Incomplete List of Books and Papers on ‘Mobility’

interaction, Mobile, mobility, Announcement, ethnography, Anthropology

Mobility – Short List

Asimakopoulos, Stavros, and Alan Dix. ‘Walking: A Grounded Theory of Social Engagement and Experience’. Interacting with Computers 29, no. 6 (1 November 2017): 824–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwx014.

Becker, Carol. ‘The Art of Crossing the Street’. Art Journal 58, no. 1 (1999): 10–15.

Broth, Mathias, and Lorenza Mondada. ‘Delaying Moving Away: Place, Mobility, and the Multimodal Organization of Activities’. Journal of Pragmatics 148 (July 2019): 44–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.05.013.

———. ‘Walking Away: The Embodied Achievement of Activity Closings in Mobile Interaction’. Journal of Pragmatics47, no. 1 (2013): 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2012.11.016.

Broth, Matthias, and Frederik Lundstrom. ‘A Walk on the Pier. Establishing Relevant Places in a Guided, Introductory Walk’. In Interaction and Mobility: Language and the Body in Motion, edited by Pentti Haddington, Maurice Nevile, and Lorenza Mondada. Berlin: DeGryter, 2013.

Brown, Barry, and Eric Laurier. ‘Maps and Car Journeys: An Ethno-Methodological Approach’. Cartographica 4 (2005): 17–33.

Brown, Barry, Eric Laurier, Hayden Lorimer, Owain Jones, Oskar Juhlin, Mark Perry, Daniele Pica, et al. ‘Driving and “ Passengering ”: Notes on the Ordinary Organization of Car Travel’. Mobilities 3, no. 1 (2008): 1–31.

Carlin, Andrew P. ‘Navigating the Walkways: Radical Inquiries and Mental Maps’, n.d.

Cosley, Dan, Jonathan Baxter, Soyoung Lee, Brian Alson, Saeko Nomura, Phil Adams, Chethan Sarabu, and Geri Gay. ‘A Tag in the Hand : Supporting Semantic , Social , and Spatial Navigation in Museums’. Technology, 2009, 1953–62.

De Stefani, Elwys. ‘Rearranging (in) Space: On Mobility and Its Relevance for the Study of Face-to-Face Interaction’. In Space in Language and Linguistics, edited by Peter Auer, Martin Hilpert, Anja Stukenbrock, and Benedikt Szmrecsanyi, 434–63. DE GRUYTER, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110312027.434.

De Stefani, Elwys, and Lorenza Mondada. ‘Encounters in Public Space: How Acquainted Versus Unacquainted Persons Establish Social and Spatial Arrangements’. Research on Language and Social Interaction 51, no. 3 (3 July 2018): 248–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/08351813.2018.1485230.

Deppermann, Arnulf. ‘Intersubjectivity and Other Grounds for Action-Coordination in an Environment of Restricted Interaction: Coordinating with Oncoming Traffic When Passing an Obstacle’. Language & Communication 65 (March 2019): 22–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.04.005.

Deppermann, Arnulf, Eric Laurier, and Lorenza Mondada. ‘Overtaking as an Interactional Achievement: Video Analyses of Participants’ Practices in Traffic’. Gesprächsforschung 19 (2018): 1–131.

Due, Brian, and Simon Lange. ‘Semiotic Resources for Navigation: A Video Ethnographic Study of Blind People’s Uses of the White Cane and a Guide Dog for Navigating in Urban Areas’. Semiotica 2018, no. 222 (25 April 2018): 287–312. https://doi.org/10.1515/sem-2016-0196.

Drury, John, and Elizabeth Stokoe. ‘The Interactional Production and Breach of New Norms in the Time of COVID-19: Achieving Physical Distancing in Public Spaces’. British Journal of Social Psychology 61, no. 3 (2022): 971–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12513.

Foster, Susan Leigh. ‘Walking and Other Choreographic Tactics: Danced Inventions of Theatricality and Performativity’. SubStance 31, no. 2 (2002): 125–46. https://doi.org/10.1353/sub.2002.0028.

Goffman, Erving. Behavior in Public Places. Notes on the Social Organization of Gatherings. New York and London, 1963.

———. Relations in Public. Microstudies of the Social Order. New York: Basic Books, 1971.

Haddington, Pentti. ‘Leave-Taking as Multiactivity: Coordinating Conversational Closings with Driving in Cars’. Language & Communication 65 (March 2019): 58–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.04.003.

Haddington, Pentti, and Tiina Keisanen. ‘Location, Mobility and the Body as Resources in Selecting a Route’. Journal of Pragmatics 41, no. 10 (October 2009): 1938–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.018.

Hall, Tom. ‘Footwork: Moving and Knowing in Local Space(s)’. Qualitative Research 9, no. 5 (1 November 2009): 571–85. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794109343626.

Hall, Tom, and Robin James Smith. ‘Stop and Go: A Field Study of Pedestrian Practice, Immobility and Urban Outreach Work’. Mobilities 8, no. 2 (1 May 2013): 272–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2012.659470.

Hester, Stephen, and David Francis. ‘Analysing Visually Available Mundane Order: A Walk to the Supermarket’. Visual Studies 18, no. 1 (1 April 2003): 36–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860320001000056.

Karamouzas, Ioannis, Brian Skinner, and Stephen J. Guy. ‘Universal Power Law Governing Pedestrian Interactions’. Physical Review Letters 113, no. 23 (2 December 2014). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.238701.

Laurier, Eric, Magnus Hamann, Saul Albert, and Elizabeth Stokoe. ‘Guest Blog: Walking in the Time of COVID-19’. Research on Language and Social Interaction – Blog (blog), 5 May 2020. https://rolsi.net/2020/05/05/guest-blog-walking-in-the-time-of-covid-19/.

Weilenmann, Alexandra, Daniel Normark, and Eric Laurier. ‘Managing Walking Together: The Challenge of Revolving Doors’. Space and Culture 17, no. 2 (May 2014): 122–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331213508674.

Laurier, Eric, and Barry Brown. ‘Rotating Maps and Readers: Praxiological Aspects of Alignment and Orientation’. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33 (April 2008): 201–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2008.00300.x.

Lloyd, Michael. ‘Getting by: The Ethnomethods of Everyday Cycling Navigation’. New Zealand Geographer n/a, no. n/a. Accessed 14 August 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/nzg.12274.

Marsh, Peter, and Peter Collett. ‘Patterns of Public Behavior: Collision Avoidance on a Pedestrian Crossing’. In Non-Verbal Communication Interaction and Gesture, edited by Adam Kendon, 199–217. The Hague: Mouton, 1981.

Merlino, Sara, and Lorenza Mondada. ‘Crossing the Street: How Pedestrians Interact with Cars’. Language & Communication 65 (March 2019): 131–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2018.04.004.

Mondada, Lorenza. ‘Commentary: Being Mobile, Talking on the Move: Conceptual, Analytical and Methodological Challenges of Mobility’. In Space in Language and Linguistics, edited by Peter Auer, Martin Hilpert, Anja Stukenbrock, and Benedikt Szmrecsanyi, 464–70. DE GRUYTER, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110312027.464.

———. ‘Talking and Driving: Multiactivity in the Car’. Semiotica 191 (2012): 223–56.

———. ‘Walking and Talking Together: Questions/Answers and Mobile Participation in Guided Visits’. Social Science Information 56, no. 2 (2017): 220–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0539018417694777.

Petri, Jakub. ‘The Forgotten Art of Walking. Toward Intra-Active Geography of an Urban Landscape’. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture 14, no. 1 (31 December 2022): 2156437. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004214.2022.2156437.

Ryave, A. L., and J. N. Schenkein. ‘Notes on the Art of Walking’. In Ethnomethodology, edited by Roy Turner, 265–74. Middlesex: Penguin, 1974.

Smith, Robin James, and Tom Hall. ‘Mobilities at Work: Care, Repair, Movement and a Fourfold Typology’. Applied Mobilities 1, no. 2 (2 July 2016): 147–60. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2016.1246897.

———. ‘Pedestrian Circulations: Urban Ethnography, the Mobilities Paradigm and Outreach Work’. Mobilities 11, no. 4 (7 August 2016): 498–508. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2016.1211819.

Vergunst, Jo Lee, and Tim Ingold, eds. Ways of Walking: Ethnography and Practice on Foot. 1st edition. London New York: Routledge, 2016.

vom Lehn, Dirk. ‘Configuring Standpoints: Aligning Perspectives in Art Exhibitions’. Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée 96 (2012): 69–90.

———. ‘Withdrawing from Exhibits: The Interactional Organisation of Museum Visits’. In Interaction and Mobility: Language and the Body in Motion, edited by Pentti Haddington, Lorenza Mondada, and Maurice Nevile, 65–90. March. Berlin: de Gryter, 2013.

Watson, Rod. ‘The Visibility Arrangements of Public Space: Conceptual Resources and Methodological Issues in Analysing Pedestrian Movements’. Communication & Cognition 38, no. 3–4 (2005): 201–27.

Introduction to “The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism” edited by Vom Lehn, Ruiz-Junco, and Gibson (2021) #sssi #emca #sociology

ethnography, Ethnomethodology, interactionism, sociology, SSSI, symbolic interactionism

The introduction to “Introduction to “The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism” edited by Dirk vom Lehn, Natalia Ruiz-Junco, and Will Gibson (2021) can be downloaded below.

Interactionism and Sensory Sociology

Announcement, ethnography, Ethnomethodology, experience, interactionism, Senses

In light of the publication of the “Special Issue on the Senses in Social Interaction” Will Gibson and I wrote a short piece on interactionism and sensory sociology for Sociology Lens.

New Book: Institutions, Interaction and Social Theory #sociology #sssi #emca #orgtheory

Announcement, book, ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Garfinkel, Goffman

Together with Will Gibson (UCL) I have just published a book titled “Institutions, Interaction and Social Theory” (Palgrave).

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From hospitals and prisons to schools and corporations: no matter how large or seemingly abstract, all institutions are ultimately the result of the actions and interactions of people. In this original and innovative text, Gibson and Vom Lehn show the different ways in which studying people’s own meaning-making practices can help us understand the role of institutions in contemporary society.

Institutions, Interaction and Social Theory takes the reader through the core conceptual foundations of Symbolic Interactionism, Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Engaging with a rich tradition in sociological thought, it suggests that interactionist perspectives have remained largely absent in the study of institutions, and how they contrast with and contribute to the broader field of research in institutional contexts.

With chapters on healthcare, education, markets, and art and culture, this text will be of interest to those studying institutions, organisations and work in sociology and in business schools. It will also be valuable for students of social theory interested in interactionism, and in the challenges and opportunities of connecting complex theoretical discussions to real world examples.

Recent Research on Audiences #sociology #media #cinema #museum

Book Review, ethnography, experience, publication, Symbolic Interaction

Over the past few decades there have been tremendous developments in audience research. Sonia Livingstone’s (2014) book chapter captures some the highlights of these developments. Unsurprisingly, Livingstone’s chapter includes Stuart Hall’s ‘encoding/decoding’ model that has been of outstanding influence in the field. Hall’s concept is closely related to ‘reception theory’ (Iser 1980) and Morley’s (1993) concept of the “active audience”. By and large, when audience research discussed the active audience it was turning away from the idea that media content was passively received by a people sitting in front of their radio and television set. The focus shifted from passive reception to (active) interpretation of media content.

A couple of years ago I came across articles published by the Indian-American scholar Lakshmi Srinivas based at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Srinivas research (2005, 2010ab) immediately struck me as very exciting as it took the ‘active’ in ‘active audience’ literally. She was and remains interested in people’s action and interaction when they visit cinemas. Last year (2016), Srinivas published her research as a book entitled “House Full: Indian Cinema and the Active Audience“.

In the book, Srinivas discusses how in India people actively participate in the production of the cinematic experience. She begins her exploration outside the cinema hall where people queue to purchase tickets and wait to enter the auditorium. Inside the auditorium a social structure emerges that can be based on people’s social class but is also related to the nature of the social grouping that attendance a film screening. Where they sit people create a space where all group members can comfortably participate in the film experience. Children for example may sit on prepared blankets and consume food that has been brought to the cinema. During the film it is very common to vocalise loudly responses to the film’s content, such as to locations or actors that are recognised. People also sing along to tunes that are part of the film. Or if they are not interest in long musical sequences they might use the time to chat with others, leave the cinema for socialising outside, or having a smoke. Whilst in Western cinemas it is generally assumed that everybody sitting in the same auditorium sees and experiences the same film, audience members in Indian cinemas construct their cinematic experience in interaction with others and by fitting together the bits of the film they see with content they pick up from conversations with others.

I highly recommend Srinivas’ “House Full” to everyone interested in film consumption and audience research. A more comprehensive review of the book has been published in Symbolic Interaction.

References

Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/Decoding. Culture, Media, Language, 128–138. http://doi.org/10.1007/BF00986815

Iser, W. (1980). The Act of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Response. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Livingstone, Sonia (2012) Exciting moments in audience research – past, present and future. In: Bilandzic , Helena, Patriarche, Geoffrey and Traudt , Paul, (eds.) The social use of media: cultural and social scientific perspectives on audience research. ECREA Book Series. Intellect Ltd, Brighton, UK, pp. 257-274.

Morley, D. (1993). Active Audience Theory: Pendulums and Pitfalls. Journal of Communication, 43(4), 13–19. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1993.tb01299.x

Srinivas, L. 2005. Imaging the Audience. Journal of South Asian Popular Culture. 3 (2): 101–116.

Srinivas, L. Cinema Halls, Locality and Urban Life. Ethnography. 11 (1): 189-205

Srinivas, L. Cinema in the City: Tangible Forms, Transformations and the Punctuation of Everyday Life. Visual Anthropology, 23 (1): 1-12. [Lead article. Selected for Editor’s Choice].

Srinivas, L. (2016). House full : Indian cinema and the active audience. Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press.

vom Lehn, D. (2017). Reengaging with the “Active Audience”: An Ethnography of Indian Cinema. Symbolic Interaction. http://doi.org/10.1002/symb.292

Phenomenology-based Ethnography: Special Issue Journal of Contemporary Ethnography #sssi #emca #sociology

ethnography, Phenomenology, Schutz

Two or three years ago, I met Gary Alan Fine, the ethnographer and sociologist who wrote such wonderful books on restaurant kitchens, young orators in high school debating societies, mushroom collectors and many more. We came to talk about varieties of ethnography and one of its German variations: “Phenomenology-based Ethnography”. This form of ethnography pervades German qualitative sociology but is less well-known in Anglo-Saxon sociology. It has been developed by the late Anne Honer and Ronald Hitzler together with other German sociologists and ethnographers of whom a good number studied with Thomas Luckmann, the famous student of Alfred Schutz, at the University of Konstanz (Germany). Gary Fine wondered whether it was possible to put together a Special Issue and encouraged me to approach the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Charles Edgley, with the idea. With the wonderful support of Charles Edgley this Special Issue edited by myself and Ronald Hitzler, has now been produced and is in the process of being published, first on OnlineFirst of JCE.

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography – Special Issue: Phenomenology-based Ethnography

Table of Content

Dirk vom Lehn and Ronald Hitzler – Phenomenology-based Ethnography: Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

The article provides the background and rationale for the Special Issue. It explains the origins of phenomenology-based ethnography in Alfred Schutz’s analysis of the life-world and points to some recent development in this approach that is of particular importance in sociology in German-speaking countries. It finishes with a brief introduction to the articles of the issue.

Anne Honer and Ronald Hitzler – Life-World-Analytical Ethnography: A Phenomenology-Based Research Approach

Abstract

Life-world-analytical ethnography aims to investigate the subjective perspective—the life-worlds—of other people. Life-world-analytical ethnography is based on the premise that any world which is not apprehended as a life-world—that is, as the totality of a world that is subjectively experienced—is a fiction. For we do not, in fact, have any knowledge of a world that is not subjectively experienced—of the world per se, as it were. The investigation of one’s own life-world is a difficult program in itself, a program that mundane phenomenology, in particular, endeavors to pursue. However, the investigation of the life-worlds of other actors calls for numerous additional precautions and measures. This article discusses the origins and foundations as well as particular challenges of life-world-analytical ethnography.

Thomas S. Eberle – Exploring another’s subjective life-world: A phenomenological approach

Abstract

Regarding the relationship between phenomenology and the social sciences, significantly different traditions exist between German-speaking countries and the Anglo-Saxon world, which create many misunderstandings. Phenomenology is not just a research method; in its origin, it is a philosophy and has epistemological and methodological implications for empirical research. This essay pursues several goals: First, some basic tenets of Husserl’s phenomenology and Schutz’s mundane life-world analysis are restated. Second, an approach of “phenomenological hermeneutics” is presented that complies with the postulate of adequacy and aspires to understand other people’s life-worlds more profoundly than the widely accepted research practice of treating interview transcripts as data. The methodical procedure is illustrated using selected pieces from a case study of a patient who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and became severely disoriented. Third, some crucial implications of such an approach are discussed in regard to a phenomenology-based ethnography.

Siegfried Saerberg – Chewing accidents: A phenomenology of visible and invisible everyday accomplishments

Abstract

This article compares two variations of bodily practices and bodily-grounded orientations and systems of relevance: the blind and the sighted life-worlds. Blindness is conceptualized as a particular style of perception being in no way a deficit but on equal footing with sight. Comparison will show differences and commonalities that may give a deeper insight into how bodily and sensory orientation and practice work in a mundane situation. This situation is feeding behavior and in particular its failure in “Chewing Accidents” focusing on three variations: tongue biting, swallowing a wasp, and biting on a cherry pit. Data are taken from participant observation, focused interviews, and online sources such as blogs and medical forums. By virtue of a detailed phenomenological description of chewing behavior, the article shows that blindness is not the contradiction of sight and vice versa. Invisibility is an element of the everyday life-world, with the latter being dependent on dark areas.

Michaela Pfadenhauer and Tilo Grenz – Uncovering the Essence: The Why and How of Supplementing Observation with Participation in Phenomenology-Based Ethnography

Abstract

Participation in phenomenology-based ethnography is about involvement and “doing-it-yourself,” which generates data derived from immediate experience that can contribute to the reconstruction of the internal viewpoint by uncovering the essence of a phenomenon. This phenomenological orientation is the main focus of interest of the present paper. Based on reflections on the ethnographer as a participant who voluntarily assumes the role of the stranger, we demonstrate how observation can be supplemented with participation. We exemplify it with an ongoing research project on the deployment of a so-called social robot in dementia care. Our aim is to show that a subjective perspective, which does not claim to be superior but rather to be of value in its own right, increases the knowledge yield.

Dariuš Zifonun – Posttraditional Migrants: A Modern Type of Community

Abstract

This article analyses the participation of migrants in sport. Based on the case study of a Turkish soccer club in Germany, it scrutinizes the structural and processual features of ethnic self organization. The club responds to the problems of social order in modern complex societies—problems emanating from the pluralization of social life-worlds—by employing a number of characteristic answers. Among them are the segmentation into sub-worlds, the composition of an integrative ideology of friendship as well as the creation of a soccer style. In processes of legitimation and delegitimation, questions of belonging and recognition are being negotiated. All of this allows for the management of ambivalence in everyday life and contributes to the distinctively posttraditional character of community. The article suggests that a sociology of social worlds approach can substantially contribute to the study of the interactive social structures of society.

Hubert Knoblauch and Bernt Schnettler – Video and Vision: Videography of a Marian Apparition

Abstract

In this article, we sketch the field of qualitative video-analysis and locate videography within this. Instead of presenting the methods of videography formally, we illustrate the application of this method in a particular field: Marian apparitions occurring in a German town in 1999, captured live on video. The presentation of the method in this paper follows a general methodological structure. (1) We first outline the ethnographic context of the setting in which the video-recordings were made. This context includes actors, religious associations, and locations as well as some aspects of the apparitional events’ historical genesis. (2) We then turn to look at the performance of the Marian vision as recorded in the video. By applying sequential analysis, we roughly identify a temporal order to the event, which exhibits an interesting deviation from earlier forms of apparitions due to the way it takes a subjectively “spiritual” form. This finding leads us to finally (3) address the role of the subjective perspective that, as we argue, is a further essential dimension of videography. It is on this level that we are made aware of the relevance of the life-world as a methodological background for the kind of interpretive social science that takes the actor’s perspective into account.

Paul Eisewicht & Heiko Kirschner – Giving in on the Field: Localizing Life-World Analytic Ethnography in Mediatized Fields

Abstract

This article proposes a differentiation of ethnographic research by theoretical paradigm, methodological stance, and scientific purpose. Following these categories, we specify life-world-analytical ethnography as originating from the (subject-centered) action theory with an emphasis on observational participation, an affirmative–descriptive attitude toward the research, as well as the implementation of data gathered by personal experience and its interactive verification within the field. Furthermore, we address the challenges ethnographers are facing when conducting their research in mediatized fields and illustrate the advantages of a life-world analytical approach on our case of online-livestreams and videogaming. We thereby introduce the concept of passing to methodologically expand this approach.