Abstract
This chapter presents the methodology of the study. There is a reflection on the double role of the researcher in the present study as both outsider and insider—not a spectator, but an engaged participant, sharing a Geertzian ‘web of significance’ with the participants. The chapter also discusses the problematic usage of terms such as generation, ethnic group and community, suggesting an interpretation that removes itself from static ascriptions. The primary participants in the present study were 30 adult individuals of different immigration generations, including both Calabrian- and Australian-born members. By attending public community spaces and participating in the domestic and community life of these primary participants, I was also able to interact with a number of other individuals of Calabrian origin (the relatives, friends and acquaintances of the primary participants), who were included in the study as peripheral participants, when willing to participate. Participant observation was the principal approach used in the present research. Open-ended interviews, fieldnotes, case studies of cultural practices were taken and transcribed after each visit and examined during the process of data analysis. The genealogies of the participants were also collected and mapped, focusing on the three-generation phenomenon.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Appadurai, A. (1996). Global ethnoscapes: Notes and queries for a transnational anthropology. In A. Appadurai (Ed.), Modernity at large (pp. 48–65). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bachelard, G. (1938). La formation de l’esprit scientifique. Paris: Vrin.
Baldassar, L. (2001). Visits home: Migration experiences between Italy and Australia. Melbourne: University Press.
Barth, F. (1970). Ethnic groups and boundaries. Berfen: Universitets Forlaget.
Bauman, Z. (2001). Identity in the globalizing world. Social Anthropology, 9(2), 121–129.
Bourdieu, P. (1997). Le sens pratique. Paris: Minuit (English translation, R. Nice, The logic of practice, 1980).
Bourdieu, P. (1989). Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 7(1), 14–25.
Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. J. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Cirese, A. M. (2010). Altri sé: Per un’atropologia delle invarianze. Palermo: Sellerio.
Clemente, P., & Mugnaini, F. (2001). Oltre il folklore, tradizioni popolari e antropologia nella società contemporanea. Rome: Carocci Editore.
Clyne, M. (1982). Multilingual Australia: Resources, needs, policies. Melbourne: River Seine Publications.
De Saussure, F. (1968). Corso di linguistica generale. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Del Torto, L. M. (2008). Ci arrangiamo: Negotiating linguistic shift-maintenance in an Italian-Canadian community. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan. Retrieved September 20, 2015, from https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/61600.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Geertz, C. (2000). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive anthropology. New York: Basic Books.
Hobsbawm, E. (2000). Mass-producing traditions: Europe, 1870–1914. In E. Hobsbawm & T. Ranger (Eds.), The invention of tradition (pp. 263–307). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jenkins, R. (2008). Rethinking ethnicity (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (2009). Antropologia strutturale (Vol. 68). Milano: Il saggiatore.
Madden, R. (2010). Being ethnographic: A guide to the theory and practice of ethnography. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Marino, S. (2019c). Thrown into the world: The shift between pavlova and pasta in the ethnic identity of Australians originating from Italy. Journal of Sociology, 144078331988828.
Okamura, J. Y. (1981). Situational ethnicity. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 4(4), 452–465.
Verdery, K. (1991). National ideology under socialism: Identity and cultural politics in Ceausescu’s Romania. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Vermeulen, H., & Govers, C. (Eds.). (1994). The anthropology of ethnicity: Beyond ethnic groups and boundaries. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis.
Vermeulen, H., & Govers, C. (1997). From political mobilization to the politics of consciousness. In The politics of ethnic consciousness (pp. 1–30). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Willis, P. E. (1977). Learning to labor: How working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wolf, E. R., Kahn, J. S., Roseberry, W., & Wallerstein, I. (1994). Perilous ideas: Race, culture, people. Current Anthropology, 35(1), 1–12.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Marino, S. (2020). Methodology. In: Intergenerational Ethnic Identity Construction and Transmission among Italian-Australians. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48145-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48145-2_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48144-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48145-2
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)