Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Congemporary Ethnography
Publisher
Sage Publications
Publication Date
2-2009
First Page
85
Last Page
116
Issue Number
1
Volume Number
38
Abstract/ Summary
Activists and volunteers in the United States face the dilemma of having to negotiate the ideals of American individualism with their own acts of compassion. In this article, I consider how activists and volunteers socially construct compassion. Data from ethnographic research in the breast cancer and antirape movements are analyzed. The processes through which compassion is constructed are revealed in participants’ actions and in their identities. It is through their actions (or “doing good”) and their perceptions and presentations of themselves (“being good”) that participants construct compassion as a gendered phenomenon. Together, the processes of doing good and being good raise questions about the extent to which participants’ acts of compassion are or can be transformative in a way that promotes the social change which activists and volunteers seek.
Repository Citation
Blackstone, Amy. 2009. "Doing Good, Being Good, and the Social Construction of Compassion." Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, February 2009; vol. 38, 1: pp. 85-116. DOI: 10.1177/0891241607310864
Citation/Publisher Attribution
(c) Sage Publications. Link to original article: http://jce.sagepub.com.prxy4.ursus.maine.edu/content/38/1/85.abstract
DOI
10.1177/0891241607310864
Version
post-print (i.e. final draft post-refereeing with all author corrections and edits)
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons