How storytelling through the use of avatars could help Fukushima evacuees express themselves: digital archive for people in the diaspora

The Memorytalk online platform allows users to upload animated human stories. They may also choose to display related photos/characters and construct scenarios. Memorytalk may thus constitute a useful collaborative format for survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake, especially evacuees from the town of Namie, who are now relocated in different areas across Japan, particularly as they are hesitant to talk about where they are from. This study examined various narrated animations created by Namie high school students within the Memorytalk platform, specifically for the purpose of investigating their storytelling methods based on Erving Goffman's role-distance theory. Memorytalk not only allows avatars that provide users with anonymity when expressing a wide range of memories, it also creates (1) opportunities for face-to-face workshops in the context of computer-mediated communication and (2) the therapeutic benefits of being humorous. In sum, the platform may provide users with a form of role distancing in which people in the diaspora can more freely express themselves and also store valuable local memories.

Be prepared and do the best you can: a focus group study with staff on the care environment at Swedish secure youth homes

PURPOSE

This study examined staff members' experiences of the institutional care environment within secure youth homes.

METHODS

Data were collected through three focus group discussions with 17 staff members at two secure youth homes. Subsequently, a thematic analysis was conducted.

RESULTS

The analysis indicated two main themes: risk management and damage control in a restricted environment and compensating and reconstructing ordinariness-trying to make the best of it; each theme had three subthemes. The care environment seems to be experienced by staff as characterized by conflicting demands, thus constituting a gap between needs and what is possible to achieve-a balancing act that constitutes a constant struggle.

CONCLUSIONS

The staff members' constant struggle could be interpreted as conflicting moral and instrumental demands; they know what the youths need, but the environment of the secure youth homes demands the decorous behaviour of sociomaterial control practices-rather than care practices.

Comprehensive analysis of social stigma of ındividuals with substance use disorder in Turkey in the context of Erving Goffman's stigma theory

Goffman defines stigma as a disgrace and social outcast/disqualification. Individuals with substance disorder are exposed to stigma at certain periods of their lives. Stigma particularly affects their thoughts, behaviors, and treatment processes, as well as their social life and identity perception. This paper examines the effects of social stigma experienced by individuals with substance disorder in Turkey and its reflections on social life in terms of Goffman's stigmatization theory. In this regard, studies examining the social stigmatization of individuals with addictions and social perceptions and attributes toward these individuals in Turkey were analyzed. This analysis suggests that socio-demographic and cultural factors play a significant role in stigmatization, that society has negative perception and representations toward addicts, that stigmatized addicts are likely to avoid interactions with "normals" and are often stigmatized by the media, colleagues, and health professionals, and that stigma develops/creates "an addicted identity.". This paper suggests the need for robust social policies that would aim to minimize stigmatizing attitudes and misconceptions toward individuals with addiction, ensure access to effective treatment, fulfill their social functioning, and integrate them into society should be implemented.

[Validity of Erving Goffman’s ideas in the work of the psychiatric interment ward from a general hospital]

Several authors have taken up the challenge of demonstrating the influence of the social environment on mental health and questioning the hegemonic, individual and organicist psychiatric gaze, with the intention of constructing critical models of professional practice in which the subject is prime. This work proposes to study, on the one hand, the fundamental concepts of the sociologist Erving Goffman and, on the other, in the light of them, to expose the current operation of a psychiatric inpatient ward in a general hospital.

The Unfinished Business of Erving Goffman: From Marginalization Up Towards the Elusive Center of American Sociology

Erving Goffman's written legacy bears on sociology as a whole, or so he argued in his Presidential Address to the American Sociological Association (Goffman, 1983). However, while being celebrated as important to the discipline, his work is also interpreted in inconsistent ways, often downplayed or marginalized, and even neglected. This paper claims that Goffman's "well known aversion to self-disclosure" (Shalin, 2013) does not justify overlooking his trajectory, from the unknown "margins" of a Canadian small town to the elusive "center" of American sociology-and much less does it justify still circulating assessments of his personality, crafted while overlooking his life experiences-and, especially, his writings. Anecdotal evidence of his "enigmatic" personality (Lemert, 2003), or "bad-boy outrageousness" (Berger, 1986), works as a derailing tactic, leading to unwarranted appraisals of Goffman's personality-and, more importantly, to the neglect of crucial aspects of his work. From a theoretical standpoint, Simmel's treatment of "the stranger" as a social relationship, and Merton's concept of "moral alchemy", are used here to try to make some sense of the mixture of celebration and neglect still surrounding "Goffman". Historical data was gathered in part from the "Erving Goffman Archives'' (Shalin, 2013).

Alibis for Adult Play: A Goffmanian Account of Escaping Embarrassment in Adult Play

The social meanings of play sit at odds with norms of responsible and productive adult conduct. To be "caught" playing as an adult therefore risks embarrassment. Still, many designers want to create enjoyable, nonembarrassing play experiences for adults. To address this need, this article reads instances of spontaneous adult play through the lens of Erving Goffman's theory of the interaction order to unpack conditions and strategies for nonembarrassing adult play. It identifies established frames, segregated audiences, scripts supporting smooth performance, managing audience awareness, role distancing, and, particularly, alibis for play: Adults routinely provide alternative, adult-appropriate motives to account for their play, such as child care, professional duties, creative expression, or health. Once legitimized, the norms and rules of play themselves then provide an alibi for behavior that would risk being embarrassing outside play.

Concepts, Diagnosis and the History of Medicine: Historicising Ian Hacking and Munchausen Syndrome

Concepts used by historians are as historical as the diagnoses or categories that are studied. The example of Munchausen syndrome (deceptive presentation of illness in order to adopt the 'sick role') is used to explore this. Like most psychiatric diagnoses, Munchausen syndrome is not thought applicable across time by social historians of medicine. It is historically specific, drawing upon twentieth-century anthropology and sociology to explain motivation through desire for the 'sick role'. Ian Hacking's concepts of 'making up people' and 'looping effects' are regularly utilised outside of the context in which they are formed. However, this context is precisely the same anthropological and sociological insight used to explain Munchausen syndrome. It remains correct to resist the projection of Munchausen syndrome into the past. However, it seems inconsistent to use Hacking's concepts to describe identity formation before the twentieth century as they are given meaning by an identical context.