16,846 research outputs found
Od Redakcji: Stawanie się ratownikiem górskim
No full textThe article presents problems of the paper Constructing the identity of a mountain rescuer. A symbolic-interactionist analysis by Piotr Miller. Anna Kacperczyk presents basic assumptions and the most important conclusions of the aforementioned paper.Artykuł przedstawia problematykę pracy Konstruowanie tożsamości ratownika górskiego autorstwa Piotra Millera. Autorka prezentuje zarówno założenia oraz główne wnioski wspomnianej pracy jak i sytuuje je w obrębie szerzej rozumianych studiów nad „stawaniem się”
Mapping Environmental Commitment: A Situational Analysis of Illegal Dumps in the City
No full textThe paper refers to the research Trash in the Wild: A Pilot Project Mapping Citizenship Environmental Activism in the Collaborative Study in the Lodz Area. In the study, inhabitants of Lodz (Poland) were invited to participate in data gathering and create a map of unauthorized dumps in their city. The collaborative mapping was intended to localize problematic spots in the city of Lodz, but it also shows civic commitment and the inhabitants’ ecological consciousness level. The authors based on ethnographic data (observations, walk-alongs, interviews, and data obtained from institutions), attempting to develop a situational analysis of the phenomenon of illegal dumps in the city. The analysis reveals how different positions of the City Guard, Municipal Economy Department, waste disposal companies, journalists, environmental activists, researchers, and citizens participating in the project vary their standpoints and views on the studied problem. Presenting the context and first results of the research, the authors refer to the issue of building relationships with researched subjects during the investigation process. Trying to navigate between them, researchers strive to introduce their different, sometimes contradictory, viewpoints into the research, not losing their commitment and the valuable data they can submit. The analysis shows that the issue of illegal dumps lies at the intersection of many discourses and involves numerous social worlds, organizations, and entities. In this dynamic situation, many practices and conditions contribute to the persistence of the problem of illegal waste disposal
Symbolic Interactionism in Poland. Inspirations and Development
No full textIn the paper, we present the development of symbolic interactionism (SI) in Poland by tracing and discussing its beginnings, as well as the influence the Chicago School had on the reception of SI in Polish sociology. Furthermore, we differentiate between two trends in the development of SI in Poland. One is connected with the early theoretical elaborations of the SI orientation and translations of classical books representing this perspective; another is linked with empirical work underpinned by SI concepts and the grounded theory approach in empirical research and data analysis. Stressing the importance of translations of classical texts of SI in its reception in Poland, we emphasize the role of field research and applications of SI concepts in sociological investigations that we shortly characterize
Social Worlds. Theory, Methods, Empirical Research. An Example of the Social World of Climbing
No full textAnna Kacperczyk podejmuje tematykę coraz bardziej popularnej działalności sportowej, rekreacyjnej oraz hobbystycznej, jaką jest wspinanie. To sfera działalności, która na tle innych aktywności fizycznych prezentuje się jako dziedzina elitarna, niebezpieczna i bardzo wymagająca, dodatkowo budząca liczne kontrowersje etyczne na skutek upublicznianych w mediach relacji dotyczących himalajskich, alpejskich czy taternickich tragedii. Jednocześnie opisywana wspólnota „ludzi gór” jest tu pretekstem do pokazania pewnych ogólnych zjawisk i procesów społecznych możliwych do uchwycenia przy pomocy teorii światów społecznych. Książka ukazuje złożone procesy tworzenia się i podtrzymywania światów społecznych na przykładzie analizy konkretnego społecznego świata – świata wspinaczki. Równocześnie stanowi prezentację efektywnych metod badania światów społecznych. Autorka stosuje cały zestaw strategii analityczno-badawczych – od etnografii, przez autoetnografię, elementy metody biograficznej, analizy dyskursu, po netnografię – podporządkowanych metodologii teorii ugruntowanej, by jak najpełniej opisać społeczny świat wspinaczy.
„− Dlaczego ludzie wspinają się na góry? Bo są.
− Dlaczego interakcjoniści badają tych, co się wspinają? Bo są.
Ani gór, ani wspinaczy nie brakuje, brakowało natomiast książki, która pozwalałaby zrozumieć ten fenomen poza granicami praktyki uprawianej bezpośrednio przez zainteresowanych. Tę lukę przedstawiona do recenzji książka wypełnia znakomicie, sprawiając, że praktyka i związane z nią języki usytuowane zostały na metapoziomie pojmowania i obrazowania socjologicznego. […] Książkę można czytać na kilka sposobów: po pierwsze, jako ciekawą lekturę o tych dziwnych ludziach, którzy wspinają się na wysokie góry (lektura dla niesocjologów) – wtedy wystarczy przeczytać część pierwszą; po drugie, jako pogłębiony metodologiczny traktat o empirycznym studiowaniu „światów społecznych”, z dodatkowym walorem obszernej literatury przedmiotu (lektura dla badaczy „interpretatywnych”) – wtedy czyta się część drugą; i po trzecie wreszcie, jako bardzo mocno ugruntowane empirycznie opracowanie teoretyczne przyczyniające się metodycznie i konsekwentnie do rozwoju substancjalnej teorii społecznej zarówno w wymiarze wniosków teoretycznych, jak i metodologii prowadzonych badań – wtedy jest to już głównie lektura dla teoretyków, którzy czytają całość”.The analysis presented in this book is the effect of seven-year research on the social world of climbing. The author attempts to explore and to describe this particular social world, answering the question: What processes, actions, and interactions occur in the social world of climbing and support its existence. But also, on the basis of the case studied, the author attempts to say something more about any social world through reconstructing the complex processes of the world’s formation and maintenance. These two objectives of the research process are reflected in the structure of the book, which consists of two main parts. The first one,
“«Mountain People». The Analysis of the Social World of Climbing”, is dedicated to describe the activities being undertaken in the studied social world and the normative limits of these activities at hand. The second part, “The Methodology of Social Worlds’ Research”, has theoretical and methodological character and answers the fundamental question: How to study social worlds.
It is estimated that there are millions of people who climb. One does not know exactly what is the percentage of active climbers who regularly participate in the activity at hand. In 2002, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) announced that it represents the interests of 2.5 millions of mountaineers, climbers, and mountain hikers. Only in the U.S. it was around 4.5 millions of people (1.6% of population) who in 2012 participated in sport climbing, indoor climbing, or bouldering at least once (the Outdoor Foundation 2013). The British Mountaineering Council (BMC), which is the national representative body for England and Wales, informs that it represents the interests of 76 thousands of members–climbers, hill walkers, and mountaineers (BMC 2013: 6). In Poland, the estimated number of people who ever participated in climbing activity oscillates between 50–70 thousands. Still, all such data need to be treated with caution since there is no official statistics depicting the number of all active climbers.
The problem with assessing the amount of climbers reflects one important feature of this „community”. The climbing world participants do not constitute a group in the sociological understanding. They rather are form of collectivity or social circle, but even these terms remain too narrow to describe this ample and dynamically changing formation of people engaged in mountaineering and climbing activity. They are equipped with suitable competences and skills, having technology and special equipment to carry on this activity, sharing resources enabling them to achieve their goals. They create common ideology of how to operate; and even if they do not agree at every point, if they differ locally and technologically within the area of their activity, they nonetheless feel a unique commitment to maintain this activity, devoting their time and energy, sometimes at the expense of other areas of their life.
The range and scope of findings considering climbing activity refer to this loosely lined out social unit and its several internal segments. Most of the conclusions presented in this elaboration refer to the community of Polish climbers and mountaineers, with whom the author had direct contact during the research project. But, a large part of these considerations has a more general feature, associated with the essence of climbing that is similar in comparable geophysical contexts, and thus shows universal characteristics. Therefore, the documents and existing materials under study are not restricted to mere descriptions of Polish climbing community activities, but exceeded the area of local rock and mountain areas. These refer to actions undertaken outside of Poland and not only by Poles. It is because climbing activity exceeds any territorial boundaries; very often, it is ran among international groups, and frequently implies staying in remote and isolated locations.
The subject of the analysis are actions and processes in the social world of climbing. This world is broadly defined – as a space of social practices and interactions weaved around the primary activity, which is here the climbing. The primary activity itself is complex and occurs in a variety of forms that divide the world into more or less separated segments. In each of this subworlds, climbing is accompanied by numerous additional activities that influence and condition achieving the primary activity.
Basing on the literature and former empirical applications of the social worlds theory, the author starts with a general picture of what a social world is. Referring to the category of social world itself as a sensitizing concept (Blumer 1997: 147), the author attempts to reconstruct the picture of the social world of climbing.
In the first chapter, entitled “What a Social World Is?”, the author presents the main analytical categories of the social world theory, such as: primary activity, auxiliary activities, technology, the boundaries problem, arenas, values, the participants’ identity. She describes the diversity and dynamics of social worlds, presenting the processes of: segmentation, professionalization, budding off, intersection, legitimation, and authenticity. This description provides the analysis with preliminary theoretical frame that enables the understanding of the area under study as a dynamic communication entity, orbiting around the climbing activity. Also, this outlines the author’s state of knowledge on social worlds as it were at the moment of starting the research. This knowledge doubtlessly directed the way of investigation, sensitizing the researcher to some aspects of the studied reality. With such knowledge, she entered the area under scrutiny.
The second chapter – “The Primary Activity” – describes the multidimensionality of climbing. The act of climbing contains three essential aspects: (1) performing the ascent using one’s own body movement, (2) the climbing protection practices that make the ascent safe, and (3) the falls – as sudden and unwanted descends that may happen during climbing. Referring to the first aspect of the primary activity, the author presents various techniques of ascending: handholds, standing on the steps, and keeping the balance. She discusses the idea of free climbing and aid climbing, movement techniques in ice climbing and on the snow. The climbing protection is described as belaying techniques and auto-protection. The author analyses various conditions of belaying in a rope team during: top roping, lead climbing, climbing on protected routes, and traditional climbing. She also discusses the forms of protection in: bouldering, deep water soloing, soloing, and free soloing. Climbing means gaining altitude and accumulating kinetic energy that is released in the moment of the fall. The last issue is about the possibility of falling down. This triad – ascending-protecting-(potential or actual) falling down – concerns anyone who performs climbing.
Presenting the variety of climbing activities (rock climbing, ice climbing; team climbing, solo climbing; roped or unroped climbing; one-pitch or multi-pitch climbing; sport or traditional climbing, and so on), the author indicates subworlds of the activity under study: bouldering, rock climbing, mountaineering, big-wall climbing, ice climbing, mixed climbing, dry-tooling, deep water soloing, buildering or urban climbing, and indoor climbing. In order to line up these various forms of climbing, she recalls the concept of „the games climbers play”, conceptualized by Lito Tejada-Flores (1967). This conception sets „climbing games” in a hierarchy using the criteria of difficulty and complexity of the game. The difficulty refers to the objective conditions of climbing; complexity means formal rules that are imposed upon action in the form of restrictions and prohibitions. In effect, totally different „games”, like Himalayan expedition or bouldering, may be treated as equally valuable despite their incomparability.
At the end of this chapter, the author presents climbing as an organized social practice which has strong historical dimension and collective character. Climbing not only is an individual act of ascending but also a broad socio-cultural phenomenon encompassing the organized activity maintained in rock areas and mountains by people who explore a given site, who create more effective methods of this exploration, who cumulate the practical knowledge about this activity and spread their own vision of climbing activity. Detailed descriptions of various conditions of climbing are applied to gain a better understanding of the work done by climbers and mountaineers during their activity. In this chapter, the author refers to climbing manuals, guides, instructional videos, and explanations of climbing created by the climbing community participants. She also refers to her own observations and experience gained by participating in rock climbing.
The third chapter, entitled “The Normative Frames of Action”, describes limitations imposed upon climbing by the participants. These are symbolic practices allowing to evaluate any climbing performance. Historically formed ethos, habits, customs, formal regulations accepted by alpine clubs and included in the codes of ethics (like Tyrol Declaration, Kathmandu Declaration, or the Ethical Code for Expeditions) underpin the rules of climbing. But, the main source of normative rules lays in expectations expressed by the participants in their actions and interactions. The normative patterns constantly applied in various situations of climbing pertain to three main issues: (1) the level of difficulty of the route, (2) the climbing style, and (3) the authenticity of participants. As Alfred F. Mummery asserted,
„the essence of the sport lays not in ascending a peak, but in struggling with and overcoming difficulties” (Mummery 1895: 326). The local climbing communities in different rock and mountain regions developed various grading systems – specific for certain climbing area (e.g., Yosemite Decimal System, UIAA, or Saxon Grading System) or for the type of climbing (e.g., ice and mixed climbing scale, bouldering scale, or aid climbing scale) – that describe difficulties and dangers of climbing routes. It was a historical collective process associated with progressive exploration of a given area and with the increase of climbers’ abilities. Every grading system fulfills a dual role – it enables assessing difficulties and dangers of a given climbing route and likewise allow to assess proficiency of a climber who passes this route. Thus, rating a climbing route refers to both needed skills of the climber and physical features of the space of activity. In effect, to the climber who succeeds to pass a route of certain difficulty grade this very grade is ascribed. A climber become „labelled” with this grade.
Another aspect of evaluating climbing activity refers to the idea of climbing style. The style is an overall appraisal of all means and resources used to pass a certain route. It also is regarded as the class of climbing, which encompasses: how bold and demanding is the plan; one’s personal courage needed to overcome technical difficulties and risks; the efficiency of the team (or a single man), as a result of technical skills, knowledge, and the climber’s experience; one’s resistance to the hardships of mountain environment; minimal involvement of specialized equipment and tools; and minimum number of people in the team (perfectly a single climber).
In case of high mountains, one can recognize the „expedition-style” versus the
„alpine-style”. The first one means the mountain conquest by many people who siege the summit building complex infrastructure of camps; the second – more valuable – means the activity of a small team climbing „fast and light”. Another distinction covers free climbing versus aid climbing; and within free climbing one can distinguish: on-sight style, flash, red point, pink point, yo-yo, or all free. Additionally, the style is regarded as a matter of climbing ethics. For example, the idea of „clean climbing” relies on having no environmental impact, leaving no harm effect on the rocks and mountains. The style remains a form of historically constructed community agreement, a convention that defines one way of acting as a better and more valuable than another one. Such normative evaluation not only refers to one’s own activity but also to someone else’s, and is based on the ideal view of the authentic participant of the social world of climbing.
The concept of the style and grading systems allow to evaluate participants’ skills and to hierarchize climbing community. Two processes support the creation of this hierarchy: awarding the exceptional achievements (e.g., by Piolet d’Or, Golden Piton Award) and condemning behaviors that do not go in line with the standards. The process of awarding means indicating the best participants of the social world at hand. But, besides this formal and „top-down” awarding, there is also in the climbing community „bottom-up” spontaneous appraisals giving rise to the „local heroes”. The processes of rewarding and condemning remain a common ground of creating the normative pattern of climbing activity.
The valuation imposed upon climbing actions not only concerns the act of ascending but also the way of how it is presented on the climbing community forum. Very important dimension of the ethical evaluation is reliability and credibility of climbers when they present their own climbing achievements. The basic normative standard is to tell the truth about one’s own achievements and to report adequately what has been done during the climbing. The ethics of climbing concerns one’s relationship with the Other – with one’s partner, a stranger in need, other climbers in rock area – but also with the generalized other, who represents the conception of normative expectations of one’s climbing community as a whole.
The ethics of climbing world reveals complexity of normative structure of this social world, and can be easily showed through the analysis of arenas around climbing styles, the controversies about the prestigious climbing awards, the disclosure of any mystifications, tracking down the cheaters, or the discussions about immoral behaviors. All these issues are strongly impacted by the structure of values of the climbing community.
The normative space of climbing means all of the limitations imposed upon this activity by the participants. Through assessing one’s own, as well as others’, activity; hierarchizing the climbers; labeling them as a „true climber” or denying their authenticity as such; expressing what is allowed and what is forbidden in climbing – climbers maintain the limitations of their own activity from the position of social world’s participants being concerned about its continuance.
In the fourth chapter, “The Auxiliary Activities”, the author describes actions that, while not being climbing, are the necessary conditions of climbing and allow to maintain this social world as a whole. These activities are presented in two ways: as a collective and as an individual actions. The collective actions are undertaken by individuals or groups on behalf of the community and in the common interest of climbers. The first important thing is passing on the know-how and training the beginners. It is necessary to keep the knowledge flow in order to maintain the follow-on of well-trained newcomers with the knowledge of safe climbing, who can easily operate the climbing equipment and pass proper understanding of primary activity. Another collective process is the development of climbing technology. The paramount points in the history of this social world are:
(1) the appearance and improving climbing ropes; (2) the application of pitons and aid climbing; (3) the development of nuts (chockstones, hexes, camalots); (4) the invention of carabiners; (5) the evolution of ice axes; (6) the application and adaption of crampons; (7) the appearance of new climbing shoes with super friction rubber sole; (8) designing synthetic outdoor clothing; (9) innovative solutions in tourist and camping equipment; and finally (10) constructing artificial climbing walls enabling the competitions and regular training. An important area of innovation is the intensive development of mountain rescue. The history of designing and creating climbing equipments is closely connected with the development of climbing world as a whole. Innovative solutions that were born in conjunction with particular climbing actions were promoted or inhibited depending on whether the vision of the activity associated with them was accepted by the majority of participants or not.
Another collective auxiliary activity in the social world under study is the concern about the preservation and free access to mountains and rock areas for the climbers. The discursive equivalent of this matter is the discussion about bolting the climbing routes with permanent anchors.
At some point of the development every climbing community associates and forms an organizational framework for their own actions. They focus on goals important for maintaining the primary activity. The author discusses the self-organization process of Polish climbing community.
One of the auxiliary activities which the social world of climbing is concerned about is the collective maintenance of discursive space, which is achieved by: writing about climbing, visual representing of the space of climbing (painting, drawing, engraving, lithography, mountaineering photography, diagrams or „topo” – graphical representation of climbing routes), filming climbing actions, oral stories, public presentations, conversations about climbing, and finally theorizing about climbing.
On the level of individual actions, climbing is supported by: training and body work, traveling, fundraising and earning money for one’s own activity, collecting climbing equipment, documenting one’s own actions, presenting one’s own climbing activities to others. It is obvious that without all these auxiliary activities the social world of climbing would cease to exist. The primary activity depends on non-climbing actions, but the supporting actions at hand also impact upon and modify the definition of core activity. Moreover, the auxiliary activities do expose the climbing world to the influences from other social worlds.
In the social world of climbing, one finds universal activities and processes distinctive for other worlds, like: hierarchizing the community basing on the mastery of participants and the level of performing the primary activity; creating a relevant language that represents such a level of performance; rewarding the best performances and stigmatizing dishonesty and hoaxes; as well as the commodification or/and commercialization of the activity.
The presented analysis has explorative character, but additionally it carries some theoretical considerations about the social worlds theory and some methodological conclusions. The descriptions of the social world of climbing have some features of formal theory that may be applied to any social world. But, most of all, it remains the combination of the fine substantive theories that refer to actions and processes in the climbing community.
Firstly, this analysis shows how much the
Autoethnography – Technique, Method, or New Paradigm? On Methodological Status of Autoethnography
No full textCelem artykułu jest wprowadzenie pojęciowego ładu w obszarze terminologii oraz opisu praktycznych zastosowań autoetnografii. Autorka na podstawie przeglądu badań posługujących się tą praktyką
badawczą usiłuje zrekonstruować wymiary, w jakich występuje autoetnografia we współczesnych badaniach społecznych. Wyróżnia trzy poziomy, na których wykorzystywana jest autoetnografia: (1) poziom wytwarzania danych, na którym autoetnografia pozostaje wyłącznie techniką otrzymywania
informacji, (2) poziom rozwiązywania problemów badawczych, na którym autoetnografia funkcjonuje
jako metoda lub strategia badawcza oraz (3) poziom epistemologiczny, dotyczący samej filozofii uprawiania badań, na którym autoetnografia jawi się jako nowy paradygmat badań społecznych.
Przyczyny zainteresowania autoetnografią autorka widzi w przemianach samej humanistyki (w postmodernistycznym zwrocie oraz zwrocie performatywnym). Omawia kolejno powody, dla których w naukach
społecznych konieczne jest odwoływanie się do perspektywy uczestnika. Uściśla zakresy znaczeniowe pojęcia „autoetnografia”, nawiązując do historii zastosowań tego pojęcia. Autorka przytacza liczne przykłady
aplikacji tej praktyki badawczej, omawiając także uwarunkowania krytyki kierowanej pod jej adresem.
Rozważając metodologiczny status autoetnografii, autorka wskazuje na zasadnicze pęknięcie paradygmatyczne pomiędzy analitycznym a ewokatywnym ujmowaniem autoetnografii. Rozdziela ono światy
praktyk badawczych na scjentystyczny i przeintelektualizowany program opisu rzeczywistości społecznej wyrażający tendencje analityczne oraz ewokatywny program pielęgnowania żywego doświadczenia, wyrażający tendencję do współodczuwania i doświadczania współobecności Innych.The goal of the paper is an introduction of conceptual order to existing categories of autoethnography research. The author
tries to reconstruct dimensions in which autoethnography is used in contemporary social investigation basing on the review of studies referring to autoethnography. She distinguishes three levels on which autoethnography is applied: (1) the level of techniques
of data gathering, (2) the level of investigation method or strategy, (3) the epistemological level referring to philosophy of social
research in which autoethnography appears as new paradigm of social research.
The reasons of great popularity of autoethnography come from metamorphosis of the humanities itself (after postmodern turn
and performative turn). The author discusses reasons of necessity to appeal to approach of “participant’s perspective” in the social
sciences. She specifies denotations of the term “autoethnography” with reference to history of its applications and enumerates conditions of critique referring to this kind of investigation practice.
Discussing methodological status of autoethnography, the author indicates fundamental paradigmatic split between analytic and
evocative autoethnography, which separate these two worlds of research practices. The first one is marked by scientistic and excessively intellectual agenda of reality description. The second one accents emotional, intimate involvement and embodied participation
into the collaborative process of knowledge creation
An Article About Albertus C. Van Raalte, Author Unknown, Except for Parts Taken from an Article by Anna C. Post
No full textAn article about Albertus C. Van Raalte, author unknown, except for parts taken from an article by Anna C. Post. The author knew first generation persons in the Holland settlement and therefore, the article has some value.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/vrp_1890s/1012/thumbnail.jp
Badacz i jego poszukiwania w świetle Analizy Sytuacyjnej Adele E. Clarke
No full textArtykuł prezentuje nowe podejście w analizie danych jakościowych
rozwijane przez Adele E. Clarke (2003, 2005) i nazywane przez nią
„analizą sytuacyjną”. Projekt Clarke ma na celu propagować i ożywić
metodologię teorii ugruntowanej po postmodernistycznym zwrocie i
skierować ją w stronę konstruktywistycznych epistemologii. W artykule
zostały zaprezentowane główne tezy podejścia Clarke: krytyka tradycyjnej
teorii ugruntowanej, projekt ugruntowanego teoretyzowania przy użyciu
map sytuacyjnych, map społecznych światów i aren oraz map pozycyjnych,
warunki stosowania tego rodzaju metod kartograficznych i diagramów.
Autorka artykułu podejmuje dyskusję z prezentowanym podejściem,
rozważając epistemologiczny status kluczowego w koncepcji Clarke pojęcia
„sytuacji”, efekt przesunięcia ogniska uwagi z działań społecznych na ich
kontekst, epistemologiczny status wprowadzanych przez Clarke do analizy
nonhuman actants oraz problem prekonceptualizacji podejścia Clarke
The researcher’s body in the process of data gathering and analysis – the case of ethnographic study on social world of climbing
No full textArtykuł podejmuje problem roli cielesności badacza w procesie gromadzenia i analizowania danych w badaniu etnograficznym. Rozważania odwołują się do konkretnego przypadku badania nad społecznym światem
wspinaczki, ale refleksja autorki wykracza poza nie, uznając ich aktualność
w odniesieniu do wszelkich etnograficznych badań obejmujących swoim
zainteresowaniem ucieleśnione działania podmiotów ludzkich, szczególnie
te, w których główny przedmiot badań stanowi aktywność ruchowa, związana z pracą z ciałem i poprzez ciało. Autorka analizuje relacje pomiędzy
ucieleśnieniem konkretnych działań i aktywności badanych (wspinaczy)
a ucieleśnieniem samego procesu gromadzenia danych. Podejmuje problem
przejścia pomiędzy tożsamościami badacza i uczestnika społecznego świata oraz możliwość wykorzystania autoetnografii w procesie gromadzenia
i analizowania danych. Na koniec przedstawia trzy aspekty, w których
ujawnia się ciało (cielesność) badacza i badanego w trakcie badania etnograficznego: (a) ciało jako podmiot działający, (b) ciało jako źródło odczuć
i doznań cielesnych podmiotu, (c) ciało jako temat autorefleksji podmiotu
i obiekt teoretyzowania. Autorka podkreśla cielesny charakter procesu badawczego i sugeruje uwzględnianie w badaniach świadomego namysłu nad
umiejscowieniem ciała i cielesności samego badacza w procesie wytwarzania wiedzy.The article considers the problem of researcher’s embodiment in the process of data gathering and analysis in
an ethnographic study on social world of climbing. In author’s opinion, presented reflections go beyond described case and remain applicable to every ethnographic research interested in embodied experiences of human beings, especially these in which the main research topic is physical, e.g., sport activity, bodywork, and
work with the body. The author analyses relations between embodiment of particular actions taken by the
researched subjects and embodiment of the research process. She raises the problem of transition between
the researcher’s identity and the social world participant’s identity – searching for the possibility of using
autoethnography in the process of data gathering and analyzing. Finally, she presents three aspects of the
body/embodiment in the ethnographic research, referring them to the studied subjects (climbers) and to the
researcher: (a) the body as an agent, (b) the embodied experience, (c) the body as a subject of theorizing and
reflections. The author emphasizes the embodied nature of research process – especially in the ethnographic
studies – and suggests taking into consideration the embodiment of the researcher and the role of the body
in the process of knowledge production
Richardson, Barbauld, and the construction of an early modern fan club
No full textMPhilMuch has been written about the life and long works of the eighteenth century epistolary novelist, Samuel Richardson, but the prospect of his position as the first celebrity novelist – responsible for courting his own fame as well as initiating his own fan club – has largely been ignored. The body of manuscripts housed at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London provides the modern scholar with evidence of the skeletal beginnings of an early fan club. This thesis aims to show how these manuscripts were turned into a saleable commodity by the publisher and entrepreneur Richard Phillips, while under the guiding hand of another, slightly later, literary celebrity, Anna Laetitia Barbauld. In order to restore Richardson’s reputation amongst a new nineteenth century audience, Barbauld was required to construct her own idea of him as an eighteenth century celebrity author, and in doing so the insecurities of a self-professed, apparently diffident man, are revealed. Barbauld’s capacious, but heavily edited selection of letters is analyzed in this thesis, providing ample evidence that Richardson’s correspondents were more than just eager letter writers. By using Barbauld’s biography of Richardson this thesis aims to show how she manipulates the genre of life writing in her construction of him.
This thesis offers an alternative reading of how the Richardson manuscripts are viewed, redefining them as not simply a collection of letters, but as a collective entity, deliberately selected and archived as evidence of an early modern fan club, and its celebrity managing director
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