The moment of casting is a crucial one in any media production. Casting the ‘right’ person shapes the narrative as much as the way in which the final product might be received by critics and audiences. For this article, casting—as the moment in which gender is hypervisible in its complex intersectional entanglement with class, race and sexuality—will be our gateway to exploring the dynamics of discussion of gender conventions and how we, as feminist scholars, might manoeuvre. To do so, we will test and triangulate three different forms of ethnographically inspired inquiry: 1) ‘collaborative autoethnography,’ to discuss male-to-female gender-bending comedies from the 1980s and 1990s, 2) ‘netnography’ of online discussions about the (potential) recasting of gendered legacy roles from Doctor Who to Mary Poppins, and 3) textual media analysis of content focusing on the casting of cisgender actors for transgender roles. Exploring the affordances and challenges of these three methods underlines the duty of care that is essential to feminist audience research. Moving across personal and anonymous, ‘real’ and ‘virtual,’ popular and professional discussion highlights how gender has been used and continues to be instrumentalised in lived audience experience and in audience research.
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Background: Goal setting is an essential step in the clinical reasoning process of speech and language therapists (SLTs) who provide care for children, adolescents and adults with communication disorders. In the light of person-centred care, shared or collaborative goal setting between the SLT and client is advised in (inter)national guidelines. SLTs face challenges in implementing (shared) goal setting as theoretical frameworks and practical interventions are scarce and less applicable to use with a wide range of communication vulnerable populations. Aims: A first step in developing theory and practical interventions is to explore first-hand experiences of SLTs and clients about day-to-day goal-setting practice. This study was guided by the following research question:What are the perspectives and needs of SLTs and persons with communication disorders regarding (shared) goal setting in routine SLT services? Methods & Procedures: The qualitative study was carried out in the setting of routine speech–language therapy services in community practices, primary education and neurological rehabilitation in the Netherlands. Data collection followed the principles of video-reflexive ethnography, using video footage of goal-setting conversations to facilitate semi-structured, reflexive interviews.Data analysis was based on reflexive thematic analysis. A total of 12 interviews were conducted with client–SLT dyads, covering perspectives from children, parents and adults with a range of communication difficulties and their SLTs. Outcomes & Results: Data analysis resulted in four themes, of which two contain subthemes. Each theme represents a central organizing concept found in SLT and client interviews. The themes were identified as: (1) goal setting is a complex process; (2) goal talk needs to be communication accessible; (3) communicative participation goals are hard to grasp; and (4) the importance of relationships. Topics such as power imbalance, communication vulnerability, effective communication strategies, and motivation and trust are explored under these themes. Conclusions & Implications: SLTs are encouraged to view shared goal setting as a process that needs to be explicitly planned and communicated with clients regardless of their age or communication vulnerability. SLTs have expert knowledge and skills when it comes to supporting communication and applying these skills during goal talks might strengthen shared goal setting and foster a therapeutic relationship. There is a need to concretely conceptualize and embed shared goal setting in policy and clinical guidelines. The themes reported have tentative clinical implications for developing such policy, and shared goal-setting interventions for SLT practice, under the condition that SLTs and people with communication disorders are continuously involved.
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Integrated urban megaprojects that attempt to (re-)develop parts of cities are complex affairs. The planners employed in them decide on large real estate, infrastructure and public space investments. The lengthy delivery trajectories of these projects undoubtedly result in emerging properties and changes in the social, political and spatial settings in which they are implemented. This ethnographic study focuses on the question how planners cope with this ambiguity in such non canonical practices. By immersion in the Amsterdam Zuidas urban megaproject for half a year, planners were observed in action. The ethnography reconstructs three episodes that represent typical interaction activities that they undertook to discuss progress of the project. The study shows how planners handle diverse types of ambiguity via different coping mechanism and reflects on the implications of these tactics for the project. It also discusses methods, potentials and pitfalls of ethnographic research in urban megaproject scholarship.
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In leaving the more traditional territories of the concert performance for broader societal contexts, professional musicians increasingly devise music in closer collaboration with their audience rather than present it on a stage. Although the interest for such forms of devising co-creative musicking within the (elderly) health care sector is growing, the work can be considered relatively new. In terms of research, multiple studies have sought to understand the impact of such work on musicians and participants, however little is known about what underpins the musicians’ actions in these settings. With this study, I sought to address this gap by investigating professional musicians’ emerging practices when devising co-creative musicking with elderly people. Three broad concepts were used as a theoretical background to the study: Theory of Practice, co-creative musicking, and Praxialism. Firstly, I used Theory of Practice to help understand the nature of emerging practices in a wider context of change in the field of music and habitus of musicians and participants. Theory of Practice enabled me to consider a practice as “a routinized type of behaviour which consists of several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, ‘things’ and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion, and motivational knowledge” (Reckwitz, 2002, p. 249). Secondly, I drew the knowledge from co-creative musicking, which is a concept I gathered from two existing concepts: co-creation and musicking. Musicking (Small, 1998), which considers music as something we do (including any mode of engagement with music), provided a holistic and inclusive way of looking at participation in music-making. The co-creation paradigm encompasses a view on enterprise that consists of bringing together parties to jointly create an outcome that is meaningful to all (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Ramaswamy & Ozcan, 2014). The concept served as a lens to specify the jointness of the musicking and challenge issues of power in the engagement of participants in the creative-productive process. Thirdly, Praxialism considers musicking as an activity that encompasses “musical doers, musical doing, something done and contexts in which the former take place” (Elliott, 1995). Praxialism sets out a vision on music that goes beyond the musical work and includes the meanings and values of those involved (Silverman, Davis & Elliott, 2014). The concept allowed me to examine the work and emerging relationships as a result of devising co-creative musicking from an ethical perspective. Given the subject’s relative newness and rather unexplored status, I examined existing work empirically through an ethnographic approach (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007). Four cases were selected where data was gathered through episodic interviewing (Flick, 2009) and participant observation. Elements of a constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2014) were used for performing an abductive analysis. The analysis included initial coding, focused coding, the use of sensitizing concepts (Blumer 1969 in Hammersley, 2013) and memoing. I wrote a thick description (Geertz, 1973) for each case portraying the work from my personal experience. The descriptions are included in the dissertation as one separate chapter and foreshadow the exposition of the analysis in a next chapter. In-depth study of the creative-productive processes of the cases showed the involvement of multiple co-creative elements, such as a dialogical interaction between musicians and audience. However, participants’ contributions were often adopted implicitly, through the musicians interpreting behaviour and situations. This created a particular power dynamic and challenges as to what extent the negotiation can be considered co-creative. The implicitness of ‘making use’ of another person’s behaviour with the other not (always) being aware of this also triggered an ethical perspective, especially because some of the cases involved participants that were vulnerable. The imbalance in power made me examine the relationship that emerges between musicians and participants. As a result of a closer contact in the co-creative negotiation, I witnessed a contact of a highly personal, sometimes intimate, nature. I recognized elements of two types of connections. One type could be called ‘humanistic’, as a friendship in which there is reciprocal care and interest for the other. The other could be seen as ‘functional’, which means that the relationship is used as a resource for providing input for the creative musicking process. From this angle, I have compared the relationship with that of a relationship of an artist with a muse. After having examined the co-creative and relational sides of the interaction in the four cases, I tuned in to the musicians’ contribution to these processes and relationships. I discovered that their devising in practice consisted of a continuous double balancing act on two axes: one axis considers the other and oneself as its two ends. Another axis concerns the preparedness and unpredictability at its ends. Situated at the intersection of the two axes are the musicians’ intentionality, which is fed by their intentions, values and ethics. The implicitness of the co-creation, the two-sided relationship, the potential vulnerability of participants, and the musicians’ freedom in navigating and negotiation, together, make the devising of co-creative musicking with elderly people an activity that involves ethical challenges that are centred around a tension between prioritizing doing good for the other, associated with a eudaimonic intention, and prioritizing values of the musical art form, resembling a musicianist intention. The results therefore call for a musicianship that involves acting reflectively from an ethical perspective. Doctoral study by Karolien Dons
Zijinstromers in het primair onderwijs combineren een opleiding tot bevoegd docent met een baan in het primair onderwijs en hebben daarnaast vaak nog een gezin. Het opleidingstraject wordt door veel studenten als “zwaar” ervaren en de uitval is hoog, soms met grote gezondheidsschade (burnout). Dat is ernstig voor de studenten, maar het is ook ernstig omdat zijinstromers cruciaal zijn in de strijd tegen het lerarentekort waar het primair onderwijs mee kampt. Terwijl breed bekend is dat de opleiding zwaar is, is niet precies bekend hoe en wanneer het traject zwaar is. Dat betekent dat het ook niet goed mogelijk is om het traject aan te passen. Hoe kan het traject didactisch, logistiek en qua begeleiding beter aansluiten bij deze groep? Er is scherp inzicht nodig in hoe zijinstromers hun tijd besteden, hoe en wanneer zij tijdsdruk ervaren, en op welke momenten die druk onaanvaardbaar wordt. Dat is een complexe vraag omdat tijdsdruk ervaren niet exclusief het gevolg is van veel werk hebben. Het gaat ook over of gepland werk gedaan kon worden, of er flow ervaren is, of werk/opdrachten relevant voelen, etc. Het verkrijgen van dat inzicht vraagt om tijdsbestedings/tijdservaringsonderzoek. Echter, dit soort onderzoek is klassiek belastend voor deelnemers. Er moet bijvoorbeeld meerdere keren per dag een vragenlijst worden ingevuld: nog een extra taakje. Deze kiemaanvraag wil een innovatieve manier van tijdsonderzoek doorontwikkelen: met behulp van smartphones en wearables data automatisch en half-automatisch verzamelen. Naast een helder inzicht in hoe de student door de opleiding reist (“user journey”) en dus waar in de opleiding de pijnpunten zitten, levert dit onderzoek ook een natuurlijke aanleiding op om met veel schoolbesturen en zijinstromers in gesprek te gaan: een vruchtbare basis voor het vormen van een langdurig en stevig consortium waarbinnen verder onderzoek naar zijinstromers gedaan kan worden.
