissos (TSGC), uma moldura de pensamento projetada para superar a fragmentação das teorias sociais tradicionais e enfrentar suas limitações na explicação do comportamento social, um avanço é apresentado em oito principais pontos que são simultaneamente ontológicos, epistemológicos e teóricos: (1) os poderes coercitivos sociais derivam da agência real ou virtual; (2) a agência virtual deriva de promessas; (3) toda raiva e decepção derivam de promessas quebradas; (4) promessas estão sempre em conjuntos recíprocos e dinâmicos chamados compromissos; (5) os compromissos são dispositivos heurísticos subjacentes a todas as relações sociais; (6) todos os fenômenos sociais envolvem compromissos; (7) explicar é descrever relacionamentos; e (8) a explicação sociológica, portanto, deriva da descrição dos compromissos e de sua história. Os princípios acima começam a delinear um arcabouço poderoso e coerente, e sua devida apreciação certamente terá um impacto profundo na Ciência Social. Enfatizando a novidade teórica e poder heurístico superior, evitando sínteses confusas de teorias concorrentes, o autor defende bases conceituais e teóricas claras para permitir uma explicação completa e integrada dos fenômenos sociais. Com essa abordagem inovadora, o artigo convida estudiosos a se engajarem criticamente com a TSGC e a explorarem seu potencial para unificar e aprimorar o conhecimento do mundo social e suas complexidades.
... Identity management, which usually involves self-presentation, highly influences online dating experiences. Self-presentation or impression management refers to the way people present aspects of themselves through various aspects such as appearance in photos [36], demographics, values [91], personalities [91], voice [78], and even friend list [54] to appeal to others [44]. Compared to traditional online dating applications where text-based communication dominates [35], recent online dating platforms have developed diverse modes of self-presentation, including photos, voice messages, and even videos [78]. ...
People who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) in China are increasingly exploring online platforms to connect with potential partners. This research explores the online dating experiences of DHH communities in China, an area that has not been extensively researched. We interviewed sixteen participants who have varying levels of hearing ability and love-seeking statuses to understand how they manage their identities and communicate with potential partners online. We find that DHH individuals made great efforts to navigate the rich modality features to seek love online. Participants used both algorithm-based dating apps and community-based platforms like forums and WeChat to facilitate initial encounters through text-based functions that minimized the need for auditory interaction, thus fostering a more equitable starting point. Community-based platforms were found to facilitate more in-depth communication and excelled in fostering trust and authenticity, providing a more secure environment for genuine relationships. Design recommendations are proposed to enhance the accessibility and inclusiveness of online dating platforms for DHH individuals in China. This research sheds light on the benefits and challenges of online dating for DHH individuals in China and provides guidance for platform developers and researchers to enhance user experience in this area.
... Unlike traditional media, like TV and radio, social media enable ordinary people to share content without being subject to the editing practices and conventions of professional media production teams. Instead, YouTubers can broadcast, control, and negotiate their own presentations of self (Goffman 1954). Early research on vlogs as mediated monologues (Frobenius 2014) has shown how vloggers assign particular roles and positions both to themselves and their viewers through a range of resources, such as terms of address or gaze (also see Lene Pers, this volume). ...
The rise of influencers, as power-players in the social media landscape, is a defining feature of the digital era, one that has received much attention from a variety of social science disciplines. But despite the key role that language, along with other semiotic modes, plays in the construction and communication of influencer selves, discourse analytic and pragmatic research on the topic is lagging behind. This volume attempts to fill this void, by offering contextually sensitive insights into influencers’ multi-modal communication on a range of platforms. The contributions rework established modes and tools of discourse analysis and pragmatics to shed empirical light on influencer identities and tensions (e.g. doing authenticity vis-à-vis promoting brands). We specifically attend to (a) the interplay between media affordances and communication practices and (b) the co-constructional, interactive nature of influencer selves with networked audiences, ranging from ‘affect’ to ‘hate’. In addition to linguists, we hope that the volume will be of interest to scholars and students of social media communication, from sociological, cultural studies, anthropological and/or social psychological perspectives.
... La identidad cultural es un concepto ampliamente estudiado en diversas disciplinas académicas, como la sociología (Goffman, 1969;Bauman, 1999Bauman, , 2004, la antropología (Aguirre Baztán, 1997;Gómez García, 2001, 2007, la comunicación (Sánchez Estévez, 1992;Jamenson, 2007) y la psicología social (Erikson, 1968;Tajfel y Turner, 1979;Elías, 1990;Ovejero, , 1999. ...
En la actual era digital, el contenido de marca se ha convertido en una herramienta necesaria para la promoción y el marketing efectivo. El branded content es una técnica que consiste en crear contenido que no solo aporta valor a una marca y llega a los públicos de una manera amena y no intrusiva, lo que permite que el espectador acepte sin reticencias el contrato publicitario.
El objetivo principal de esta investigación fue identificar los elementos relacionados con la identidad cultural utilizados por la compañía Pepephone en los diferentes branded content que conforman su campaña “Tarifa no hay más que una”. De esta manera pudimos evaluar la adecuación de los valores culturales identitarios andaluces, y más concretamente gaditanos, en la contrucción de la imagen de la marca de la compañía.
Para lograr los objetivos de la investigación, se llevó a cabo un estudio de caso en el que se analizaron las diferentes piezas que componen la campaña. Con la intención de llevar a cabo esta investigación cualitativa de inspiración semiótica se consideró oportuno estudiar tres planos diferenciados: un plano estratégico, en el que definir la estrategia de la marca; un plano de significación, atendiendo a los signos que aparecen en la pieza; y un plano socio-cultural con el que discernir el carácter simbólico de los signos. Así pues, se examinaó el mensaje, el tono utilizado y la apropiación cultural de los elementos identitarios por parte de la marca.
Este estudio demuestra que el uso del branded content puede ser una estrategia efectiva para aportar valor a una marca, como se evidenció en el caso de PepePhone y su campaña “Tarifa no hay más que una”. La campaña utiliza como recursos persuasivos fundamentales elementos identitarios, como las chirigotas y el humor gaditano, transmitiendo un mensaje que favorece la imagen joven, desenfadada y reivindicativa de la marca.
... They highlight the importance of human social interactions, for instance how individuals appear to one another and behave in a face-to-face approach that may cause or may not cause conflicts, negative or positive feelings, embarrassment, or joy. (GOFFMAN, 1956) Disability is not a concept. It is a world that floats invisibly beside us, perhaps elusive, unseizable. ...
This paper discusses performing arts in general and Social theatre in particular as art practices that most promote disability culture. Few significant examples of differently able performance artists are considered before analyzing the principles of Social theatre and the experience of Isole Comprese Social Theatre School (Florence, IT). From the propositions of American psychologist James Hillman, the school founded its teaching method on the practice of beauty, also defined as a poetic device serving as an antidote to contrast preconceptions, prejudices, stereotypes and stigmatizations that disable people often suffer in society.
In the context of globalization, the cross-border and cross-regional distribution of products from cultural and creative industries across different countries and regions has become increasingly prevalent. Cultural discount is a common and significant phenomenon in the process of cross-cultural communication. This paper is based on fundamental economic principles and incorporates cultural dimension theory. By using the cross-cultural dissemination of films as an example, the study quantitatively analyzes the cultural discount reflected in films across different cultures, utilizing the variations in box office data from various countries and regions.
The aim of this chapter is to discuss the two key approaches drawn upon in the book, namely the Discourse Historical Approach (cf. Wodak, The politics of fear: what right-wing populist discourses mean, Sage, 2015) and the Theory of Visual Grammar (cf. Kress and Leeuwen, Reading images: The grammar of visual design, Routledge, 2006). The two approaches fall under the umbrella of Critical Discourse Studies. To elaborate on the suitability of the choice of the DHA and the Theory of Visual Grammar for the research inquiries of the book, the first section of this chapter will provide an overview of the development of religious preaching in the Muslim context, arguing that performance appears to be a key aspect of the sermon genre. While reviewing recent research that has explored performance in the religious context (cf. Pihlaja, Religious talk online: the evangelical discourse of Muslims, Christians, and atheists, Cambridge University Press, 2018; Rosowsky in: Rosowsky (ed) Faith and language practices in digital spaces. Multilingual Matters, Bristol, 2018), the chapter will argue that combining the DHA and the Theory of Visual Grammar will allow for exploring performance from a multimodal point of view. The second section of the chapter will discuss further the theoretical underpinnings of the two approaches, moving on to elaborate on the key analytical categories for data analysis in the book, for instance, nominalization, predication argumentation strategies and visual features including visual structure, dress code and gestures. Finally, the chapter will provide insights into the research ethics (cf. Wilkinson and Thelwall, Social Science Computer Review 29:387–401, 2011; Aiston, Modern Languages Open 2023:1–11, 2023) that have guided data collection and analysis.
The film Rebétiko (1983) narrates the life and career of a rebétiko singer, shedding some light on this particular socio-culturally marginalized, but historically significant group. By tracing the origins of this genre, the present chapter discusses the course of rebétiko music through the depiction of a film heroine, a powerful symbol in terms of social presence, cultural coalescence, and artistic contribution. As the movie focuses on notions of displacement and diaspora, it also raises questions about class, ethnicity, nationality, emerging identities, and dramaturgical aspects of the self (Goffman 1990) in Greek media culture, while challenging several gender-biased allegations about women in a male-dominated scenario. Since local specificity has already started to inform international discourses on phenomenology, gender mechanisms, and intercultural dimensions of performing history in filmography, this movie seems to adopt a critical lens towards social fragmentation that goes beyond Greece and permits the reconsideration of a living tradition which has international ramifications.
This article continues an earlier one about how the work of Erich Fromm and feminist theories are compatible despite the connection usually remaining overlooked. Drawing on Fromm’s critique of Freud’s analysis of Dora, but also going further, I argue that associating Fromm and contemporary feminist thought is particularly important in the context of growing authoritarianism on the right and sometimes as reflected also on the left. The article elaborates upon five points of ‘psychosocial compatibility’ between Fromm’s humanistic vision and the ideas of several well-known feminist theorists including Simone de Beauvoir, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin and others. The five points of psychosocial compatibility addressed between From and contemporary feminisms as addressed here are: connecting the personal and the political while stressing the prefigurative; kindred issues concerning objectification and self-love; emphases on relatedness and the pre-oedipal stage of human development; concerns about multi-dimensionality and intersectionality; and shared political beliefs aimed at overcoming gender and other oppressive inequalities
Between 1964 and 1985, a military dictatorship in Brazil combined an arsenal of political instruments—surveillance, violent repression, and propaganda, among others—to justify its illegal rule. How did the Brazilian military regime attempt to justify its claim to power for more than two decades? What discursive strategies did it use to win popular support, despite the violence it perpetrated? This paper investigates how discourse is used to legitimize power and create meaning in authoritarian regimes. Using ethnographic content analysis of archival materials, I pinpoint and analyze three key discursive frames employed in regime propaganda: “defenders of democracy,” “Great Brazil” and “model citizenship.” I argue that the Brazilian military regime used these frames to justify its authority, forge national values and social norms, and redefine the boundaries of the national community. These findings not only contribute to our understanding of authoritarian power that is wielded and legitimized through discourse, but also speak to the enduring consequences of authoritarianism in sociopolitical subjects.
The chapter titled “The Societal Dynamics: Unravelling the Impact of Social Media” investigates the influence of social media on contemporary society. It examines the ramifications of social media platforms on various facets of human interaction, communication, and behavior. key themes such as digital identity construction, online activism, misinformation dissemination, and the commodification of attention. By exploring these dynamics, it elucidates the intricate interplay between technological advancements and societal shifts, shedding light on the complexities of navigating the digital landscape in the 21st century.
The current study explored muscularity and weight training’s role as capital in people’s identities across various contexts. Eleven weight trainers from two gyms were interviewed (three females, eight males) about their desires for muscularity and the role it played in their lives. Thematic narrative analysis identified narratives that framed the individuals’ muscular desires, behaviours, and importance. Muscularity formed a versatile resource—identity capital—that was a key part of the individuals’ body projects. These body projects and identity capital facilitated the individuals’ identity performances in a range of contexts (e.g. occupation, gender). Three narratives emerged (individualist, illusionist, and promoter) that highlighted the intertwined tangible (e.g. leanness and strength) and intangible (e.g. control and self-empowerment) attributes associated with muscularity and weight training that facilitated successful identity performances. These narratives achieved goals of self-empowerment (Individualist), self-protection (Illusionist), or self-advertisement (Promoter) which enabled successful identity performances. The current findings advance existing literature by suggesting muscularity is a versatile form of identity capital that can facilitate multiple identities (e.g. occupation, gender) and contexts. The potential benefit to an individuals’ sense of self also highlights the positive effect of muscularity weight training as a tool for self-promotion and personal growth.
Social media are gaining significance in organizations and their business strategies. Therefore, the self-presentation of solo entrepreneurs on social media requires a strategic analysis and concept due to their specific business structure. Solo entrepreneurs work on their own without having any employees in their company. In other words, they stay as the personification of a one-(wo)man-firm. The business structure of solo entrepreneurs is particular since they operate in the most decentralized form of a firm, which is a one-person firm. In some way, solo entrepreneurs can be regarded as independent (self-employed) laborers. When presenting themselves online, they must decide which characteristics of the private self should be emphasized and which should be incorporated into the entrepreneurial identity to be useful to the business. Our qualitative study conducted twelve semi-structured interviews with solo entrepreneurs to understand how they present themselves on social media and how the solo entrepreneur offered online differs from the private self. We have found that there are features of the personal self that are kept strictly out of the entrepreneurial sphere, but there are areas that make a mix of personal and entrepreneurial selves. Our results help to understand the group of solo entrepreneurs and their unique characteristics in an increasingly important field of digital media.
Branding has been conceptualized, contextualized, and operationalized in various ways. However, little research has been conducted exploring coaches and their personal branding. Although researchers have investigated the content that collegiate male coaches post on social media, there is a dearth of research investigating female collegiate coaches and the strategies they utilize when constructing their brand online. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the branding strategies used by female collegiate coaches when constructing and presenting their online brand. The authors collected data via a qualitative methodology, utilizing semistructured interviews with female head and assistant coaches in college athletics. Results indicate that the coaches were strategic in their approach to social media, while also encountering obstacles when deciding how to communicate aspects of their brand. Theoretical implications stem from findings that are consistent with decision-making processes outlined by behavioral decision theory, and practical implications are centered on strategic branding suggestions for coaches.
The contemporary post-COVID-19 corporate environment of instant response and hybrid work settings motivates employees to learn to adjust their expectations. This new corporate working model incorporates flex locations and flex schedules by working at home 1–2 days per week and staying connected for non-urgent requests, even outside business hours. This work setting empowers employees to prioritize work accordingly and to accommodate the fluid schedules of their coworkers. As a result, this new hybrid workplace requires leaders and their teams to face new challenges in terms of communication, coordination, and team connection to remain effective. This research examines the experiences of employees in an SME that applied a hybrid work policy following the post-pandemic crisis, bringing additional complexity to their modern work system. This study investigates employees’ views on the changing work environment as important evidence for HR management to incorporate into future organizational practices. To understand the various principles at play and provide more granular results, this paper includes a business case study (N = 25) where semi-structured interviews were used to identify the views and concerns of employees regarding hybrid work settings. The scope of this case study was to collect empirical data regarding this new agile way of working while understanding participant thinking. The findings suggest that while there are clear benefits in terms of efficiency and flexibility in hybrid work settings, there are also challenges related to social interactions and non-verbal clues. This study enhances conceptual and empirical understanding and supports contemporary research on the future of work.
This chapter discusses the cross-cultural construction of corporate identities in relation to “What” corporate identities of Chinese and American airlines are constructed and “Why” the corporate identities of Chinese and American airlines are constructed. To first specify “What” corporate identities of Chinese and American airlines are constructed, it interprets the situational contextualized roles construed by the adopted activity patterns, specifically entailing “what the activity patterns are” rendered by macro-level configuration of the activity patterns and “how the activity patterns are implemented” rendered by micro-level multimodal realizations of the activity patterns. On this premise, it then explains “Why” the corporate identities of Chinese and American airlines are constructed with resort to the contemporary socio-economic and socio-technical contexts and relevant cross-cultural theories.
Collective academic supervision ( cas ) is a form of student-supervisor interaction for academic learning. This paper is a qualitative case study using observation and interviews to explore the roles and interactions of supervisors and students in three cas groups in a university. Symbolic interaction theory was employed for data analysis, also taking into account the influence of the higher education context on the roles and interactions of participants. The research found that supervisors and students create various symbols through the discussion in cas . The symbols in question have exerted a substantial influence on the reciprocal relationship between supervisors and students, functioning as symbolic representations of the profound effects on students’ intellectual development and emotional energy.
In December 2019, a variant of Coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China. So relentless was the virus in its fecundity that on the 11th of March 2020, it was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). “COVID-19” as the disease came to be known, initially highlighted and heightened social inequalities as information about the detection of the virus, prescriptions and proscriptions as well as resources for dealing with the pandemic were beyond the reach of many people. In developing countries, lack of information resulted in misinformation and disinformation, dissemination of inaccurate information unconsciously, and deliberately, respectively, which militated against efforts to fight the disease. Developing countries accused developed countries of treating them as breeding grounds for the virus, undermining their participation in COVID-19 discourse and profiteering at their expense during the pandemic. Many governments and bodies like WHO partnered in promoting equal access to information and equipment. Through the theoretical lenses of framing theory and utilization of critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the method, this paper examined the representation of Africans in twelve articles published by two newspapers. Six articles from The Guardian, a British newspaper, and Al-Jazeera, a Qatari publication, which were published between August 2020 and November 2021 were chosen because of the reputation of these papers and the pervasiveness of COVID-19 during this period. This paper also analyzed the influence of sociopolitical factors on the papers’ reportage. Despite their geographical differences, the two newspapers basically promoted equal access to information and equipment for everyone. This paper recommends other newspapers to emulate the two papers’ adherence to truthful reporting and support for cooperation between rich and poor countries. Governments and corporations must increase partnerships which fight neocolonial tendencies.
An antisemitic insult generally aims at offending, disqualifying and diminishing Jews or Israelis on the basis of, or related to, their Jewish or Israeli identity, against whom the speaker expresses their negative emotions. Insults can be considered a threatening speech act like threats, curses and death wishes. Yet, the goal of insults is not to elicit fear or physically harm but to show the speaker’s hostility and place themselves in a superior position.
Many dictators are known for their co-optation of symbols and imagery to show authority and power. Increasingly, autocrats utilize more than borrowed imagery to bolster perceptions of themselves—especially fashion. The literature on authoritarian regimes focuses on how institutions build regime durability and support through legislatures (e.g., Gandhi and Przeworski, 2007; Wright and Escriba-Folch 2012), electoral systems (e.g., Roberts 2015), constitutions (e.g., Finnell 2021; Yan 2019), and other power sharing institutions (e.g., Boix and Svolik 2013; Magaloni 2008; Svolik 2009). However, autocrats still use other tools to maintain support, control, and signal strength to their populace. Do authoritarian regimes use fashion to control and signal strength? I argue yes, fashion is as much a tool of the autocrat as are their institutions. Autocrats can present themselves as strong leaders based on their chosen outfits—like the use of military uniforms or tactical gear—or through fashion that reinforces conformity and control—making fashion choices that your populace must obey. The use of fashion by autocrats as a means of showing strength and controlling your populace is increasingly important to study and understand. Using heuristic case studies, I examine fashion as a critical tool in the authoritarian toolbox.
Media (e.g., film) are often designed around cisgender, heternormative logics and are not representative of the multiplicity of identities and identity expressions that exist in the world. Thus, media impedes the identity expression and performance of the communities who use them, as we do not see many parts of our identities represented or find that our identities are misrepresented. Video games, which are a genre of media, are especially problematic in how they perpetuate heteronormative normative logics. Unlike most media, however, video games give people agency over the aesthetics of game worlds--the characters and narratives--through the installation of mods. We conducted a content analysis coupled with a triangulation of mods through personal experience focused on the widely popular farming simulation game Stardew Valley. Drawing on a conceptual lens bringing together theories of identity and aesthetic agency, we highlight how the aesthetic agency afforded by mod installation provides opportunities for reclaiming representational diversity in game worlds along the following dimensions: sex and intimacy, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and body diversity. We discuss the implications of mod installation, exploring its potential relationship with identity work and identity play. We then propose design guidelines for achieving aesthetic alignment.
While the history of urban sociology features myriad detailed descriptions of neighborhood life reflecting various theoretical, political, and practical purposes, the field lacks general templates for conducting in-depth neighborhood research and comparison. In this paper, as a remedy, we propose a Goffmanian framework for qualitative neighborhood description and analysis which we call "neighborhood as theater." While revisiting previous ethnographic research of two neighborhoods in Hollywood, Los Angeles, conducted in the late 1990s, we argue that local social life operates along three main dramaturgical axes—sets, characters, and performances—each divided into several subcategories. These three focal points reveal observable, yet easily overlooked, key elements of neighborhood life besides illuminating broader, structural aspects and connections. We argue that conceptualizing neighborhoods “as theater" offers a general template for ethnographic urban research that can advance comparative and critical spatial analysis while remaining grounded in meaning-centered, embodied experiences of mundane local life.
In recent years, there has been increased interest to the ways people move about in their everyday lives. This interest has given rise to the use of novel forms of mobile interview methods. While increased attention to walking interviews has supported the emergence of different methodologies, there is comparatively little methodological discussion on running interviews. This article stems from 22 running interviews, conducted in the context of a carnal sociological study that sought to gain insight into the embodied processes of 11 individuals who had integrated running into their processes of recovery from substance use. While carnal sociology is usually applied to ethnographic research, this study retained the embodied and embedded qualities that Wacquant (2015) considered vital to his theory through the engagement of the researcher’s own body as a methodological tool. This article aims to illustrate how carnal sociology may be applied to mobile methods, with theory and method converging to shape the structure of the interviews, the establishment of rapport with participants, the technological choices, and the safeguarding of the runner-researcher habitus. Finally, the strengths and limitations of running interviews as a means of data collection are discussed.
The chapter provides some theoretical insights into the processes of defining otherness by adopting a perspective that combines the concepts of identity and reputation. The former is a very controversial concept, although it is applied in many disciplines, while the latter is a classic but long neglected concept of the social sciences. As illustrated in the first part of the chapter, the combination of these two concepts from the perspective of recognition processes is fruitful for analyzing both the intersubjective and the institutional dynamics through which the identity of others acquires certain connotations according to “positive” and “negative” judgments made in specific social contexts. The additional contribution of this perspective is precisely that of underlining the socially constructed and evaluative aspect of everyday recognition processes and the implications in terms of inclusion/exclusion of the other, as well as highlighting the non-neutral common use of representations referring to categories and groups in terms of access to opportunities and distribution of tangible/intangible resources. In the second part of the chapter, these theoretical insights are related to concrete examples taken from the Italian context and ranging from the situation of long-term immigrants struggling with tortuous integration paths, through that of foreign seasonal workers who follow circular mobility trajectories, to more recent and controversial cases concerning the reception of the so-called forced migrants.
Goffman (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (4th ed.). Penguin, 1959/1990) argues that clothing is a visual signifier of an individual’s social status. In this chapter, I analyse the role of clothing in the visual construction of refugeehood in the British media through a mixed-methods analysis of clothing in 377 images of refugees drawn from the British newspaper media over a period of three years. In doing so, I contribute a critical new dimension to a small but growing literature on the visual representation of refugees. The chapter uses an intersectional analysis with a particular focus on clothing to show that the British media use clothing as indicators of otherness in their representations of refugees. This othering has a gender and racial dimension with Middle Eastern and Black African men and women othered as dangerous and submissive, respectively; meanwhile, White European refugees are represented as belonging.
This article focuses on tiaoman, or Chinese scrolling comic strips, a new genre of comic strips and digital art developed on mobile media. They are a type of digital comics arranged in vertical rows with multiple single-panel comics, and they are designed for reading on smartphones. Like Japanese manga and Korean Webtoons, Chinese tiaoman pluralize and challenge the aesthetic concepts and values of contemporary visual cultures. In online civic expressions, mobile internet users increasingly employ tiaoman in their public engagement. However, few studies explore the cultural effects of tiaoman in the field of public intellectuals. This research focuses on the tiaoman series Uncle Lion Diary posted on WeChat, a major mobile, instant messaging and social media platform in China. Uncle Lion is a cartoon portrayal of a prominent Chinese intellectual, Xu Zhiyuan, whose public opinions have frequently incurred controversies inside and outside China. With the theoretical lens of digital practice, and combining persona studies in the arena of public intellectuals, this study investigates tiaoman as an intellectual practice of visual self-representation in social and technological systems. The results show that tiaoman serves as a carrier for supplementing a transmedia self, in order to construct and marketize Xu’s already existing public persona. Further, they help create online–offline spaces for the commercialization of certain lifestyle and aesthetic tastes among their audiences.
Multiple forms of short-lived pain are common experiences among non-injured recreational marathoners, yet there remains little in-depth qualitative research on the lived experience regarding the sociology of transient pain. This study seeks to fill the lacuna by exploring the relationship between transient pain and its multifaceted consequences within the running social world. Drawing on Leder's notion of the dys-appearing body, the study investigates how non-injured runners interpret and attribute context-dependent significance to transient pain due to their runs. An ethnographic research design of two years was implemented in two running groups, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Three categories of transient pain were identified: (1) "Pre-flow pain"-discomfort at the start of a run before easing into a relaxed state, (2) "Impromptu pain"-unexpected, sharp pain that occurs during the run and (3) "Resurgent pain"-an ache that manifests after the end of a running session as a result of lingering effects from prior injuries. The data presented suggest that transient pain cannot be approached as a self-evident phenomenon occurring in a vacuum. Instead, it should be viewed as a nuanced pain epistemology that encompasses the lived experience of bodily pain within the subjective perception.
This chapter will evaluate the Nordic model of imprisonment, which implements a socially progressive and rehabilitative approach towards incarceration. This approach emphasises the rapid reintegration and resettlement of prisoners back into society, and has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world. The merits of this approach will be used by McNeil to counter Foucault’s deeply pessimistic argument that prison reforms cannot succeed. Developed on the basis of the ‘Principle of Normality’ and the ‘Activation’ of prisoners, this approach embodied by Halden Prison, has reaped many benefits, including reports of the improved mental health and well-being of inmates. However, as there is only a small quantity of prisoner-centred research in Nordic prisons—which is mostly negative—a balanced, critical appraisal will be made of the Nordic model by McNeil.
This chapter explores some of the key themes that will be covered and analysed in this volume. McNeil will firstly analyse the complexity of the relationship between mental health and crime. Secondly, the stigmatisation and labelling of people with mental health problems will be explored. It will be argued by McNeil that this is largely perpetuated by the majority of mass media and social media representations, which distort the public’s perceptions of those suffering from mental health problems as being more ‘dangerous’ and a greater ‘risk’ both to themselves and the public’s safety (leading to moral panics). Thirdly, a large body of research has also shown that people with mental health problems are far more likely to be victims of crime than perpetrators, suffering repeated victimisation.
This chapter will firstly analyse the crisis that currently faces prisons in England and Wales, the USA, and globally, to ascertain the causes of the extraordinarily high levels of mental health problems of those who are incarcerated, when compared to the general population. Secondly, barriers that Mental Health In-Reach Teams (MHIRTs) have experienced in trying to provide equivalent mental health care services for prisoners will also be discussed by McNeil. The punitive discourse of the prison environment clashes with the nurturing discourse propagated by MHIRTs. Thirdly, this chapter will provide a Foucauldian critique of the prison environment. McNeil will apply Foucault’s concepts of panopticism, power/ knowledge and governmentality to argue that such an environment is inadequate for rehabilitating prisoners, as it destroys prisoners’ mental health and well-being.
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