Author: Dirk vom Lehn

Book Chapter with Brigitte Biehl (@doktordrama): “Atmospheres as dynamic configurations: The case of a museum and a techno club” #sociology #marketing #emca #museums #technoclub #berghain #StudioBerlin

Announcement, dramaturgical, exhibitions, experience, interaction

Brigitte Biehl and I have continued our exploration of “atmospheres” by examining how spaces and their atmospheres are dynamically produced through people’s action and interaction. Our analysis is based on studies at a museum and a techno club that due to the global pandemic was transformed into an art exhibition. The research was published in the book “The Metamorphosis of Cultural and Creative Organizations” edited by Federica De Molli and Marilena Secco.

Atmospheres as dynamic configurations: The case of a museum and a techno club by Brigitte Biehl & Dirk vom Lehn

Abstract: Organizational spaces and museum exhibitions are often designed to encompass people with a given atmosphere that encourage particular behavioural and cognitive responses. In a leisure context such as techno clubs, people are given the opportunity to have experiences that are site-specific standing in a particular a nightlife tradition. Similarly, in museums people encounter objects and artefacts displayed to allow them to have an aesthetic experience. In our chapter, we will draw on Gernot Böhme’s aesthetic theory, developing his notion of atmosphere and aesthetic work. We explore how spaces and their atmospheres are dynamically produced through people’s action and interaction. Our investigation will consider atmospheres as ongoing, as continually produced and transformed through people’s “aesthetic work”, i.e. actions, movements, and embodied interaction influenced by their moods, emotions and energy, as well as their memories and past experiences. Based on our analysis we will argue that leisure and cultural experiences arise within the spaces and atmosphere that people co-create through their presence and activities. We draw on examples from the cultural and creative industries: the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Berghain techno club in Berlin, which during the global pandemic in 2020 was transformed into an art exhibition “Studio Berlin” in co-operation with Boros art foundation.

Table of Contents

Preface Antonio Strati 

1. Cultural and creative organizations’ space: An introduction 

Federica De Molli and Marilena Vecco 

Part I – Aesthetic 

2. Atmosphere in cultural organisations: A circumplex model of affective atmospheres 

Christian Julmi 

3. Atmospheres as dynamic configurations: The case of a museum and a techno club 

Brigitte Biehl (Biehl-Missal) and Dirk vom Lehn 

4. Creative spaces in higher education 

Tatiana Chemi

5. ‘Being t/here apart-together’: Co-creative work(ing) in bodily-digital ‘inter-places’ 

Wendelin Küpers and Stephan Sonnenburg 

Part II – Symbolic 

6. Organizational spatial transformation: The case of the un-festival 

Grant Hall and Ruth Rentschler

7. The spatial production of festivals: Ritualization, liminality and performativity 

Leonore van den Ende 

8. Artistic space: Painting and the making of space 

Eleonora Montagner and Alvise Favotto 

9. Museum spaces and changes 

Graham Black 

Part III – Instrumental 

10. Space technologies and cultural organizations 

Daniel Ericsson 

11. The regional context in entrepreneurial finance of cultural business: Urban versus rural space for creative and cultural entrepreneurship 

Elmar D. Konrad and Max Höllen 

12. Community-driven cultural spaces and the COVID-19 pandemic 

Matina Magkou, Laura Huret and Vincent Lambert

13. The expansion of virtual spaces of superstar and star museums during the COVID-19 lockdown 

Anne Gombault and Oihab Allal-Cherif 

14. Future perspectives for research on creative and cultural sectors using a spatial approach 

Federica De Molli

FQS – Debate: “Quality of Qualitative Research” #sociology #sssi #emca

Announcement, Call for Papers, quantitative/qualitative, research methods, Uncategorized

Over 20 years ago, in 2000, Franz Breuer, Jo Reichertz and Wolff-Michael Roth started a FQS debate on the “Quality of Qualitative Research.” In past contributions to this debate a wide range of issues has been discussed, such as various qualitative techniques of collecting or analyzing data, or the application of such methods within different disciplinary and institutional contexts. Since its beginning, the call for contributions to this debate has remained unchanged, while academic discussions surrounding this topic have changed substantially. The questions that were raised originally—What is “good” science? What are “good” social sciences? What is “good” qualitative social research? What are the criteria and standards for such evaluations?—are still relevant today and will continue to provide a baseline for future contributions, however, an update of the call for this FQS debate may be in order.

In the past, qualitative researchers have fought hard for acceptance and recognition of their work; this battle has largely been won. Today, in most social science disciplines (perhaps with the exception of psychology), qualitative epistemologies, theories, and methods are used and taught as “mainstream” science alongside their quantitative counterparts. Most university colleagues, students, and administrators have fully accepted their legitimacy and utility. While this is excellent news, it does not mean that debates about the “quality” of qualitative research have been, or should be, abandoned. Today, such debates take place in multiple contexts of discourse in which the “quality” of qualitative research is understood and treated in very different ways.

  1. The continued globalization and interdisciplinary appeal of qualitative research has accelerated the diversification of existing frameworks, theories, methodologies and methods. We are encountering many innovative developments that originate within the “older” qualitative approaches, such as social constructionism, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, phenomenology, hermeneutics, grounded theory methodology, and discourse analysis. In addition, today, many qualitative researchers transcend traditional boundaries and draw on a much broader theoretical canon when using and developing new qualitative methods, including critical approaches such as feminist, postcolonial and critical race theories, political economy frameworks, as well as postmodernism, poststructuralism and arts-based epistemologies. Moreover, collaboration between qualitative social scientists and scholars from discipline as diverse as the arts, design, computer sciences, medicine, and other health sciences have accelerated the development of “alternative” research methods. These developments lead to many new questions, such as: What does the new theoretical landscape of qualitative epistemologies and methodologies look like? How do various national and cultural contexts shape developments and debates of new qualitative frameworks? Finally, how is the “quality” of new qualitative research practices assessed across different disciplines and epistemological contexts?
  2. Over the past 20 years, qualitative research has been influenced by tremendous developments and expansions in technology and social media. Researchers increasingly use tools such as video-cameras, smart phones, and the Internet to collect data. A wide array of software packages has both reduced and increased the complexity of data collection and analysis. We must ask new questions, such as: How does the proliferation of new tools and technologies shape the practical and intellectual work of qualitative researchers? Which new social worlds and relationships have emerged, and how should they be examined and theorized qualitatively?
  • Funding mechanisms in the (social) sciences have also changed substantially, alongside institutional structures in the university. Today, in addition to public and non-profit funding bodies, researchers must turn to private and commercial institutions to acquire resources, some of which are very open toward qualitative approaches while others question their utility. New questions, such as the following, emerged: How do changes in funding and other institutional structures influence the theory and practice of qualitative research? How do the new funding and institutional landscapes vary by country, by region, and by discipline? What impacts do these changes have on the selection of research topics and on qualitative research ethics and responsibilities?
  • Lastly scientific research has increasingly come under pressure from politicians and policy makers, as well as from other influential experts, who have bluntly questioned the scholarly enterprise and confronted all scientific research with hostility and antagonism. This raises questions, such as: How do researchers who use qualitative theories, methodologies and methods respond to fundamental challenges of their (social) scientific expertise? How do they convince public audiences that their work raises and helps solve important questions?

Despite long-standing discussions about the quality of qualitative research, still no agreement has been reached about a catalogue of criteria that would serve to guarantee its value across the myriad contexts in which it is used today, similar to the classical, canonical standards that exist for quantitative scholars. In fact, we must broaden our understandings of what qualitative research is, and how it is practiced, while we continue to ask questions about its “quality.” The many issues and questions raised above may serve to re-invigorate discussions about the “Quality of Qualitative Research” in this FQS Debates, in alignment with current developments and concerns. As internal and external conditions for qualitative research practice have changed, a new engagement with the original issues, we hope, will invite new participants, raise new questions, and will lead to new insights within this worthwhile “Quality” debate. A reconfigured international FQS debate team eagerly awaits your submissions.

This is a Call without a deadline.

For questions, please contact the Section Editors: Franz Breuer, Paul Eisewicht, Margarethe Kusenbach, Jo Reichertz, Dirk vom Lehn, e-mail: deb_quality@qualitative-research.net

The Robots are Coming

Book Review, interactionism, Technology

There is lots of interest in the influence robots have on our work and life. Public debate often considers the emerging technology as an external force that shapes and threatens social relationships, thereby ignoring that it is people who make decisions about the design, development and deployment of new technology.

In her book “The New Breed” Kate Darling offers a novel perspective on human-robot relationships by introducing the human-animal relationship as an analogy that may encourage researchers, including interactionists, to consider the relationship between humans and robots in new ways. My review of The New Breed” has just been published in Symbolic Interaction.

PhD Studentship – Work, Interaction & Technology Research Group, King’s Business School – Communication in Optometry before and after Covid-19 #optometry #sociology #studentship

Uncategorized

The changing role of the optometrist in assessing eye-sight and eye health during and after Covid-19

King’s Business School have a 4 year, fully funded PhD studentship (fees and stipend) available to undertake research concerned with communication and interaction in remote optometry consultations. The successful candidate will be expected to undertake qualitative, in-depth, studies of the organisation of eye examinations undertaken via telephone, video-phone, etc. Their research will relate to previous video-based studies of communication and interaction undertaken by the supervisory team. 

The successful candidate will be a member of the Work, Interaction & Technology Research Group at King’s Business School. Members of the WIT Group are concerned with social interaction in organisational settings, examining the interplay between social interaction and technology. Candidates will undertake naturalistic studies of communication and interaction in optometry that draw on ethnographic and video-based research methods. They will have a social science background and have received training in qualitative research methods, including ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, ethnography, qualitative interviewing and grounded theory.

The PhD project will be undertaken in collaboration with the College of Optometrists and co-supervised by Professor Dirk vom Lehn (KCL) and Professor Peter Allen (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge). It, therefore, provides candidates with the opportunity to develop a distinctive approach to their research.

The successful candidate will begin in October 2021.

For further information, please contact Professor Dirk vom Lehn at dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk

Application Information 

Early applications are encouraged. Applicants are strongly advised to contact the supervisor Professor Dirk vom Lehn at dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk

Please submit the following to kbs-phd@kcl.ac.uk 

  1. Copy of your CV
  2. One academic reference letter
  3. Letter of interest (1-2 page) including how you would be a best fit for the project.  

Note – applicants must check that they meet our entry requirements prior to applying

You should hold, or be completing, a Master’s degree with a Merit or higher (or overseas equivalent) and have achieved a 2:1 Bachelor’s degree (or overseas equivalent) in a relevant subject.

English language requirements

If you are a native English speaker or have been awarded a degree within the last five years from one of the countries listed here, you may not be required to take an English language test. English language competency is assessed on a case-by-case basis.

If your first language is not English you must be able to provide recent evidence that your spoken and written command of the English language is adequate for the programmes for which you have applied. Check our English language requirements here (Band B). You can use our pre-sessional English calculator to check if your language scores meet our requirements.

Please note, we cannot review individual eligibility before you apply and are only able to consider complete applications which include all supporting documents.

Application Procedure 

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an interview and the successful candidate will be asked to submit their formal application via King’s Apply online system. 

Please contact kbs-phd@kcl.ac.uk if you have any queries regarding the application procedure.

Table of Contents: ‘INTERNATIONAL ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF INTERACTIONISM’ BY D. VOM LEHN, N. RUIZ-JUNCO, AND W. GIBSON #SSSI #EMCA #SOCIOLOGY #HANDBOOK

Uncategorized
Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism

Table of Contents

Part 1

  1.  Introduction [tentative]

Dirk vom Lehn, Natalia Ruiz-Junco and Will Gibson

Part 2 – Varieties of Interactionism

2.1. Pragmatism and Interactionism – Frithjof Nungesser

2.2. Blumer, Symbolic Interactionism and 21st century sociology – Thomas J. Morrione

2.3. Straussian Negotiated Order Theory c.1960-Present – Adele Clarke

2.4. Recent Developments in the New Iowa School of Symbolic Interactionism – Michael Katovich and Shing-Ling S. Chen

2.5. Dramaturgical Framework and Interactionism – Greg Smith

2.6. Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis: The Other Interactionism – Jason Turowetz and Anne Warfield Rawls

Part 3–Self, Identity, and Emotions

3.1 Click, Validate, and Reply: Three Paradoxes of the Terminal Self – Simon Gottschalk

3.2. Animal Selfhood – Leslie Irvine

3.3. The Self and the Supernatural – Rachael Ironside

3.4. The (Un)Healthy Body and the Self – Lisa Jean Moore and Sumayra Khan

3.5. Identity and Racialisation – Matt Hughey & Michael Rosino

3.6. Symbolic Interaction beyond Binaries – J.E. Sumerau

3.7. Culture and Emotion: Interactionist Perspectives – Doyle McCarthy

Part 4 – Social Organisation 

4.1. Organizations and Institutions – Patrick McGinty

4.2. Symbolic Interactionism, Social Structure, and Social Change: Historical Debates and Contemporary Challenges – Stacey Hannem

4.3. Mental Health and Symbolic Interactionism: Untapped Opportunities – Baptiste Brossard

4.4. Handling Video of [Police] Violence: Theoretical versus Practical Analyses

– Patrick Watson & Albert J. Meehan

4.5. Space, Mobility, and Interaction – Robin James Smith

4.6. Nature and the Environment in Interaction – Anthony Puddephatt

4.7. The Social Construction of Time – Michael G. Flaherty

4.8. Collective Memory – Lisa-Jo van den Scott

Part 5 – Interactionism, Media and the Internet

5.1. Media Logic, Fear, and the Construction of Terrorism – David Altheide

5.2. Public Fear and the Media – Joel Best

5.3. Policing and Social Media – Chris Schneider

5.4. Interactionism and online identity: How has interactionism contributed to understandings of online identity? – Hannah Ditchfield

5.5. Physical Co-presence and Distinctive Features of Online Interactions – Xiaoli Tian and Yui Fung Yip

5.6. Happy Birthday Michael Jackson: Dead Celebrity and Online Interaction – Kerry O. Ferris

5.7. Multi-Player Online Gaming – David Kirschner

Part 6 – New Developments in Methods

6.1. Situational Analysis as Critical Pragmatist Interactionism – Carrie Friese, Rachel Washburn & Adele Clarke

6.2. Video in Interactionist Research – René Tuma

6.3. Digital Naturalism: Ethnography in Networked Worlds: Ethnography in Networked Worlds – Michael Dellwing

6.4. Ethics in Symbolic Interactionist Research – Will & Deborah van den Hoonard

Part 7 – Reimagining Interactionism

7.1. Toward an expanded Definition of Interactionism – Linda Liska Belgrave, Kapriskie Seide and Kathy Charmaz

7.2. Some Antinomies of Interactionism – Martyn Hammersley

7.3. Interactionist Research: Extending Methods, Extending Fields – Emilie Morwenna Whitaker & Paul Atkinson 

7.4. The New Horizons of Symbolic Interactionism – Kent Sandstrom, Lisa K. van den Scott & Gary Alan Fine

‘International Routledge Handbook of Interactionism’ by D. vom Lehn, N. Ruiz-Junco, and W. Gibson #sssi #emca #sociology #handbook

Uncategorized

This was fun! Over the past couple years, I worked with Natalia Ruiz-Junco, Will Gibson and over 30 colleagues on the production of the International Routledge Handbook of Interactionism. The book is currently prepared for publication on May 27th. The electronic version of the Handbook which is much more affordable than the printed book, can already be purchased.

Because we had so much fun cooperating on this book, we are planning our next joint project already. We are currently working on an edited book with the working title “People, Technology, and Social Organization: interactionist studies of everyday life”. A Call for Abstracts with a deadline of May 15th can be accessed here.

Call for Abstracts: ‘People, Technology, and Social Organization: interactionist studies of everyday life’ #sssi #emca #ethnography #technology #sociology

Uncategorized


Dirk vom Lehn, Will Gibson and Natalia Ruiz-Junco are developing a new co-edited book project with the working-title,
“People, Technology, and Social Organization: interactionist studies of everyday life”.

In light of the increasing importance of technology in all parts of our lives the chapters to be included in the co-edited book will reveal how technology is oriented to and embedded within the social organization of action in a wide range of settings and institutions, such as education, markets, arts and culture, health and social care, media, politics, science and others. In their analyses, the contributing authors will adopt interactionist and cognate perspectives to explore how the meanings of technology emerge and are negotiated within and through action and interaction.


The proposed volume will comprise around 10 empirical chapters from interactionist researchers working in fields such as symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, conversation analysis, discourse methods, ethnographic enquiry, video-based methods, and others. Submissions may draw on a diversity of research methods and data sources, and should draw from empirical analyses of interaction.


The co-edited book is primarily aimed at researchers in the social sciences and beyond whose work is concerned with the interplay between social interaction, technology, and institutions.


Submissions should comprise a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words. Abstracts should describe the setting and the technology being studied, the conceptual/theoretical framework (where relevant), the data being analysed, and the key findings and claims emerging from the analysis. The submission should include up to five keywords, the author(s)’ name, institutional affiliation, and contact details.


Please send your title and abstract with the Subject line: People, Technology, and Social Organization, to Dirk vom Lehn (dirk.vom_lehn@kcl.ac.uk) by 15 May 2021. We plan to submit the final manuscript to the publisher in the summer of 2022.

Special Issue ‘The Senses in Social Interaction’ edited by Will Gibson (@Willjimgibson) and Dirk vom Lehn (@dirkvl) published in Symbolic Interaction (@sociologylens) #sssi #emca #senses #interaction

Announcement, interaction, interactionism, Senses

Symbolic Interaction (@sijournal) has just published our Special Issue on ‘The Senses in Social Interaction’ (Vol.44(1)). The Table of Contents is below.

Will Gibson and Dirk vom Lehn – Introduction: The Senses in Social Interaction [Open Access] https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.539

Danielle Pillet-Shore – “When to Make the Sensory Social: Registering in Face‐to‐Face Openings” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.481 (with video abstract)

Giolo Fele and Ken Liberman – “Some Discovered Practices of Lay Coffee Drinkers” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.486

Lorenza Mondada – “Orchestrating Multi‐sensoriality in Tasting Sessions: Sensing Bodies, Normativity, and Language” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.472

Sally Wiggins and Leelo Keevallik – “Enacting Gustatory Pleasure on Behalf of Another: The Multimodal Coordination of Infant Tasting Practices” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.527

Francesca Astrid Salvadori and Giampietro Gobo – “Sensing the Bike: Creating a Collaborative Unerstanding of a Multi-Sensorial Experience in MotoGP Racing” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.529

Brian Due – Distributed Perception: Co‐Operation between Sense‐Able, Actionable, and Accountable Semiotic Agents https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.538

Sylvie Grosjean, Frederik Matte and Isaac Nahon-Serfaty – “Sensory Ordering” in Nurses’ Clinical Decision‐Making: Making Visible Senses, Sensing, and “Sensory Work” in the Hospital” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.490

David Matthew Edmonds and Christian Greiffenhagen – “Configuring Prospective Sensations: Experimenters Preparing Participants for What They Might Feel” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.485

Eduardo de la Fuente and Michael James Walsh – “Framing Atmospheres: Goffman, Space, and Music in Everyday Life” https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.506

Book Reviews

Brigitte Biehl – “Atmospheres always open to change” – Review of ‘Atmospheres and the Experiential World: Theory and Methods’ By Sumartojo, Shanti and Pink, Sarah ( Routledge, 2019) – https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.507

Don Everhart- “Phenomenology, Ethnomethodology, and Intercorporeality” Review of ‘Intercorporeality: Emerging Socialities in Interaction’ edited by Christian Meyer, Juergen Streeck, and J. Scott Jordan (OUP, 2019) https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.523

Jessica S. Robles – “Contact: Pushing the Boundaries of Touch‐in‐Interaction” – Review of ‘Touch in Social Interaction: Touch, Language, and Body’ edited by Asta Cekaite and Lorenza Mondada (Routledge, 2019) https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.524

Jeffrey van den Scott – “Loud, Fast, and Hard: Changing Identities in a Musical Subculture” – Review of ‘Psychobilly: Subcultural Survival’ By Kimberly Kattari (Temple University Press, 2020) https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.522

James Fletcher – “Finding Order through Disorder: Dementia as a Reflection of Social Organization” – Review of ‘Forgetting Items: The Social Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease’ By Baptiste Brossard (Indiana University Press, 2019).

Chris Land – “An Oasis of Beer in the Desert of the Real?” – Review of ‘Vegas Brews: Craft Beer and the Birth of a Local Scene’ by Borer, Michael Ian (NYU, 2019) – https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.512

Judson G. Everitt – “Emotions, Interactions, and Institutions in Preschool Teaching” – Review of ‘Between Teaching and Caring in the Preschool: Talk, Interaction, and the Preschool Teacher Identity‘ by John C. Pruit https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.487

Philippe Sormani – “Reflexive Ethnography as “Data Science”? A Sociological Contribution to Praxeology” – Review of ‘Daten‐Karrieren und epistemische Materialität: Eine wissenschaftssoziologische Studie zur methodologischen Praxis der Ethnografie By Meier zu Verl, Christian ( J. B. Metzler Verlag, 2018) https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.488

Noreen M. Sugrue – “Evolutionary Explanation Meets Social Reality” – Review of ‘Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society’ by Nicolas Christakis (Little Brown Spark, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.483