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Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

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Year 2013 
Volume 11 
Issue 4

From Accident to Activity: An Ethnographic Study of Community Engagement — From Symbolic Violence to Heroic Discourse

Robin Clair
Purdue University

Marifran Mattson
Purdue University

2013 11 (4) Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

Abstract

The present study conceptualizes engagement by following Marifran Mattson’s story—from tragic motorcycle accident to community engagement. The authors advance a fivepart conceptualization of engagement and test its usefulness by exploring it in relation to a stage model approach and by contrasting it to Bourdieu’s theory of timidity and habitus in relation to symbolic violence. The community engagement begins with a motorcycle safety campaign and expands to include the development of support groups and public policy regarding health insurance fairness for amputees (a.k.a. prosthetic parity). The analysis draws on critical ethnography and the interpretation draws on alternative perspectives and reflexivity. The findings suggest that the stage model is less useful than Bourdieu’s theory in explaining discursive practices, the role of professional discourses, and the emergence of heroic activism and heroic discourse in community engagement. Overall, the study paints a picture of what Boyer (1996) called the “scholarship of engagement.”

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APA style

Clair, Robin Patric & Mattson, Marifran (2013). From Accident to Activity: An Ethnographic Study of Community Engagement — From Symbolic Violence to Heroic Discourse. (2013). From Accident to Activity: An Ethnographic Study of Community Engagement — From Symbolic Violence to Heroic Discourse. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, 11(4), 27-40. (Original work published 2013)

MLA style

Clair, Robin Patric and Mattson, Marifran. “From Accident To Activity: An Ethnographic Study Of Community Engagement — From Symbolic Violence To Heroic Discourse”. 2013. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, vol. 11, no. 4, 2013, pp. 27-40.

Chicago style

Clair, Robin Patric and Mattson, Marifran. “From Accident To Activity: An Ethnographic Study Of Community Engagement — From Symbolic Violence To Heroic Discourse”. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 11, no. 4 (2013): 27-40.