Fiona Gill

Knowing your Place: Gender and Reflexivity in two Ethnographies

Female ethnographers often appear to be more aware of their sexual status and its impact on fieldwork and relationships than their male colleagues (Okely 1992: 19, Coffey 1999: 79). Similarly, the behaviour of female fieldworkers is often more closely scrutinised than that of male fieldworkers (Mascarenhas-Keyes 1987: 187), and many female ethnographers’ accounts detail gender-specific issues and challenges that arose during their research (e.g. Moreno 1995: 220, Whitehead 1976, Middleton 1986). This paper draws on the authors’ experiences in two different rural British communities, conducting research using a combination of methods including participant observation and tape-recorded interviews. Catherine Macleans research examined migration and social change in ‘Beulach’, a remote rural parish in the north of Scotland, while Fiona Gills research focused on issues of identity in ‘Bordertown’, a small town near the border between Scotland and England. In both cases, while gender was not initially a focus of the research, it became increasingly salient during the fieldwork period. The paper discusses the similarities and differences between the authors’ research experiences, and the factors that account for these. The authors’ research is set in the wider context of ethnographic community studies. The paper explores the emotional impact of the fieldwork on the authors, and the consequences of this for the research. It concludes that although female researchers have to consider and deal with gender-related research problems not faced by their male colleagues, this also has positive consequences as the experiences of female ethnographers encourage a reflexive and self-aware approach.

Succession planning and temporality: The influence of the past and the future

Although succession planning has been a fertile topic of investigation among rural sociologists, its temporal elements have been neglected. This has resulted in static analyses, with little attention paid to the influences of the past and future on present decision-making. This article introduces a consideration of temporality, examining the influences of past and future on the development and expression of farming identities. I argue that temporality plays a critical role as farmers struggle with conflicting senses of time and responsibilities to different generations.

Responsible Agents: Responsibility and the Changing Relationship between Farmers and the State

Abstract This article examines the role of responsibility in the development and negotiation of the citizen–State relationship. A case study of dairy farmers in New South Wales, illustrates that a contradiction exists in the ways responsibility is employed by both citizens and the State which contributes to resistance to policies. This suggests that acknowledging farmers’ perceptions of responsibility will assist in explaining responses by farmers and regional communities to policy initiatives. One way this may be overcome is through the employment of the concepts of co-responsibility and institutional responsibility.

Data and archives: The Internet as site and subject

The Internet has changed the nature of the archive from a paper-based treasure trove overseen by the trained archivist to one of an open, multi-vocal, democratic source with no one in control. New forms of archives have emerged – for example, the haphazard collection of ephemeral – and they now exist alongside the formal public record that has more traditionally been understood as the archive. This article analyses what these changes mean to social scientists working with data that emerge from or are stored on the Internet. Using a small case study based on our own research, we consider ways of thinking through and managing this challenge. We suggest this shift from the institutional to the intimate, from the state to the individual, from the public to the private has changed the way scholars access and interact with data.

Practicing environmental responsibility: local and global dimensions

Purpose – The successful identification and management of environmental risks remains one of the most important challenges facing mankind. The global nature of environmental risks makes the assumption and practice of environmental responsibility difficult. This paper aims to examine the nature of this difficulty, arguing that although environmental responsibility remains global, it is situated and practiced at the local level.Design/methodology/approach – Using a case study methodology, the paper examines three family dairy farms in Belsize, New South Wales, Australia. Repeated interviews with adult members of the farming families explored their perspectives of the past, present and future of the farm, eliciting rich narratives about relationships between farm, environment, community and individual, and the role that responsibility plays in negotiating these relationships.Findings – Environmental responsibility is established as multi‐faceted, and negotiated between social actors as one of myriad other, c...

Moving to the 'Big' House: Power and Accommodation in Inter-generational Farming Families

Abstract Relationship management is an on-going concern for members of farming families. This paper examines the dynamics of one of the most important, but under-researched, relationships on a farm; between mother and daughter-in-law. I argue that this relationship operates as a conduit for tensions, enabling conflict to be channelled away from the farm itself into a relationship governed by the designated ‘kinkeepers’ and relationship managers of the farm. This relationship uses discourse surrounding the ‘big house’ – accommodation arrangements on the farm – as a mechanism for preventing overt hostility between family members and maintaining the integrity of the family unit.

Negotiating 'Normal': the Management of Feminine Identities in Rural Britain

This paper examines the management of feminine identities in a womens rugby team in a rural British community. In so doing, the issue of new, and potentially problematic, forms of femininity are explored, with their attendant social consequences. The team, known as the Jesters, is situated in a social context which is dominantly masculine and heterosexist, with rigidly enforced gender roles. Due to their participation in rugby, a ‘mans game’, the Jesters are threatened with marginalisation for their apparent failure to conform to, and potential disruption of, established gender norms. This threat is managed through the performance of certain ‘inauthentic’ feminine identities (hyper-femininity and heterosexuality) on the part of the entire team. It is this ‘team identity’ which lies at the heart of this paper. This paper therefore examines the group dynamics of identity performance and negotiation. In negotiating ‘normal’ the Jesters are forced to confront changing gender norms and social contexts within the team itself. This paper also examines the difficulties faced by individuals when their own interests are opposed to the interests of the group of which they are a part. Although largely uncaring about the private lives of team members, the heterosexual members of the Jesters refuse to tolerate the performance of alternative versions of femininity when it may result in the exclusion of the team as a whole. This paper therefore examines the differing interests of heterosexual and lesbian femininities within a potentially marginalised group and some of the coping mechanisms adopted by both groups to develop a coherent team image.