IE NEWSLETTER Institutional Ethnography Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems March 2011 Vol. 8, No. 1 Kamini Maraj Grahame Division Chair Department of Social Sciences Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg, PA Send correspondence to: Roz Stooke Correspondence and Copy Editor rstooke@uwo.ca Send photos and other images to: Cheryl Zurawski Production and Picture Editor cdz@arialassociates.com A note from the editors: Special thanks are extended to Linda Shorting for the extra sets of eyes she provided to assist with proofreading the last several editions of this newsletter. Her contribution to the production effort will be missed. FROM THE DIVISION CHAIR Kamini Maraj Grahame Hello everyone, If you live in a part of the world that is cold and wintry, you might well be looking forward to spring. We certainly are here in Pennsylvania where it has been unseasonably cold. I am headed back from the Eastern Sociological meetings as I write this and missed the presence of many of the IE scholars we had last year in Boston. I know many of you were looking forward to Chicago and the change of venue to Las Vegas in August may be unwelcome news but we sincerely hope that you will join us anyway. On the upside, the hotels are very affordable – we haven’t seen those prices for conference hotels in a very long time. Given the assault on unions that has intensified in recent weeks, I hope you agree that we should stand in solidarity with the hotel workers in Chicago (as well as the public sector workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana). The session organizers for the 2011 meetings have completed their work and you should have heard by now about where your paper landed. We are looking forward to having robust sessions again this year. In addition, we will run a one day IE workshop (August 18) just before the meetings as many of you urged us to do last year. Janet Rankin, our incoming chair, with the help of graduate student assistant, Cecilia Bonnevie, took on the task of coordinating the effort. We sincerely appreciate the commitment of those involved in the workshop to advancing our enterprise and we are especially pleased that Dorothy Smith is able to be there. I recently sent you a link for registering for the workshop and that information is available on page 7. Those who want to take advantage of the subsidy should contact Janet Rankin jmrankin@ucalgary.ca as soon as possible. You might want to consider booking the hotel soon, given the costs of the rooms – no doubt the hotel will fill quickly at those prices. A list of the sessions and papers planned for 2011 starts on page 10. I’d like to close by reminding students to submit papers for the student paper award competition (George W. Smith Graduate Student Paper Award). The deadline for the Dorothy E. Smith Award for Scholar-Activism is also approaching. Please send in nominations by May 1. Details are provided on page 6. On the inside -IE Thematic Group within the ISA -Member news -Recent publications -New PhDs -Final call for IE Division award nominations -Welcome to new members -Mark your calendars (upcoming IE Events) -Preview of the SSSP Annual Meeting Update on forming an IE Thematic Group within the ISA --by Paul Luken Efforts to create an IE Thematic Group within the International Sociological Association are ongoing. Here is a brief summary of what has transpired and what will happen soon, along with a suggestion for how you might help in this process. An application to form an IE thematic group was submitted originally in 2008, and the ISA’s Research Coordinating Committee (RCC) suggested that people interested in IE organize sessions in concert with an already existing research committee. Since this option would provide neither the visibility nor the control that we desired, I asked if the ISA would reconsider the original application to create a separate thematic group. It was agreed that this could happen provided that a new list of ISA members who support the IE initiative be submitted by January 31, 2011. The 2008 list of supporters no longer met the geographical diversity requirement for new thematic groups since several original supporters were no longer members of the ISA. A new list of 22 supporters from 10 countries on 5 continents has been resubmitted and the application should be reviewed by the RCC in late March. The RCC is the committee that recommends to the Executive Committee the formation of new thematic groups along with the establishment of working groups and research committees. Dilek Cindoglu, Bilkent University, Turkey, who is among the 22 supporters, is also a member of the RCC and the Executive Committee. If you have any connection to other members of the RCC, I ask that you contact them and solicit their support for the IE thematic group application. The list of current members is below. Chair: Margaret Abraham, Hofstra University, USA Dilek Cindoglu, Bilkent University, Turkey Jan M. Fritz, University of Cincinnati, USA Jaime Jimenez, Universidad Autonoma, Mexico Habibul Khondeker, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates Ishwar Modi, International Institute of Social Sciences, India Nikita Pokrovsky, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia Yoshimichi Sato, Tohoku University, Japan (EC representative) Vineeta Sinha, National University of Singapore (EC representative) Benjamin Tejerina, University of the Basque Country, Spain Chin-Chun Yi, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (Update on forming an IE Thematic Group continued) The formation of a thematic group is the first step in becoming a research committee. A working group is the intermediate step. Groups move up as their membership increases and they demonstrate a level of activity while maintaining geographical diversity. Thematic groups are allowed to organize four sessions during the ISA meetings. The next World Congress of Sociology will be in Yokohama, Japan, July 13 - 19, 2014. An interim meeting, the second annual Forum of Sociology, will be in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 1 - 4, 2012. How does summer (winter) in Buenos Aires sound to you? Member news Margo Kushner was appointed in 2008 to assist the Family Law Child Custody Sub-Committee in Annapolis with the design of policy pertaining to the implementation of legislation impacting child custody and access matters in the Maryland Court system. Topics for review have been varied and include: grandparent rights, the child custody home study format, the role of the parenting coordinator, relocation and school district jurisdiction policy, alimony and child support. Dr. Kushner’s invitation to join this committee was driven by her attendance at the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) annual conferences. An introduction at an AFCC conference to Chief Judge Bell, Court of Appeals in Maryland facilitated this opportunity. Dr. Kushner’s substantive area of interest involves court procedures and the potential marginalization of separating parents and their children. Be sure to cast your vote. Alison Griffith (York University, Canada) has been nominated for the position of President Elect of the SSSP. The SSSP election site is open until April 15, 2011. To view candidate statements and CVs and to vote, go to: http://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/pageid/1017/fuseaction/poll.pollListPublic Recent publications Books: Chase, S.E. (2010). Learning to speak, Learning to listen: How diversity works on campus. Cornell University Press. The author conducted intensive interviews with a wide range of student groups and individual students at a predominantly white university. She also conducted extensive content analyses of the student newspaper, student government minutes, curriculum, calendar of events, and website. Learning to speak, Learning to listen encourages speaking and listening across differences. Personal stories play an important role in students’ learning to speak and listen; and speaking and listening across differences constitute intellectual and emotional skills that exemplify the educational process itself – opening one’s mind and thinking critically. Journals: The entire September 2010 issue of Violence Against Women honors the work of Ellen Pence. Clare Renzetti and Barbara Hart, guest editors of Vol. 16 Issue 9 write: In light of Ellen’s unparalleled impact on the field of intimate partner violence, we thought it fitting to honor her with a set of essays that discuss both her personal and professional influence in the United States and abroad. The authors of these essays have done their best to capture Ellen’s spirit: her tenacity, her unflagging commitment to ensuring the safety of women and children, her unwavering belief in the possibility of personal and social change, and always, her disarming humor. Articles: McGibbon, E., Peter, E., & Gallop, R. (2010). An institutional ethnography of nurses’ stress. Qualitative Health Research, 20(10), 1353-1378. The purpose of this study was to reformulate the nature of stress in nursing, with attention to important contextual aspects of nurses’ practice. Smith’s sociological frame of institutional ethnography was used to explicate the social organization of nurses’ stress. Lane, A., McCoy, L., & Ewashen, C. (2010). The textual organization of placement into long-term care: issues for older adults with mental illness. Nursing Inquiry, 17(1), 3–14. Our study… reveals how three specific textual points within the institutional process of placement do not work well for older adults with mental illness. These textual points include: constructing the older adult as a ‘placeable’ person, the first-level match and the second-level match. After exploring why the three specific points in the process do not work well for mentally ill individuals, we reconsider the explanation of stigma, and then suggest implications for change. Limoges, J., (2010). An exploration of ruling relations and how they organize and regulate nursing education in the high-fidelity patient simulation laboratory. Nursing Inquiry, 17 (1), 58–64. This institutional ethnography uses the critical feminist sociology of Dorothy E. Smith to examine the literature and interviews with Practical and Bachelor of Science in Nursing students, and their faculty about this experience. Rankin, J. M., Malinsky, L., Tate B,. & Elena L. (2010). Contesting our taken-for-granted understanding of student evaluation: insights from a team of institutional ethnographers. The Journal of Nursing Education, 49(6), 333-339. This article outlines some of the problems nurse educators encounter in evaluation work and uses the theoretical framework of institutional ethnography to disrupt some of the conventional explanations that mediate what happens in teaching and evaluation work when students fail to meet the required standards…The early findings from this project provide an alternate knowledge of our evaluation practices, which demands that we question our taken-for-granted understanding of due process and what it is accomplishing. Tummons,, J. (2010). Institutional ethnography and actor-network theory: a framework for researching the assessment of trainee teachers. Ethnography and Education, 5(3), 345-357. The author analyzes assessment practices on one university-led teacher-training course in England …[It] draws on institutional ethnography and actor-network theory as theoretical frameworks to explore how the work done by tutors and students on the course is mediated by texts. New PhDs Jennifer Flad, 2010, Syracuse University Advocating work: An institutional ethnography of patients' and their families' experiences within a managed care health system Using institutional ethnography as a method of inquiry, this study demonstrates the multiple activities of those who work together to provide care for patients within Managed Care Organizations. It draws from the carework literature and a feminist conceptualization of work, which includes the work of both lay people and professionals who advocate for those who are diagnosed. The data reveal that contemporary managed care systems are designed in such a way that the wishes and rights of patients and their loved ones are often not taken into account. Melissa Freiburger, 2010, University of Kansas Mothers as children's "first and best teachers:" An institutional ethnography This dissertation is an institutional ethnography that examines how women's mothering practices are coordinated and constrained by discourses and expert knowledge that they encounter through "Ready to Learn (RTL)," a national parent education program. Through in-depth interviews with mothers, RTL parent educators, and program administrators, I explore how women's commitment to intensive mothering ensures that they will monitor and facilitate the growth of their babies and toddlers so that they conform to the expert-derived timeline of child development…The primary goal of this dissertation is to explicate how mothers' unpaid carework supports the institutional goal of school readiness. Martina Myers, 2010, University of New Mexico Institutional ethnography: How tenured academic women talk about success The purpose of this study was to use the discourse of tenured academic women to illustrate social interactions that constitute and transform the ruling relations…The information provided by tenured academic women, through in-depth one-on-one interviews and participant observation illuminated the fluid power dynamics of academic women in the gendered discursive organization of the academy. GEORGE W. SMITH GRADUATE STUDENT PAPER COMPETITION Deadline: May 1, 2011 Papers submitted for this competition should advance IE scholarship either methodologically or through a substantive contribution. Authors must be currently enrolled graduate students or have completed their degree since September 2010. Prizes include a $100 cash award, registration fees, an opportunity to present the paper at the 2011 SSSP meetings, and a ticket to the SSSP awards banquet. Students who submit papers should be prepared to attend the conference. Send one copy each to Lauren Eastwood eastwole@plattsburgh.edu and Li-Fang Liang lfliang.tw@gmail.com DOROTHY E. SMITH AWARD FOR SCHOLAR-ACTIVISM Deadline: May 1, 2011 The IE Division is pleased to solicit nominations for the 2011 Dorothy E. Smith Award for Scholar-Activism. This award recognizes the activities of an individual or group who has made substantial contributions to institutional ethnographic scholar-activism in either a single project or some longer trajectory of work. The contributions may involve IE research conducted and used for activist ends, or it may involve activist efforts which have drawn upon or contributed to IE scholarship. The award committee invites members of the division to send a one-page statement describing the contributions of the nominee to Lois Andre-Bechely loisab@calstatela.edu Welcome to new members The IE Division welcomes the following new members who joined since the last edition of the newsletter. Katherine Abbott Manabu Akagawa Laura Braslow Elizabeth Brule Sean Currie Ariana Curtis Katherine Duthie Jason Hopkins Anthony Jimenez Christopher Langer Ke Li Patricia Lirette Monica Lomeli Sandra MacDonald Jeannie Morgan Laurel O’Gorman Britt Olsen Laura Orrico Julianne Payne Birgit Prodinger Victor Ray Victor Rios Lisa Scheer Wen-hui Tang Catherine van de Ruit Lillian Wallace Agnieszka Zajaczkowska Mark your calendars Several IE events are being planned for the months ahead. The following lists them in chronological order. May Canadian Association for Foundations of Education (CAFE) May 30 (as part of the Congress listed next) Papers: Stephanie Mazerolle --Parents as partners': Volunteering in an era of managerial governance Alison Griffith --Learning Canadian schools: Immigrant families and schooling Andrea Smith-Betts --“What work am I doing? An institutional ethnography of women group home workers Stacey Pineau --A view from the frontline: An institutional ethnographic inquiry into ‘newcomer education’ in New Brunswick Please check the final program for session times and locations. http://congress2011.ca/ Institutional Ethnography papers to be presented at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Congress University of New Brunswick and St Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick May 28 – June 4, 2011 The Congress program is not yet finalized but watch for it at http://congress2011.ca/ IE Workshops in Toronto June 10-12 Weekend Workshop I with Dorothy E. Smith ($375 CDN) Weekend Workshop II: Mapping for Change with Susan Turner ($375 CDN) Participants will be introduced to institutional ethnography and its relevance to the academy and in addressing problems of everyday life and activism. Weekend workshops offer intensive introductions to institutional ethnography practice. Both workshops are sponsored by the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education (CWSE), University of Toronto. To register or for more information please send an email to: cwse@utoronto.ca IE Workshop in Las Vegas (in conjunction with the SSSP Annual Meeting) August 18 Dorothy Smith along with members of the community of scholars she has influenced will be facilitating an interactive program. The program will include a discussion about some of the theoretical and historical evolution of the method. As well there will be interactive working sessions to provide guidance for data collection and data analysis. The cost of the workshop is $100 (USD). The preliminary program follows. Morning (8:30 am - 12:00 pm) Session One, Part One Mapping as conceptual, as data collection and as analysis: Using Smith’s theory of cartography and IE as a practice of “mapping” Lois Andre-Bechely, Laurie Clune, Alison Griffith, Dorothy Smith Questions and examples. Opportunity for one or two participants to give a short summary of their work and ask the presenters / workshoppers how they would go about mapping that example. Session One, Part Two Formulating and holding onto a problematic: Alison Griffith, Dorothy Smith, Janet Rankin * mapping for a problematic * theoretical and conceptual features of the problematic (what is it) * how to approach the problematic as a technical tool * how to formulate a problematic from data * choosing the problematic to follow * doing research without a problematic Afternoon (1:00 - 3:30pm) Session Two Old hand questions – IE’s theoretical framework Dorothy Smith, Liza McCoy, Marj DeVault, Eric Mykhalovskiy Questions and discussion about the sociology that informs IE * Feminism – standpoint * Marx – materiality; ideology * Bakhtin – language and words * Mead – symbolic interactionism * Garfinkel – ethnomethodology * Foucault – discourse Depending on the number of participants this session would be held with two concentric circles of people. Seasoned IE’ers would be on the inside, responding to questions and queries from the facilitators. Students and those with less experience would sit around the outside and “listen in”. Participants will self select their circle. Afternoon (4:00 - 5:30 pm) Session Three Extending the range of IE thinking: Pushing boundaries Dorothy Smith, Liza McCoy, Marj DeVault, Eric Mykhalovskiy Moderator: Marj DeVault * Has an IE orthodoxy become a challenge in IE thinking? * Can the tools of IE be used in more conventional sociologies? * Can one do an IE without an explicit politic? * What can other sociologies contribute to IE? * Can we support students to be methodologically eclectic? To register, go to: http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=951957. For more information contact Janet Rankin at the University of Calgary, jmrankin@ucalgary.ca The sociology department at Maxwell School of Syracuse University has provided sponsorship dollars for 10 students to attend the workshop for $50.00 USD. Sponsorships will be distributed on a first come first serve basis. Important note from Janet Rankin: The registration system cannot be changed to accommodate this half price sale! Thus, if you are subsidized you will be asked to write Janet Rankin a personal cheque for $50.00 USD. If you have already registered and would like to take advantage of the subsidy, please let Janet know. She will put your name on a list and will reimburse you $50.00 USD at the workshop.  Preview of SSSP in Las Vegas The SSSP Annual Meeting will take place August 19-21 at Harrah’s in Las Vegas. The final program showing session dates and times is not yet available but the following is a list of papers by session. New Research in IE: Part I Organizers: Naomi Nichols and Mandy-Frake Mistak Papers: Andrea Smith-Betts --The Work That Has No Name - IE and Women's Work in Family and Group Homes Laurie Clune  --Injured by the Nursing Work, Disabled by Return to Work: An Institutional Ethnography Roz Stooke --Whose Best Future? Nonprofit Organizations Negotiate Ontario's New Early Learning Framework  Orlando Tizon --From Victims to Survivors, Constructing an Alternative Model of Healing from Torture and Trauma New Research in IE: Part II Organizer and Discussant: Peter R. Grahame Papers: Mary Ellen Dunn --An Institutional Ethnographic Textual Analysis of a Post Secondary Course Outline, Heather J. Picotte and Jean C. Eels --Opening the Institution of Agricultural Conservation Using Institutional Ethnography Paul Luken and Suzanne Vaughan --The Ideology of the Housing Crisis: Searching for an Alternative Tables in the Round: Methodological Issues in Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Marj DeVault Discussant: Janet Rankin Papers: Christina Skorobohacz --Writing a Dissertation Research Proposal: Tensions of A Novice Institutional Ethnographer Lois Andre-Bechely --Building a New Doctoral Program, Becoming a Part of the Problematic: An Institutional Ethnographic Reflection Daniel Grace --Transnational Institutional Ethnographic Research Work: Tracing Text and Talk beyond State Boundaries Dorothy E. Smith and Ellen Pence --Institutional Analysis: Making Change from Below Institutional Ethnography and the Social Organization of Health Care Organizer and Discussant: Laurie Clune Papers: Laura Bisaillon --The Business of Doctoring: Immigrants, HIV and Medical Inadmissibility Craig Dale --You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth: An Intertextual Conversation about Mouth Care and Critical Care Nursing Nancy Krusen --Unspoken Rules: An Examination of the Influence of Environment on Clinical Practice Through Institutional Ethnography Kjeld Hogsbro --The Life-world and Institutional Career of People with Schizophrenia – An Ethnographic Contribution to Humanistic Psychiatry Barbara Gurr --Producing Disappearance: Native American Women, Reproductive Healthcare, and the Indian Health Service Migration, Work and Racialization: Explorations in Institutional Ethnography Organizer: Roxana Ng Papers: Wen-hui Tang --Why the domestic violence prevention law cannot protect Vietnamese wives? Alejandro Angee, Jeannie Morgan and Varvara Mukhina --What Language Should We Speak and Why? Power Resources and Language Selection in Cross-National Families with Migrant Wife- A Case of Russian-Speaking Wives in Japan Critical Analysis of Governance: Institutional Ethnography and Global Studies Organizers: Lauren Eastwood and Lauri Grace Papers: Lauri Grace --Global Connections in Local Educational Policy: The Australian Vocational Education and Training Sector Sarah Miraglia --Fair Labor Governance: Global Systems, Local Consequences Catherine van de Ruit --Children's Health and Welfare Policy Reform in South Africa: The Social Implications of New Management Strategies Jessica Erin Carriere --The Transnational Production of Place-Based Policy Discourse in Neighbourhood Policymaking Bending Boundaries: Investigations into the Social and Textual Organization of Inequality and Mobility Work Organizer: Laura Bisaillon Discussant: Eric Mykhalovskiy Papers: Laurel O’Gorman --Access to Post-Secondary Education for Single Mother Students Elizabeth L. Brule --The “Engaged” University: The Impact of New Public Management Practices on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Canada Matthew C. Hoffman --The Politics of Extractive Localism: Social Entrepreneurship, Mobility, and Local Food Christopher Langer The Discursive Organization of Class in Toronto’s Community Gardening Programs 1