Using fiction to reveal truth: challenges of using vignettes to understand participant experiences within qualitative research
Titelübersetzung:Zum Verständnis der Erfahrungen von Forschungsteilnehmenden in qualitativen Forschungsprojekten
Autor/in:
Rizvi, Sana
Quelle: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20 (2019) 1, 18 S
Inhalt: Vignettes are increasingly used within qualitative studies to research difficult topics, requiring ethical mindfulness and sensitivity from researchers. In this article, I examine the methodological issues of incorporating vignettes within qualitative research, specifically my research exploring South Asian maternal experiences of supporting their children with special education needs and disability (SEND). I present participants with seven vignettes concerning the roles of religion, culture, gender and immigrant history. By presenting the participants' responses, I explore the applicability of two ensuing methodological concerns: 1. Are authentic representations useful and straightforward measure of vignette's effectiveness? 2. Do reduced socially desired responses reflect the effectiveness of a vignette? I consider these questions in detail, as well as how addressing the first issue affected my commitment to the second issue. I conclude that vignettes can be a rich point of reference from which participants can exercise agency and actively construct their own understanding of the issues presented in the vignettes.
We live here, and we are queer!: young gay connected migrants' transnational ties and integration in the Netherlands
Autor/in:
Patterson, Jeffrey; Leurs, Koen
Quelle: Media and Communication, 7 (2019) 1, S 90-101
Inhalt: Upon arrival to Europe, young migrants are found grappling with new language demands, cultural expectations, values, and beliefs that may differ from global youth culture and their country of origin. This process of coming-of-age while on-the-move is increasingly digitally mediated. Young migrants are "connected migrants", using smart phones and social media to maintain bonding ties with their home country while establishing new bridging relationships with peers in their country of arrival (Diminescu, 2008). Drawing on the feminist perspective of intersectionality which alerts us socio-cultural categories like age, race, nationality, migration status, gender and sexuality impact upon identification and subordination, we contend it is problematic to homogenize these experiences to all gay young adult migrants. The realities of settlement and integration starkly differ between desired migrants -such as elite expatriates and heterosexuals – and those living on the margins of Europe- forced migrants and lesbian, gay, trans, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) migrants. Drawing on 11 in-depth interviews conducted in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with gay young adult forced and voluntary migrants, this paper aims to understand how sexual identification in tandem with bonding and bridging social capital diverge and converge between the two groups all while considering the interplay between their online and offline entanglements of their worlds.
Schlagwörter:Sozialkapital; social capital; Migrant; migrant; Diaspora; diaspora; Digitale Medien; digital media; soziale Beziehungen; social relations; ethnische Beziehungen; ethnic relations; Sexualität; sexuality; Homosexualität; homosexuality; Soziale Medien; social media; Jugendlicher; adolescent; Kommunikation; communication; Niederlande; Netherlands; Transsexualität; transsexualism
SSOAR Kategorie:Migration, interpersonelle Kommunikation, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Quelle: Media and Communication, 7 (2019) 1, S 1-3
Inhalt: This editorial delivers an introduction to the Media and Communication thematic issue on "Communicating on/with Minorities" around the world. This thematic issue presents a multidisciplinary look at the field of communicating on and with different members of minority groups who, based on gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or a background in migration, experience relative disadvantage and marginalization compared to the dominant social group. The contributors to this thematic issue present a variety of professional contexts (i.e., portrayals in journalistic content, in fiction and non-fiction audiovisual content, on social media platforms and in health care). Taken together, the contributions examine various theoretical angles, thereby adopting new research directions through the use of quantitative, qualitative or mixed methodologies.
SSOAR Kategorie:interpersonelle Kommunikation, soziale Probleme, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Allgemeine Soziologie, Makrosoziologie, spezielle Theorien und Schulen, Entwicklung und Geschichte der Soziologie
Representation of women in the news: balancing between career and family life
Autor/in:
Vandenberghe, Hanne
Quelle: Media and Communication, 7 (2019) 1, S 4-12
Inhalt: An in-depth literature review showed that women, despite their increasingly prominent roles worldwide, continue to be persistently underrepresented and stereotyped in news media. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the representation of women changed over time in two Dutch-speaking Belgian newspapers De Standaard and Het Laatste Nieuws. An automated quantitative content analysis revealed that there is no increase of the number of women in the newspapers between 2005 and 2015. On the contrary, women are significantly less represented over time in the popular newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. A qualitative analysis on two cases about women stepping into a leadership position -in 2012 (Catherine De Bolle as head of the Federal police) and in 2014 (Dominique Leroy as CEO of a Belgian telecom company)- showed that the press emphasised their femininity, their being a role model for other women, their being part of a family and having certain looks. Moreover, these women are clearly portrayed as "the best candidate" pointing at the selection procedures and their capabilities to perform professionally. Probably, this strong emphasis is a way of justifying that these women are not selected because of positive discrimination. Further analysis of cases of both men and women stepping into top positions across countries and media platforms is recommended.
Quelle: Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 20 (2019) 1, 37 S
Inhalt: Despite the social normalisation and moral de-problematisation of separation and divorce, they are usually anything but normal or unproblematic events for those affected. The events have to be ordered, the separation needs to be legitimised and one's own identity requires rehabilitation; this can result in striking narrative dynamics in qualitative interviews dealing with separation. Previous research has revealed the connection between the form, content, and function of separation talk as well as social differentiation: role, gender, and socio-structural factors. To the functional analyses of the narratives, of 46 interviews (23 ex-couples) in our study "Couples after separation", we add, as a further and superordinate differentiation, the category of social milieu. We exemplify our argument that separation talk varies depending on this dimension by exploring the contrasting individualised and traditional milieus. They differ in a fundamental way in their relationship models and corresponding separation legitimations, and in their plausibility strategies and in their conception of what constitutes a desirable identity. Beyond the concrete subject of separation and separation talk, we also touch on two important aspects of qualitative research: the differentiation of milieus and the relationship between performance and representation in interviews.
Gender differences in higher education from a life course perspective : Transitions and social inequality between enrolment and first post-doc position
Autor/in:
Lörz, Markus; Mühleck, Kai
Quelle: High Educ (Higher Education), 77 (2019) 3, S 381–402
Inhalt: In the last decades, a vast number of post-industrialised economies have experienced a growing participation of women in higher education. However, men and women still differ with regard to their subsequent academic careers and labour market prospects. While several studies have disentangled the cumulative process of gender inequalities along the path to higher education, few studies cover two or more subsequent transitions in the academic career following graduation from upper-secondary education. We have investigated gender differences at five educational stages between graduation from upper-secondary education and the first post-doc position. To explain gender differences, we have integrated arguments of individual decision-making and educational, familial and work context conditions. This life course perspective leads us to propose several hypotheses on why the academic careers of men and women would differ in terms of transitions to the next education stage and graduation. We test our hypotheses using a longitudinal dataset which covers a large part of individual educational and academic careers of a cohort of students, beginning at the age of 20 years and extending up to the age of 40 years. Our results show that gender differences are more pronounced at the beginning of the academic career and tend to fade out at later stages. In particular, gender differences occur most strongly at transitions to the next educational stage rather than being caused by different graduation rates. These differences can be explained only to a very minor extent by performance. Separated analysis shows that men and women differ in their reasons to start or stop an academic career, with family circumstances in particular having different consequences.
Inhalt: Using the concept of stealth power and a critical realist perspective, this article identifies leadership practices that obscure the centralisation of power, drawing on data from interviews with 25 academic decision-makers in formal leadership positions in HERIs in Ireland, Italy and Turkey.
Its key contribution is the innovative operationalisation of stealth power and the inductive identification of four practices which obscure that centralised power, i.e. rhetorical collegiality, agendacontrol, in-group loyalty and (at a deeper level) the invisibility of gendered power. The purpose of the article is emancipatory: by creating an awareness of these leadership practices, it challenges their persistence.
Schlagwörter:agenda control; centralised power; Führungskultur; Higher Education Research Institutes; in-group loyalty; interviews; invisibility of gendered power; Leadership practices; Machtdynamiken; Machtgefälle; rhetorical collegiality; senior management; senior position holders; stealth power; Universität
CEWS Kategorie:Berufsbiographie und Karriere, Netzwerke und Organisationen, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Eine Analyse der Personalentwicklung in der Anästhesiologie unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Gender-Aspekten
Autor/in:
van den Bussche, H.; Scherer, M.; Zöllner, C.; Kubitz, J. C.
Quelle: Der Anaesthesist, 68 (2019) 6, S 353–360
Inhalt: Skills shortage of nursing staff and physicians is a "hot topic" in health politics. For the future recruitment of medical staff in anesthesiology, an analysis of the staff development during the last decades considering gender aspects seems to be important. Therefore, the authors conducted a comparative analysis of data from the "Statistisches Bundesamt" (Fachserie 12 Reihe 7.3.1 and Fachserie 12 Reihe 6.1.1.) from 1994 until 2015. The analysis compared the development of anesthesiological staff (physicians) with the overall development of medical staff (physicians) in respect of the number of residents, consultants and department chairs. There are two major differences between the development of medical staff in anesthesiology and the overall development of medical staff: (1) in anesthesiology there is a high percentage of consultants without management tasks, (2) though the percentage of female colleagues is increasing both in anesthesiology and overall, the percentage of female colleagues in management or chair positions is lower in anesthesiology compared to the other disciplines, altogether. Anesthesiology is a discipline in which both the number of tasks and personnel have risen over the last two decades. The comparatively huge increase in the number of residents and consultants without management tasks suggests that the number of tasks in daily routine has substantially increased for anesthesiologists. The comparatively low percentage of female colleagues in chair positions should give an impulse to improve the compatibility of family and working live both for clinical and scientific careers.
Family-friendly academic conferences : A missing link to fix the “leaky pipeline”?
Autor/in:
Bos, Angela L.; Sweet-Cushman, Jennie; Schneider, Monica C.
Quelle: Politics, Groups, and Identities, 7 (2019) 3, S 748–758
Inhalt: Traveling to academic conferences to present research and network is essential for scholars to achieve success in the academy. Scholars with family obligations face barriers to participating in conferences, partly because most regional and national conferences are not organized to be family-friendly. While balancing travel to academic conferences with family responsibilities is a challenge faced by all academics, this burden can be especially high for women. As such, improving the family-friendly features of conferences could be one way to patch the “leaky pipeline” of young female scholars leaving the academy, and facilitate the movement of female faculty through the ranks from Assistant to Associate to Full Professor. We identify these barriers to conference attendance and how they might contribute to the leaky pipeline and share innovations from family-friendly small conferences that minimize these burdens. We also review what the major political science association conferences are doing to be family-friendly, and offer details about further recommended changes. Finally, we highlight one exemplary institutional policy and examples from other disciplines. Our conclusion is that there are many simple and affordable ways to make political science conferences more family-friendly and that these changes are necessary to creating an inclusive discipline.
Schlagwörter:academy; conferences; Frauen in der Wissenschaft; Gender; Mutterschaft; parenting; political science discipline
CEWS Kategorie:Wissenschaft als Beruf, Vereinbarkeit Familie-Beruf
Attitudes to Sexism and Gender Equity at a Danish University
Autor/in:
Skewes, Lea; Skewes, Joshua C.; Ryan, Michelle K.
Quelle: KKF (Kvinder, Køn & Forskning), (2019) 1-2, S 71–85
Inhalt: We designed this study to measure the degree of backlash a specific Danish university would encounter in response to gender equity interventions. To capture this resistance we used two standardized questionnaires: the Modern Sexism Scale, which measures explicit denial of gender discrimination and resentment towards gender equity demands (such as gender interventions) and
the Support for Discriminatory Practices which measures peoples explicit preferences for hiring men over women. We also asked an open question about attitudes towards the university’s current gender policies. The questionnaire was sent to 15,493 employees. With one prompt 1,805 completed the entire questionnaire. We found that university employees scored above the midpoint on modern sexism, indicating that, on average, they held sexist attitudes. We further showed that modern sexism scores varied depending on beliefs about what was being done for gender equity in the organization, such that those who thought that enough or too much was being done had significantly higher sexism scores than those who thought that not enough was being done. Over all, our findings document explicit sexist attitudes within the target university and suggest that gender equity interventions are therefore likely to be met by great resistance from some.
Schlagwörter:Explicit attitudes; gender discrimination; gender equity; Geschlechterdiskriminierung; Geschlechtergerechtigkeit; modern sexism; sexist attitudes; support for disciminatory practices