Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

More documents

Recommendations

Info

‘Diaspora Space’ as Heard and ObservedDaiva RepeckaiteServices provided by the state, such as language courses and temporary housing,were facilitating integration before the 1990s. However, with a general move away fromwelfare principles in most industrialized economies at the time, the Israeli welfare statealso witnessed pressures for privatization and more emphasis on individual choice. Amongother aspects, the ‘caretaker state’ was increasingly associated with the failed USSR project,from which Russian-speakers came. With integration services reduced, Russian-speakerswere often left alone or dependent on ethnic networks for their integration.Researchers have observed (e.g. Lissitsa, 2007) that the relatively high average classstatus of Russian-speakers in their homelands and opportunities they had to contribute tocreative arts, academic life and intellectual professions created high expectations in themigrants, but those expectations often failed in the new labor market. Sabella (1993) foundthat the percentage of persons with academic qualifications was fourfold, comparing to theIsraeli population. Among Russian-speakers, there were more female-headed households(Sabella, 1993, p. 37), more single mothers and divorcees (Lemish, 2000, p. 335) and relativelymore women entrepreneurs (Kushnirovich, 2007, p. 104). These immigrants were also lessreligious and had stopped many of the religious practices typical of the local population.Relatively high education, as well as possibilities to stay in contact with relatives inother countries, contributed to a certain transnational identity that emerged and almostimmediately became a popular research topic. More than that, Internet forums, chat roomsand web groups allow discussing their issues with a wider community of reference, unitedby a common language and a sense of shared system of dispositions (tastes, preferences andreference points, corresponding to Bourdieu’s term habitus – to be discussed later). Thereforethe networking practices and transnationalism of Russian-speakers in Israel has become oneof the key topics of recent research.In addition, Israeli researchers have paid attention to the reactions of the receivingsociety – stereotypes, as well as integration and acceptance practices faced by newcomersfrom the early 1990s to this day. Most of the research relies on interviews and narratives,often collected by ‘native’ ethnographers. Narratives allow putting an individual in his/hercontext of migration, but they are often clearly structured in order to maximize agency, resistanceand prestige. A narrative is in itself a strategy, a choice of presenting oneself. Severalreoccurring themes have been found by various researchers: disappointment, acceptanceand integration, and prestigious identity. Many Russian-speakers told researchers that Israelwas not as ‘Western’ and not as welcoming as they had expected. On the other hand, theyemphasized that they had learned how to deal with the new situation, learned the locallanguage and can shuffle cultural codes as they like. Finally, many emphasized that theywere more educated, sophisticated, ‘European’ and ‘Western’, compared to native Israelis.While analysis of narratives and self-presentations is useful and provides us with richdata on how these migrants feel and position themselves, it is not necessarily a full representationof migrants’ everyday choices and actions. Faced with this methodological issue, Ichose to combine several research methods and focus more on everyday interactions in urbanspaces. Yet the findings from these interactions, as it will be described later, also confirmed theimportance of juxtaposing them with narratives.Narratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches244
‘Diaspora Space’ as Heard and ObservedDaiva RepeckaiteKey terms and theoretical backgroundResearch on integration of new migrant groups and their networking practices cannotavoid the question of identity. On the other hand, recent theoretical thought denaturalizesand questions the concept of identity as prescribing static categories on actually fluidand spontaneous interactions. Brubaker and Cooper (2000) criticize the notion of identity,suggesting that terms as ‘categorization’ or ‘identification’ could be used instead in orderto highlight their processual nature. Anderson (2001) suggested defining the ‘density’ ofidentity, which depends on how much a person’s life is structured by identity.In the context of the Russian-speakers’ migration to Israel, Bourdieu’s terms offer aninstrumental theoretical framework. For example, Bourdieu (1993) offers the term ‘field’ tomean a ‘social universe’ with its own rules, which is both shaped by different actors andshapes them. ‘Capital’ in his theory is a ‘type of relationship’ among actors (Mahar, 2000),while ‘habitus’ denotes tastes, categories and everyday practices that are taken for grantedby individuals (Karner, 2007). ‘Field’ allows better picturing of the web constituted of governmentpolicies, settlement, employment and communication opportunities and stereotypesfaced and created by the Russian-speakers in Israel. As noted above, they both adapt to therules present and actively engage in renegotiating their role in them, if not changing therules altogether. ‘Capital’ in this case is the profession-dependent respect brought over fromthe ex-USSR, ability to take part in the cultural life in the Russian language, and, as it will bediscussed in detail further, ability to navigate the space, the field and the web of interactions(constructing their identity as of a successful navigator between the ‘Russian’ and the Israelicultures is perceived as significant symbolic capital, which shapes interactions between‘veteran’ ethnic migrants and newcomers. The ‘veteran’ ethnic migrants prefer to choose ineach situation, how much identity to make visible to others in ‘mainstream’ spaces (publictransport, shops, events, recreational spaces, etc.), but also take pride in immediately recognizingRussian-speaking newcomers. Being able to ‘dissolve in the mainstream’, but quicklyidentify other ‘Russians’ seems to be a part of the identity of a ‘veteran immigrant’ Finally, asalready hinted above, habitus is a term to be used when speaking about shared dispositions(jokes, hints, references to famous personalities, etc, style, social memory, cultural consumptionand so on). Hence the inter-subjective building of shared identity through encountersseems to rest on pre-defined building blocks.While culture is often compared to language and shared codes of communication(Hall, 1997), it takes a very elaborate form in the case of Russian-speaking Israelis. Namely,the language is expected to be an expression of a shared habitus related to the formerUSSR. Based on the language, its speakers assume one’s ‘fluency’ in a set of cultural codes, abasic set of which is trans-generational (e.g., among Russian-speakers nobody is expectedto explain who Cheburashka, a famous Soviet animation character, is). Therefore, for thepurposes of this research, culture is understood as a set of codes that is exchanged andreaffirmed by participants who self-categorize and are categorized by others as belongingto the same ethnic group.Narratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches245
Page 2 and 3:
© CECS 2013 All rights reservedThi
Page 4 and 5:
Cinematic Landscape and Social Memo
Page 6 and 7:
comprises both remembering and forg
Page 8 and 9:
include important questions related
Page 10 and 11:
Part ICognitive and Emotional Proce
Page 12 and 13:
Narratives and Social Memory from t
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Page 22 and 23:
Page 24 and 25:
Page 26 and 27:
The Lay Historian: How Ordinary Peo
Page 28 and 29:
Page 30 and 31:
Page 32 and 33:
Page 34 and 35:
Page 36 and 37:
Page 38 and 39:
Page 40 and 41:
Page 42 and 43:
Page 44 and 45:
Page 46 and 47:
Cabecinhas, R. & Abadia, L. (eds.)
Page 48 and 49:
Emotional Processes in Elaborating
Page 50 and 51:
Page 52 and 53:
Page 54 and 55:
Page 56 and 57:
Page 58 and 59:
Page 60 and 61:
Page 62 and 63:
Transitional Justice Processes, Sha
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
The Past and the Present (re)Visite
Page 80 and 81:
Page 82 and 83:
Page 84 and 85:
Page 86 and 87:
Page 88 and 89:
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Part IIMedia(ted) Narrativesand Pub
Page 94 and 95:
Hard News Cognitive Shift: from Fac
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100 and 101:
Page 102 and 103:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Narratives of Death: Journalism and
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Researching Identity Narratives in
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Journalistic Narrative: a Story of
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
The Works of Sísifo: Memories and
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Audiovisual Post-colonial Narrative
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182 and 183:
Page 184 and 185:
Page 186 and 187:
Page 188 and 189:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
The Subject-Matter of Audiovisual H
Page 194 and 195: The Subject-Matter of Audiovisual H
Page 202 and 203: Cabecinhas, R. & Abadia, L. (eds.)
Page 204 and 205: Criminal violence in Brazilian movi
Page 220 and 221: Part IVEthnic, National and Suprana
Page 222 and 223: Narratives of Redemption: Memory an
Page 234 and 235: Memory and the Flows of Identity in
Page 246 and 247: ‘Diaspora Space’ as Heard and O
Page 254 and 255: Colonial Missions in the North Amer
Page 266 and 267: Part VSocietal Issues, Collective A
Page 268 and 269: Collective Mobilization and the Soc
Page 284 and 285: Narratives as Prison ‘Escapes’:
Page 294 and 295:
Narratives as Prison ‘Escapes’:
Page 296 and 297:
Narratives as Prison ‘Escapes’:
Page 298 and 299:
Page 300 and 301:
Drawings and Narrative: the Inmates
Page 302 and 303:
Page 304 and 305:
Page 306 and 307:
Page 308 and 309:
Page 310 and 311:
Page 312 and 313:
Page 314 and 315:
Page 316 and 317:
Comissões Unitárias de Mulheres d
Page 318 and 319:
Page 320 and 321:
Page 322 and 323:
Page 324 and 325:
Page 326 and 327:
Page 328 and 329:
Adozinda Goes to the Feminine Readi
Page 330 and 331:
Page 332 and 333:
Page 334 and 335:
Page 336 and 337:
Page 338 and 339:
Page 340 and 341:
Page 342 and 343:
show all

Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?