Julian M. Groves

Learning to feel: the neglected sociology of social movements

This paper discusses the experience and ideology of emotions among animal rights activists, and more broadly, the applicability of the sociology of emotions to the field of social movements. I examine the case of a social movement which relies heavily on empathy in its initial recruitment, and which has been derisively labeled by outsiders as ‘emotional’. I explain recruitment to animal rights activism by showing how activists develop a ‘vocabulary of emotions’ to rationalize their participation to others and themselves, along with managing the emotional tone of the movement by limiting the kinds of people who can take part in debates about animal cruelty. The interactive nature in which emotions develop in social movements is stressed over previous approaches to emotions in the social movement literature, which treat emotions as impulsive or irrational.

Neither “saints” nor “prostitutes”: Sexual discourse in the filipina domestic worker community in hong kong

Abstract Sexuality is a locus of control not only between men and women, but across racial, class, and national divides. Discourse about sexuality is important because it is a commentary on these relations of power and the broader institutional arrangements that permit them. We examine sexual discourse among a particularly disempowered group of women—Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong. We look at how international development and migration policies, the conditions of domestic work, and Hong Kong popular culture have conspired to identify Filipina domestic workers with the sex industry. In response, the women construct an “ethic of service” within their own communities which challenges the public discourse on the Filipina as “prostitute.” Some women, however, see a contradiction within this response. They brazenly talk about sex, flaunt their sexuality, and mock other members in their all-female, church-based organizations by calling them “saints.” This debate about prostitution and sainthood, we argue, is a commentary on unequal power relations between Filipinas and the broader community in which the womens moral identity and economic livelihood is tied to their sexuality.

ROMANCING RESISTANCE AND RESISTING ROMANCE: Ethnography and the Construction of Power in the Filipina Domestic Worker Community in Hong Kong

Ethnographic writing in sociology and anthropology emphasizes everyday strategies of resistance among disempowered individuals over their submission in relations of power. Rather than asking whether disempowered individuals resist or submit to their situation, this article examines how tales of resistance and submission get written. Both authors studied a community of migrant Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong. Yet, each came up with a contradictory tale: one of empowerment, and one of submission. Reflecting on the interactions that each author encountered in the field, this article argues that resistance and control do not exist outside the power relationships that ethnographers establish with their informants.

The ‘Post-80s Generation,’ ‘Young Night Drifters,’ and the construction of a generic youth subject in Hong Kong

This article examines shifting representations of youth in post-handover Hong Kong in order to develop a framework for understanding the process by which some youngsters become hidden or marginal in the public consciousness while others remain highly visible. We compare two youth labels that have captured the publics imagination over a 14-year period: the Post-80s Generation and Young Night Drifters (YNDS, also known as nonengaged youth). The more recently created Post-80s label to describe Hong Kongs youth, we argue, reflects an emerging vision of influential politicians, cultural and business elites who idealize or, as we put it, ‘genericize’ the citys youth as not only highly educated, entrepreneurial, and self-reliant, but also politically compliant and patriotic. This vision, we argue, eclipses another reality, identified by social workers and faced by many youngsters in the territory who have failed to achieve the necessary educational qualifications to participate in the knowledge-based economy and still rely on welfare, personified by the Young Night Drifter label. This analysis leads us to question the power dynamics behind frequent claims about certain youngsters being representative of a particular generation.

Youth studies and timescapes: insights from an ethnographic study of "young night drifters" in Hong Kong's public housing estates

This article draws on insights from the sociology of time to examine how scheduling influences social interaction and identity among young people and those who work with them. Drawing on an ethnographic analysis of “Young Night Drifters” and youth outreach social workers in Hong Kong’s public housing estates, we create a framework to understand youth in the context of time scheduling. Certain time schedules provide opportunities for young people to enjoy greater intimacy and looser authority structures. The particular scheduling of young people’s activities can expose them to delinquent groups and activities and isolate them from mainstream society. Time is also a marker that creates new identities and shapes interactions between youth workers and their clients. By focusing on the timing of youth activities, we redress an imbalance in the literature on youth studies which has been preoccupied with space.

Negotiating Global Citizenship, Protecting Privilege: Western Expatriates Choosing Local Schools in Hong Kong.

Abstract We examine school choices made by western expatriate parents in post-colonial Hong Kong in order to understand the essence of imagined global citizenship and its implications for existing ethnic and class inequalities in the education system. Responding to changes in the global job market, a small but increasingly visible group of parents are seeking to challenge what they see as the constraints of expatriate life by developing global opportunities for their children through Cantonese language acquisition in the local education system. Drawing on the sociological literature on school choice and middle-class identity, we argue that these parents are negotiating for themselves a global imaginary in which cultures can easily be traversed and social class is levelled. But such global desires, we suggest, can also replicate colonial privilege in a way that marginalises poorer schools and other ethnic minorities in the education system.

Love in the time of ‘settling’: Forbidden knowledge and modern singles advice

While there has been much feminist criticism over recent discourses that stigmatize single women, little is known about how women actually consume and respond to the advice prescribed in this discourse. This article addresses this shortcoming by looking at a controversy that emerged in Hong Kong over a popular television show that dispensed dating advice to single women. Based on focus group discussions about the show with 39 unwed women, we examine how women negotiate sexist modern dating advice in relation to their normative views about courtship. Using analogies drawn from the sociology of science, we argue that modern dating advice is constructed by our informants as forbidden knowledge, that is, knowledge that is considered too sensitive, dangerous or taboo to produce. By rendering the laws of attraction mysterious or unknowable, our informants continue to search for romantic partners, while bracketing the sexism that they encounter. The implications for agency and choice in this positioning are discussed.

Exploring the Sacred-Secular Dialect in Everyday Social Work Practice: An Analysis of Religious Responses to Managerialism among Outreach Social Workers in Hong Kong

We examine the recent proliferation of religious discourses among front line social workers in the former British Colony of Hong Kong in order to explore the nature of ‘re-enchantment’ in modern social work practice. In-depth qualitative interviews with twenty social workers who identify as ‘Christian social workers’ in a variety of social work organisations (both religious and secular) reveal the adoption of religious identities and discourses to navigate the encroachment of managerialism. A systematic analysis of these narratives suggests that Christian social workers evoke religion to reclaim feelings of authenticity in their work, to facilitate more personalised relationships with their clients, and to empower themselves following the introduction of managerialist policies. We illuminate the dialectical relationship between religious discourses and managerialism to critique claims in the literature about a ‘re-enchantment’ in social work, and to understand the essence of religion in modern social work practice.

Are smelly animals happy animals?: competing definitions of laboratory animal cruelty and public policy.

Regulations surrounding laboratory animal care have tried to address aspects of an image of laboratory animal cruelty publicized by animal rights activists. This image of cruelty, however, is not consistent with the experiences of those charged with the day-to-day care of laboratory animals. This article examines the incongruities between the public image of cruelty to animals in laboratories as promoted by animal rights activists, and the experiences of laboratory animal care staff who apply and enforce laboratory animal care regulations. In doing so, the article illuminates why regulations surrounding laboratory animal care are difficult to comply with on the part of the policy enforcers, and are continuously contested by both animal rights activists and animal research personnel.