Social and Cultural Anthropology

Cosmopolitan Methods and Recruiting the Urban Stranger in Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Ingold, in his plea to distinguish participant observation from the overused term, 'ethnography' , writes that participant observation is 'a practice' at the centre of anthropology, that requires us 'to attend to what others are doing or saying and to what is going on around and about; to follow along where others go… whatever this might entail' (Ingold 2014, 389). This approach is open to the kind of serendipitous discovery that is the hallmark of so much fieldwork (Monaghan and Just 2000) such as when the Indian migrant owner of the Auckland hostel where I was staying walked me across the street to a state pensioner flat to meet the elderly New Zealander who tutors the hostel-owner's children, or when I met a Tongan immigrant behind a Dunedin antique shop who talked at length about the dynamics between Tongan immigrant caregivers and the elderly (largely Pākehā) New Zealanders that they care for. In this way, I aimed to maintain the enduring key to ethnographic success: being there, available to observe, available to follow up, available to take advantage of the chance event (Monaghan and Just 2000) in 'equal measures of serendipity and deliberate enterprise' (Amit 2000, 16).…”

“…This approach is open to the kind of serendipitous discovery that is the hallmark of so much fieldwork (Monaghan and Just 2000) such as when the Indian migrant owner of the Auckland hostel where I was staying walked me across the street to a state pensioner flat to meet the elderly New Zealander who tutors the hostel-owner's children, or when I met a Tongan immigrant behind a Dunedin antique shop who talked at length about the dynamics between Tongan immigrant caregivers and the elderly (largely Pākehā) New Zealanders that they care for. In this way, I aimed to maintain the enduring key to ethnographic success: being there, available to observe, available to follow up, available to take advantage of the chance event (Monaghan and Just 2000) in 'equal measures of serendipity and deliberate enterprise' (Amit 2000, 16). Like D'Alisera (2004) and Gmelch and Gmelch (2009) both noted, I found that approaching the city as the field can require a significant amount of time spent in transit, moving between various members of the 'community' being studied.…”

Religion in the public sphere of a pluralistic society: The South African attempt - A Reformed perspective

“…Some religions are closely associated with public institutions such as education, hospitals, family life, government and political hierarchies while other religions are more withdrawn from the public space. Religion is also seen to help people to deal with problems of human life by providing a set of ideas about how and why the world is put together, to help people through anxieties and misfortunes (Monaghan, John and Just, Peter;2000, pp124). All of the above can be seen in the practices of different religions as well as in their official documents like their confessions of faith, their constitutions and documents of order and for instance also in their requirements for membership as well as in their requirements for leaders and office bearers.…”

Adaptive Capacity in Israeli Social Change Nonprofits

“…It is worthwhile to briefly consider the role of anthropologists; they 'step out' of their own context and are thereby able to identify a panoply of norms, values, beliefs, worldviews and ideologies (Anderson, 1990). As the anthropologists Monaghan and Just (2000) write, "the outsider is far more likely to notice the tacit understandings that local people take for granted as 'common sense' or 'natural' categories of thought" (p. 30). To achieve transformational learning, we also need to 'step out' of our context.…”