Preliminary Programme

Wed 12 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Thu 13 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Fri 14 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00
    16.30 - 18.30

Sat 15 April
    08.30 - 10.30
    11.00 - 13.00
    14.00 - 16.00

All days
Go back

Saturday 15 April 2023 11.00 - 13.00
X-14 ORA11 Oral Histories - Gender, Class and Social Movements
Västra Hamngatan 25 AK2 136 (Z)
Network: Oral History Chair: Graham Smith
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Juan Manuel Brito Díaz : Oral History and Sociology of Social Movements. Narratives of Activists for an Interpretation of the Impacts of the Canarian Environmental Movement
Oral History is becoming an increasingly important component of the set of research tools that social movements studies can use. Beyond the political interpretations related to the role of the State, the configuration of political systems or the information provided through quantitative methods of collective action repertoires or protest events, ... (Show more)
Oral History is becoming an increasingly important component of the set of research tools that social movements studies can use. Beyond the political interpretations related to the role of the State, the configuration of political systems or the information provided through quantitative methods of collective action repertoires or protest events, the techniques and methodologies of Oral History allow us to access narrative details, political reflections or individualized memories throughout a life, which could never be accessed through the most common research methods in history or the sociology of social movements.
Starting from a dynamic and synthetic view of the approaches of political opportunity and collective identity, we propose that the intersection between Oral History and other sociological research techniques generate an explanatory tension between the political agenda of social movements and the narratives developed to from the life histories of activists. This tension allows us to better apprehend not only the nuances and the complexity of the movements, but also the experiences, evaluations and expectations of the people who make it up. In the same way, Oral History gives us the opportunity to observe how many of the narratives are similar private stories that together make up public histories, and therefore, collective identities, which are essential to understand the origin, evolution and impacts of a social movement.
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it is intended to highlight the relevance of oral history in the study of social movements; and secondly, we present the concrete case of a study that, starting from oral narratives, analyzes the experiences and visions of environmental activists, in relation to the configuration, evolution and impact of the Canarian environmental movement. (Show less)

Alina Doboszewska : The Experience of Ukrainian Dissident Women of the 1960s-1980s: Resistance and Social Support
Ukrainian dissidents, known as "shistdesiatnyki", because they started operating in the 1960s, formed an informal movement of creative intelligence opposing the totalitarian system dominating in the USSR. Their activities focused on developing underground cultural and publishing activities, and defending human rights, including the right to develop national culture and pursue ... (Show more)
Ukrainian dissidents, known as "shistdesiatnyki", because they started operating in the 1960s, formed an informal movement of creative intelligence opposing the totalitarian system dominating in the USSR. Their activities focused on developing underground cultural and publishing activities, and defending human rights, including the right to develop national culture and pursue Ukraine's state independence. The aim of the project is to reconstruct the biographical experience of women from the Ukrainian dissident circle in the context of everyday life and opposition activities, taking into account the socio-cultural specificity of Ukraine in the totalitarian system of the USSR.
The analysis will cover issues related to determining the biographical profiles of the surveyed people, their patterns and authorities, trajectories and biographical changes, as well as ways of giving meaning. Subsequently, the analysis will base on identifying situations related to the experience of oppressive power and practices of a resistance nature, but also for creating social support networks, in conjunction with a critical assessment of social reality. The gender of the surveyed people is here key importance in the sense of "gendering" of resistance practices, especially in connection with everyday life. This will be particularly important in the context of considerations on public and private space in the view of Nancy Fraser, who contest the thesis of Jürgen Habermas that discourse in public space should exclude private problems.
The research is based primarily on the analysis of 30 biographical interviews that I conducted with surviving participants of the Ukrainian dissident movement. The supplement will be a qualitative analysis of the content of period documents (publications, memories, letters) regarding biographical elements.
The concepts related to the method of autobiographical and narrative interview by Fritz Schütz will be used. Such interview consists of 3 parts: free narration of the examined person, questions clarifying the narrative and previously prepared research questions. The analysis of the interview begins with determining the course of events (free narrative does not proceed chronologically) and recreating the narrator's awareness. Then he focuses on determining biographical and institutional patterns of action, trajectories ? biographical processes related to the experience of coercion of external circumstances, and biographical transformations ? positive life changes.
The analysis will be complemented by the application of the approach of Alessandro Portelli, which emphasizes the impact of interaction between the narrator and researcher during the interview - meaning is given in specific circumstances of the interview (dialogic performance), as well as categories introduced by Jean-Claude Kaufmann: recurring sentences and contradictions showing what was not told directly.
This project will fill the research gap, introducing the topic to a wider field of issues related to the functioning of public and private space, resistance categories and social support. Giving voice to women will help complete social history by showing its unexplored aspect. Investigating and describing the biographical experience of Ukrainian dissidents will form the basis for further analysis of this issue as part of a universal phenomenon in the field of resistance, as well as social support in totalitarian systems. (Show less)

Peter Gurney : National Service and the Memory of Class in Post-war Britain
Conscription of all able-bodied young men over the age of 18 was introduced in Britain just after the Second World War and continued until 1960, by which time about 2.3 million had served in the army, navy or air force. Its effects have gone largely unexplored, partly because military history ... (Show more)
Conscription of all able-bodied young men over the age of 18 was introduced in Britain just after the Second World War and continued until 1960, by which time about 2.3 million had served in the army, navy or air force. Its effects have gone largely unexplored, partly because military history has been regarded as an unfashionable topic among professional historians. This paper reports some of the findings from an oral history project I directed that conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with over 100 ex-national servicemen from mainly working-class backgrounds across five different regions in England, Scotland and Wales. Interviewees were encouraged to tell their life stories and situate their experience of conscription in relation to their life courses. The overwhelming majority subscribed on the surface to the idea that class identities were rendered meaningless during national service, overlaid and effaced by rank. Richard Vinen’s excellent recent study of this subject – by far the best we have – argues persuasively that such a view is one of the most enduring myths about conscription, and he ably deconstructs this myth, demonstrating conclusively that class differences were reinscribed rather than eradicated by national service.

Drawing on original evidence from the project, this paper adopts a different approach, seeking not simply to debunk myth but rather to explore the possible reasons for its existence in the memory of national servicemen – to look at the work this myth performs in their life stories. By so doing, new light can be shed on current debates about the changing meanings of the language and concept of class in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century. The initial focus in the paper is the idea of ‘ordinariness’, a vague, socially capacious identity that increasingly eclipsed class post-war according to a number of sociologists and social historians. The interviews with ex-national servicemen lend some support to this interpretation, particularly the rejection of snobbery that characterised attitudes of those whom we are led to believe increasingly self-identified as ‘ordinary’. However, none of the interviewees on the project used the language of ‘ordinariness’ and although they tended to deny the relevance of class to contemporary society, many talked loquaciously about class and not only in a ‘heritage’ sense either.

The main body of the paper then discusses the way in which the myth of classlessness was simultaneously affirmed and undermined by interviewees when they recalled their time in the armed forces. Harmonious relationships between officers and other ranks, for instance, could provide a model of collaboration transcending class, but frequently a good deal of tension and even open conflict marked interactions between them. The paper then goes on to reflect on the way interviewees’ memories of class were inflected by social mobility, which the majority to various degrees had experienced, unsurprisingly. Although better off materially, many felt both more isolated as well as alarmed by what they considered an increasingly ‘individualist’ society, and consequently memorialised national service as a pristine image of social co-operation. (Show less)



Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer