Books by Deborah Reed-Danahay
Sideways Migration: Being French in London
This book examines the relationship between migration and socioeconomic status. In particular, it... more This book examines the relationship between migration and socioeconomic status. In particular, it charts a set of middle-class aspirations that lead people to move to a nearby nation that is similar in wealth and social indicators – a type of horizontal relocation that it terms "sideways migration." It chronicles the experiences of a diverse group of French middle-class citizens who moved to London during the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Based on longitudinal ethnographic fieldwork over a ten-year period, this book engages at length with their strategies of emplacement through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social space. Against a backdrop of heightened anxieties about immigration, the disruptions of the Brexit process and, more recently, a pandemic, it shows how middle-class migration is affected by processes of dislocation and relocation, settling and unsettling, and the search for belonging. This book points to new directions for understanding transnationalism among middle-class migrants through its consideration of the French emigration apparatus and the role of the multisite French nation in the lives of its citizens living abroad. It will be key reading for scholars and students interested in emigration and migration from anthropology, sociology, geography, political science, history, and international studies.
This edited volume brings fresh perspectives to the anthropology of migration. It focuses on what... more This edited volume brings fresh perspectives to the anthropology of migration. It focuses on what migrants write and how anthropologists may incorporate insights gained from engagement with this writing into research methods and writing practices.
The volume includes a range of contributions from leading scholars in the field, all organized around a striking set of questions about the conditions in which migrant narratives are written and translated, the audiences for which they are intended, the genres and media through which they are disseminated, and what such stories include or leave out. The contributors to this volume demonstrate an innovative shift in anthropological methods by showing how fiction and nonfiction, graphic memoir and autoethnography, song lyrics, as well as social media posts and images unsettle the power dynamics in the study of migration narrative.
This book will serve as important supplemental reading for courses on migration, literary anthropology, ethnographic methods, and sociocultural anthropology in general. Its interdisciplinary perspective will appeal to a broad range of scholars and students with interests in migration, narrative, and anthropological writing genres.
French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu’s relevance for studies of spatiality and m... more French sociologist and anthropologist Pierre Bourdieu’s relevance for studies of spatiality and mobility has received less attention than other aspects of his work. Here, Deborah Reed-Danahay argues that the concept of social space, central to Bourdieu’s ideas, addresses the structured inequalities that prevail in spatial choices and practices. She provides an ethnographically informed interpretation of social space that demonstrates its potential for new directions in studies of mobility, immobility, and emplacement. This book traces the links between habitus and social space across the span of Bourdieu’s writings, and places his work in dialogue with historical and contemporary approaches to mobility.
Civic Engagements: The Citizenship Practices of Indian and Vietnamese Immigrants
For refugees and immigrants in the United States, expressions of citizenship and belonging emerge... more For refugees and immigrants in the United States, expressions of citizenship and belonging emerge not only during the naturalization process but also during more informal, everyday activities in the community. Based on research in the Dallas–Arlington–Fort Worth area of Texas, this book examines the sociocultural spaces in which Vietnamese and Indian immigrants are engaging with the wider civic sphere.
As Civic Engagements reveals, religious and ethnic organizations provide arenas in which immigrants develop their own ways of being and becoming "American." Skills honed at a meeting, festival, or banquet have resounding implications for the future political potential of these immigrant populations, both locally and nationally. Employing Lave and Wenger's concept of "communities of practice" as a framework, this book emphasizes the variety of processes by which new citizens acquire the civic and leadership skills that help them to move from peripheral positions to more central roles in American society.
Citizenship, Political Engagement and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe and the United States
Immigration is continuously and rapidly changing the face of Western countries. While newcomers a... more Immigration is continuously and rapidly changing the face of Western countries. While newcomers are harbingers of change, host nations also participate in how new populations are incorporated into their social and political fabric.
Bringing together a transcontinental group of anthropologists, this book provides an in-depth look at the current processes of immigration, political behavior, and citizenship in both the United States and Europe. Essays draw on issues of race, national identity, religion, and more, while addressing questions, including: How should citizenship be defined? In what ways do immigrants use the political process to achieve group aims? And, how do adults and youth learn to become active participants in the public sphere?
Among numerous case studies, examples include instances of racialized citizenship in "Algerian France," Ireland's new citizenship laws in response to asylum-seeking mothers, the role of Evangelical Christianity in creating a space for the construction of an identity that transcends state borders, and the Internet as one of the new public spheres for the expression of citizenship, be it local, national, or global.
Locating Bourdieu
Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) had an enormous influence on social and cultural thought in the secon... more Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) had an enormous influence on social and cultural thought in the second half of the 20th century, leaving a mark on fields as diverse as sociology, anthropology, critical theory, education, literary criticism, art history, and media studies. From his childhood in a rural French village, to his fieldwork in Algeria, to his ascension to the Chair of Sociology at the Collège de France, Bourdieu’s life followed a trajectory both complex and contradictory. In this original and eloquent study, Deborah Reed-Danahay offers fresh insights on Bourdieu’s work by drawing on the perspectives of ethnography and autobiography. Using Bourdieu’s own reflections upon his life and career and considering the totality of his research and writing, this book locates Bourdieu within his French milieu and within the current state of discussion of Europe and its colonial legacy. Locating Bourdieu revisits major themes and concepts such as structure and practice, taste and distinction, habitus, social field, symbolic capital, and symbolic violence, adding new perspectives and discovering implications of Bourdieu’s work for understanding emotion, social space, and personal narrative. The result is a work of impressive scholarship and intellectual creativity that will appeal to scholars, students, and non-specialists alike.
Auto/Ethnography: Rewriting the Self and the Social
In departing from the traditional stance taken by anthropologists, who study 'others' ethnographi... more In departing from the traditional stance taken by anthropologists, who study 'others' ethnographically, this timely book explores forms of self-inscription on the part of both the ethnographer and those 'others' who are studied. Informed by developments in postmodernism, postcolonialism, and feminism, this is an original contribution to the growing dialogue across disciplinary boundaries. The chapters build upon recent reconsiderations of the uses and meaning of personal narrative to examine the ways in which selves and social forms are culturally constituted through biographical genres. Ethnic autobiography, self-reflexivity in ethnography, and native ethnography raise provocative questions about a range of issues for the contemporary scholar: authenticity of voice; ethnographic authority; and the degree to which autoethnography constitutes resistance to hegemonic bodies of discourse. Examined here in a variety of cultural and political contexts, writing about the self offers challenging insights into the construction and transformation of identities and cultural meanings.
Education and Identity in Rural France: the Politics of Schooling
Drawing on an ethnographic study of a remote farming community in the Auvergne, Dr Reed-Danahay c... more Drawing on an ethnographic study of a remote farming community in the Auvergne, Dr Reed-Danahay challenges conventional views about the operation of the French school system. She demonstrates how parents and children subvert and resist the ideological messages of the teachers, and describes the ways in which a sense of local difference is sustained and valued, through a complex interplay of schooling and family life. This book explores the role played by history, identity, and power in local responses to a national institution. A significant contribution to the anthropology of education, this book offers fresh insights into the ways in which French culture is transmitted to the coming generation. Dr Reed-Danahay also provides lucid and critical discussions of sociological theories on education, including those of Bourdieu.
• The first study which combines ethnography of a social organization with a culture of the local community • A major contribution to the anthropology of education and anthropology of childhood, relatively new fields/disciplines • Theoretical framework draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s seminal work on education, class and social reproduction
Contents
l. Introduction: journey to Lavialle; 2. Theoretical orientations: schooling, families, and power; 3. Cultural identity and social practice; 4.Les notres: families and farms; 5. From child to adult; 6. Schooling the Laviallois: historical perspectives; 7. Families and schooling; 8. The politics of schooling; 9. Everyday life at school; l0. Conclusions: persistence, resistance, and co-existence
Papers by Deborah Reed-Danahay
Handbook of Autobiography / Autofiction, 2019
Cultural Anthropology is the study of human cultures, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, te... more Cultural Anthropology is the study of human cultures, their beliefs, practices, values, ideas, technologies, economies and other domains of social and cognitive organization. This field is based primarily on cultural understanding gained through first hand experience, or participant observation within living populations of humans. This chapter will introduce you to the field of anthropology, define basic terms and concepts and explain why it is important, and how it can change your perspective of the world around you. Anthropology is the scientific study of human beings as social organisms interacting with each other in their environment, and cultural aspects of life. Anthropology can be defined as the study of human nature, human society, and the human past. It is a scholarly discipline that aims to describe in the broadest possible sense what it means to be human. Anthropologists are interested in comparison. To make substantial and accurate comparisons between cultures, a generalization of humans requires evidence from the wide range of human societies. Anthropologists are in direct contact with the sources of their data, thus field work is a crucial component. The field of Anthropology, although fairly new as an academic field, has been used for centuries. Anthropologists are convinced that explanations of human actions will be superficial unless they acknowledge that human lives are always entangled in complex patterns of work and family, power and meaning. Anthropology is holistic, comparative, field based, and evolutionary. These regions of Anthropology shape one another and become integrated with one another over time. Historically it was seen as "the study of others," meaning foreign cultures, but using the term "others" imposed false thoughts of "civilized versus savagery." These dualistic views have often caused wars or even genocide. Now, anthropologists strive to uncover the mysteries of these foreign cultures and eliminate the prejudice that it first created. While it is a holistic field, anthropology is typically considered to consist of five sub-disciplines, each focusing on a particular aspect of human existence: • Archaeology: The study and interpretation of ancient humans, their history and culture, through examination of the
Introduction. Thinking through Sociality: The Importance of Mid-level Concepts
Berghahn Books, Dec 31, 2022
Anthropological Approaches to Reading Migrant Writing
Routledge eBooks, Aug 29, 2023
How Brexit Changed Migration: French Citizens in London from 'EU Movers' to 'Migrants'
Transitions: Journal of Transient Mobility, 2024
For the French in London, as for other citizens of the European Union, the Brexit process resulte... more For the French in London, as for other citizens of the European Union, the Brexit process resulted in the end of free movement for EU citizens relocating to the United Kingdom and affected the rights of those already living there. This article traces how Brexit shaped the spatial choices of middle-class French citizens whose status in London changed as they became international migrants with diminished rights in the United Kingdom. This case study, based on longitudinal ethnographic research between 2014 and 2022, sheds light on how relative privilege operates in migration processes and draws attention to the diversity of experience among middle-class migrants when new bordering arrangements are enacted.
Exceptional Experiences: Engaging with Jolting Events in Art and FielddworkEvents in Art and , 2023
Special issue: Brexit Matters, 2020
The Brexit process has affected the lives of“middling” mobile Europeans living in the UK, who hav... more The Brexit process has affected the lives of“middling” mobile Europeans living in the UK, who have experienced uncertaintyas their legal status and social position have shifted. Based on ethnographicresearch during the years 2015–2020 among French citizens living in London, Idraw upon the concepts of liminality, social drama, and precarity to analyzethe effects of the unfolding events triggered by the United Kingdom’s 2016referendum to leave the European Union (Brexit) on their everyday lives and trajectories.Although there is much diversity among the French in London, my longitudinalperspective suggests that the social drama of the Brexit process raisesquestions about the precarity of the mobile EU middle class and the strength oftheir European and national affiliations.
Ethnologia Europaea, 2020
The Brexit process has affected the lives of "middling" mobile Europeans living in the UK, who ha... more The Brexit process has affected the lives of "middling" mobile Europeans living in the UK, who have experienced uncertainty as their legal status and social position have shifted. Based on ethnographic research during the years 2015-2020 among French citizens living in London, I draw upon the concepts of liminality, social drama, and precarity to analyze the effects of the unfolding events triggered by the United Kingdom's 2016 referendum to leave the European Union (Brexit) on their everyday lives and trajectories. Although there is much diversity among the French in London, my longitudinal perspective suggests that the social drama of the Brexit process raises questions about the precarity of the mobile EU middle class and the strength of their European and national affiliations.
Leave/Remain: Brexit, Emotions, and the Pacing of Mobility among the French in London
Pacing Mobilities, 2020
This book chapter appears in In Vered Amit and Noel Salazar, eds., Pacing Mobilities. Pp. 142-62.... more This book chapter appears in In Vered Amit and Noel Salazar, eds., Pacing Mobilities. Pp. 142-62. NY and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2020.
Hortense Powdermaker
Sage Research Methods Foundations, 2019
Hortense Powdermaker (1886–1970) was an American anthropologist with ties to both British social ... more Hortense Powdermaker (1886–1970) was an American anthropologist with ties to both British social anthropology and American cultural anthropology. She is best known for having written one of the earliest first-person accounts of fieldwork experiences, Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist (1966), published only 4 years before her death. Powdermaker was a pioneering ethnographer who was the first woman to undertake fieldwork in New Guinea and one of the first anthropologists to do research among African Americans in the United States. She also produced the first ethnographic study of the Hollywood film industry. She made significant and lasting contributions to studies of media, racial relations, the study of contemporary societies, and to humanistic approaches in anthropology. Although she never received the recognition during her lifetime that her many accomplishments merited (Wolf & Trager, 1971), Powdermaker’s legacy as a teacher, researcher, and writer has gained renewed attention since her death in 1970 (see Bourguignon, 1991; Chernoff, 2006; Friedl, 1991; Hier & Kemp, 2002; Ortner, 2016; Scheper-Hughes, 1991; Silverman, 2007). This entry provides a brief biographical sketch of Powdermaker and then turns attention to her research approaches and projects. Those include her writings about participant observation and, in particular, the involvement and detachment of the researcher during ethnographic fieldwork. Her fieldwork exploring race and class in the American South, Hollywood and media studies, and social change in Northern Rhodesia are also examined. Finally, the legacy of Powdermaker’s extensive work is considered.
Autoethnography
Sage Research Methods Foundations, 2019
Autoethnography places the self within a social and cultural context. It is not primarily about t... more Autoethnography places the self within a social and cultural context. It is not primarily about the self, however, and in this, it differs from autobiography. This entry adopts a broad view of autoethnography, with attention to different approaches and applications of this term. Although its first uses appeared in mid-20th-century writings, the concept of autoethnography has been increasingly invoked in a variety of social science and humanities disciplines since the 1990s. The history of the uses of this term is traced from its original uses in the context of anthropological research among non-Western and small-scale societies, when it referred to the ethnographic perspectives on their own cultures by those studied by anthropologists, to more recent approaches that interrogate the researcher’s own life experiences (in and out of the field). For some who use the term, it is primarily about forms of self-ethnography, but for others, it is about ethnographic reflections upon one’s own group. Emphasis can be placed, therefore, more on the self or the social. Autoethnography raises questions about the insider/outsider dichotomy and the construction of the objective observer. Various genres of autoethnographic writing are discussed as well as its applications in illness and migration narratives. The entry ends with attention to critiques, ethical concerns, and emerging areas for further applications.
Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente priv... more Licenza d'uso L'articoloè messo a disposizione dell'utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d'uso Rivisteweb,è fatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l'articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati.
International Journal of Multicultural Education, 2017
This article argues that by combining critical ethnographic and autoethnographic perspectives we ... more This article argues that by combining critical ethnographic and autoethnographic perspectives we can move beyond the insider/outsider dualism, better understand the ways in which stories of personal experience are “strategic,” and interrogate the broader contexts and processes of social inequality that shape life trajectories. The potential contributions to critical autoethnography of the reflexive approach of “self-analysis” advocated by Pierre Bourdieu are discussed. The author draws upon her uses of critical autoethnography in research (in France and the United States) and in teaching about immigration.
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Books by Deborah Reed-Danahay
The volume includes a range of contributions from leading scholars in the field, all organized around a striking set of questions about the conditions in which migrant narratives are written and translated, the audiences for which they are intended, the genres and media through which they are disseminated, and what such stories include or leave out. The contributors to this volume demonstrate an innovative shift in anthropological methods by showing how fiction and nonfiction, graphic memoir and autoethnography, song lyrics, as well as social media posts and images unsettle the power dynamics in the study of migration narrative.
This book will serve as important supplemental reading for courses on migration, literary anthropology, ethnographic methods, and sociocultural anthropology in general. Its interdisciplinary perspective will appeal to a broad range of scholars and students with interests in migration, narrative, and anthropological writing genres.
As Civic Engagements reveals, religious and ethnic organizations provide arenas in which immigrants develop their own ways of being and becoming "American." Skills honed at a meeting, festival, or banquet have resounding implications for the future political potential of these immigrant populations, both locally and nationally. Employing Lave and Wenger's concept of "communities of practice" as a framework, this book emphasizes the variety of processes by which new citizens acquire the civic and leadership skills that help them to move from peripheral positions to more central roles in American society.
Bringing together a transcontinental group of anthropologists, this book provides an in-depth look at the current processes of immigration, political behavior, and citizenship in both the United States and Europe. Essays draw on issues of race, national identity, religion, and more, while addressing questions, including: How should citizenship be defined? In what ways do immigrants use the political process to achieve group aims? And, how do adults and youth learn to become active participants in the public sphere?
Among numerous case studies, examples include instances of racialized citizenship in "Algerian France," Ireland's new citizenship laws in response to asylum-seeking mothers, the role of Evangelical Christianity in creating a space for the construction of an identity that transcends state borders, and the Internet as one of the new public spheres for the expression of citizenship, be it local, national, or global.
• The first study which combines ethnography of a social organization with a culture of the local community • A major contribution to the anthropology of education and anthropology of childhood, relatively new fields/disciplines • Theoretical framework draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s seminal work on education, class and social reproduction
Contents
l. Introduction: journey to Lavialle; 2. Theoretical orientations: schooling, families, and power; 3. Cultural identity and social practice; 4.Les notres: families and farms; 5. From child to adult; 6. Schooling the Laviallois: historical perspectives; 7. Families and schooling; 8. The politics of schooling; 9. Everyday life at school; l0. Conclusions: persistence, resistance, and co-existence
Papers by Deborah Reed-Danahay