Doing/Undoing Stigma : The Moral Enterprise of Territorial Stigma

Müller, Thaddeus (2024) Doing/Undoing Stigma : The Moral Enterprise of Territorial Stigma. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 53 (2). pp. 212-247. ISSN 0891-2416

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Abstract

In this article I focus on stigma, and more specifically on territorial stigma in a Dutch suburb built in the 1970s. This publication is based on ethnographic fieldwork that lasted two and half years and which took place at the end of the 1980s. The data is reanalyzed in the light of recent developments in studies on stigma and territorial stigma, specifically how this is countered. I will use the conceptual pair—doing stigma and undoing stigma—to unpack stigma as a complex and dynamic process in which a diverse range of actors, such as inhabitants, civil servants and youth, are involved. The aim of this article is twofold: to describe and analyze the social construction of territorial stigma (doing stigma) of the neighborhood over a period of ten years and whether and how this stigma is countered (undoing stigma). This article highlights the agency of those targeted by stigma by paying attention to local narratives and using a multi-perspective ethnographic lens. The narratives show that stigma did not gain a master status because (1) the stigma producers were marginal in the social world of the targeted inhabitants and (2) it did not align with structural stigma (as in e.g., housing, health care, income, and education).

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Research Output Funding/no_not_funded
Subjects:
?? urban studiessociology and political scienceanthropologylanguage and linguisticsno - not fundednosociology and political scienceurban studiesanthropology ??
ID Code:
216241
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
12 Mar 2024 09:50
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Jul 2024 00:54