Jacqueline Low
Biographic Data
| ID | 3743206 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jacqueline Low |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jacqueline |
| FAMILY NAME | Low |
| SIGNATURE | LOW J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of New Brunswick |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0336-426X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 117 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Contemplating Phenomenology, Yoga, and the Embodied Sharing of Meaning
Experiencing the Body in Yoga Practice: Meanings and Knowledge Transfer By Krzysztof T. Konecki, Aleksandra Płaczek, and Dagmara Tarasiuk (Routledge, 2024) As an interpretive scholar of the body who has enjoyed years of yoga classes, I was pleased to review this volume. Konecki, Płaczek, and Tarasiuk have provided a descriptive phenomenological analysis of the experiences of individuals, including students; yoga instructors; and researchers who p…
Dorothy Pawluch
Symbolic Interactionism and the Myth Of Astructural Bias
Symbolic interactionism continues to be criticized from both inside and outside of interactionist circles by those who claim that the perspective does not address issues of social structure and fails to recognize constraints on human agency. In this paper, we critically address these claims and defend Blumerian symbolic interactionism from three versions of the charge of astructural bias and demonstrate how the perspective accounts for social str…
Kathy Charmaz
Kathy Charmaz is arguably the most important member of the second generation of grounded theorists. In this paper we present our analysis of her research and published works in reference to the historical and biographic contexts that shaped them. Our analysis is framed by the sexpartite scholarly identity Charmaz developed over the course of the 55 years of her academic career, including: medical sociologist, symbolic interactionist, qualitative …
Stigma management as celebration
In this paper, I present a celebration of diversity as a new form of stigma management based on a qualitative analysis of media images of disabled bodies in fashion shows, advertising, and other marketing campaigns. In making my arguments I am chiefly concerned with modes of stigma management appropriate to discrediting stigma, stigma that cannot be concealed and must be managed if the individual is not to suffer the punitive reactions of others.…
The Hughesian Legacy
In this paper, I discuss the invaluable role played by William Shaffir, my mentor and doctoral supervisor, who shaped my approach to interpretive fieldwork and deepened my understanding of symbolic interactionist theory. Known affectionately as Billy to his colleagues and students, Shaffir is a gifted educator and one of the finest ethnographic researchers of his generation. My focus is on how the scholarly tradition that flows from Georg Simmel…
An Embattled Yet Enduring Influence
The papers in this special issue celebrate and build on the insights Blumer provides in his pivotal book Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. In setting the context for these papers, we discuss the significance of Blumer's variant of interactionism, his contributions to the discipline of sociology, the misinterpretations and misrepresentations of his approach, and the way in which the papers in this issue carry forward his legacy
A Pragmatic Definition of the Concept of Theoretical Saturation
In this article I critically discuss the concept of theoretic saturation, first presented by Glaser and Strauss in their classic book The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Over my almost two-decade career of using, researching, and publishing on qualitative methods, I have lost count of the number of qualitative researchers that have defined saturation as an instance where “no new information” emerges from data analysis. I argue that such a definitio…
Symbolic Interactionism in Canada
In this paper I critically discuss Helmes-Hayes and Milne's institutional perspective, as well as Neil McLaughlin's emphasis on scientific intellectual movements and Coserian intellectual sects, in explaining the emergence and potential future of symbolic interactionist theory in Canada. I contest claims that the interactionism is on the verge of disappearing and instead offer an explanation grounded in insights about shared meaning. I conclude t…
Whither Symbolic Interactionism in Canada
A response to Helmes-Hayes and Milne's article, 'The Institutionalization of Symbolic Interactionism in Canadian Sociology
The Chicago School Diaspora
Chicago School Diaspora
Embodied Action, Embodied Theory
In 2010 Jacqueline Low was invited to become an editorial board member of the then new online open-access journal Societies. In that same year, Claudia Malacrida was approached to organize a session on the sociology of the body at the 2012 International Sociological Association (ISA) meetings in Buenos Aries. When the call came in 2011 from Societies for editorial board members to propose topics for special issues of the journal, it was a natural…
From Zoomers to Geezerade
This paper is based on an analysis of representations of seniors in the media. In particular, we examine images of the bodies of seniors in the advertising campaigns promoting a product called Geezerade sold in Circle K convenience stores in the Atlantic provinces of Canada in the summer of 2011. We contrast these with images of seniors in the Canadian magazine Zoomer, formally CARP magazine, a magazine published by the Canadian Association of Re…
The Chicago School Diaspora
When the University of Chicago was founded in 1892 it established the first sociology department in the United States. The department grew rapidly in reputation and influence and by the 1920s graduates of its program were heading newly formed sociology programs across the country and determining the direction of the discipline and its future research. Their way of thinking about social relations revolutionized the social sciences by emphasizing a…
Conflict or Concert? Extending the Simmelian Triad to Account for Positive Third Party Presence in Face-to-Face Interviews with People Living with Parkinson’s Disease
A number of sociologists and other researchers have focused on the role of third parties since Simmel’s seminal conceptualization of the social organization of the triad. However, less attention has been given to third party presence in qualitative interviews, despite the fact that third party participation in interviews with people with chronic illness and/or disability occurs frequently. Here too it is assumed that third party presence promotes…
Health promotion policy in Canada
In this paper, we analyse Canadian health promotion discourse past and present, in the context of selected federal and provincial government policy initiatives. Principally, we examine the health promotion discourse articulated in A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians, Achieving Health for All: A Framework for Health Promotion, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Improving the Health of Canadians, and Canada Health Action: Building on…
Social Causes of Health and Disease - By William C. Cockerham
Structure, Agency, and Social Reality in Blumerian Symbolic Interactionism
While I do not presume to question the importance Blumer assigns to the role played by Mead in the development of Blumerian symbolic interactionism, I argue that the perspective also owes much to the insights of Georg Simmel. In particular, a Simmelian flavor is evident in how Blumer addresses the core sociological issues of the nature of social reality, the nature of the relationship between the individual and society, and the nature of social a…
Lay Acquiescence to Medical Dominance
The voluntary sector and the realignment of government
This paper examines the realignment of government from a street-level vantage point. Gleaning inspiration from studies of governmentality and institutional ethnography, the study argues that street-level processes were intertwined with the consolidation of neoliberal forms of rule. This connection was evident in the growing centrality of voluntary organizations in social administration, which went hand-in-hand with a normalization of more extreme…
Communication Problems Between Researchers and Informants With Speech Difficulties
Using data collected in a study of how people living with Parkinson's disease assess the efficacy of the alternative and complementary therapies they use, the author addresses the impact on qualitative data collection and analysis of communication problems between researchers and informants who experience speech difficulty. There is little literature that deals with these issues. In what little does, the emphasis is most often on the "problem" in…
Managing Safety and Risk
In this article I focus on how individuals living with Parkinson's disease manage safety and risk in their participation in alternative and complementary health care. I take a qualitative approach in this research, using semi-structured interviews and grounded theory techniques as means of generating and analysing data. My analysis centres on how these informants construct certain therapies as risk free and therefore safe, and others as risky and…
Problematic Success
This article focuses on the problems encountered while conducting participatory action research (PAR) with women with multiple sclerosis (MS). The term top-down means that the target population was defined and the research design was generated by a research team composed of academics and social services management rather than a grassroots group composed of women with MS. Overall, the research was a success; however, in the authors' experience, to…
Negotiating Identities, Negotiating Environments
This paper explores the experiences of nine students with disabilities pursuing degrees at a large Canadian university. An ethnographic approach was followed using face-to-face, unstructured interviews and a focus group to generate data. The analysis focuses on how these students negotiate disabled and non-disabled identities while negotiating the physical environment of the university campus. I argue that these negotiatory processes are necessar…
A Pragmatic Definition of the Concept of Theoretical Saturation
In this article I critically discuss the concept of theoretic saturation, first presented by Glaser and Strauss in their classic book The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Over my almost two-decade career of using, researching, and publishing on qualitative methods, I have lost count of the number of qualitative researchers that have defined saturation as an instance where “no new information” emerges from data analysis. I argue that such a definitio…
Negotiating Identities, Negotiating Environments
This paper explores the experiences of nine students with disabilities pursuing degrees at a large Canadian university. An ethnographic approach was followed using face-to-face, unstructured interviews and a focus group to generate data. The analysis focuses on how these students negotiate disabled and non-disabled identities while negotiating the physical environment of the university campus. I argue that these negotiatory processes are necessar…
Structure, Agency, and Social Reality in Blumerian Symbolic Interactionism
While I do not presume to question the importance Blumer assigns to the role played by Mead in the development of Blumerian symbolic interactionism, I argue that the perspective also owes much to the insights of Georg Simmel. In particular, a Simmelian flavor is evident in how Blumer addresses the core sociological issues of the nature of social reality, the nature of the relationship between the individual and society, and the nature of social a…
Managing Safety and Risk
In this article I focus on how individuals living with Parkinson's disease manage safety and risk in their participation in alternative and complementary health care. I take a qualitative approach in this research, using semi-structured interviews and grounded theory techniques as means of generating and analysing data. My analysis centres on how these informants construct certain therapies as risk free and therefore safe, and others as risky and…
From Zoomers to Geezerade
This paper is based on an analysis of representations of seniors in the media. In particular, we examine images of the bodies of seniors in the advertising campaigns promoting a product called Geezerade sold in Circle K convenience stores in the Atlantic provinces of Canada in the summer of 2011. We contrast these with images of seniors in the Canadian magazine Zoomer, formally CARP magazine, a magazine published by the Canadian Association of Re…
Symbolic Interactionism and the Myth Of Astructural Bias
Symbolic interactionism continues to be criticized from both inside and outside of interactionist circles by those who claim that the perspective does not address issues of social structure and fails to recognize constraints on human agency. In this paper, we critically address these claims and defend Blumerian symbolic interactionism from three versions of the charge of astructural bias and demonstrate how the perspective accounts for social str…
The Hughesian Legacy
In this paper, I discuss the invaluable role played by William Shaffir, my mentor and doctoral supervisor, who shaped my approach to interpretive fieldwork and deepened my understanding of symbolic interactionist theory. Known affectionately as Billy to his colleagues and students, Shaffir is a gifted educator and one of the finest ethnographic researchers of his generation. My focus is on how the scholarly tradition that flows from Georg Simmel…
Communication Problems Between Researchers and Informants With Speech Difficulties
Using data collected in a study of how people living with Parkinson's disease assess the efficacy of the alternative and complementary therapies they use, the author addresses the impact on qualitative data collection and analysis of communication problems between researchers and informants who experience speech difficulty. There is little literature that deals with these issues. In what little does, the emphasis is most often on the "problem" in…
Kathy Charmaz
Kathy Charmaz is arguably the most important member of the second generation of grounded theorists. In this paper we present our analysis of her research and published works in reference to the historical and biographic contexts that shaped them. Our analysis is framed by the sexpartite scholarly identity Charmaz developed over the course of the 55 years of her academic career, including: medical sociologist, symbolic interactionist, qualitative …
Conflict or Concert? Extending the Simmelian Triad to Account for Positive Third Party Presence in Face-to-Face Interviews with People Living with Parkinson’s Disease
A number of sociologists and other researchers have focused on the role of third parties since Simmel’s seminal conceptualization of the social organization of the triad. However, less attention has been given to third party presence in qualitative interviews, despite the fact that third party participation in interviews with people with chronic illness and/or disability occurs frequently. Here too it is assumed that third party presence promotes…
Problematic Success
This article focuses on the problems encountered while conducting participatory action research (PAR) with women with multiple sclerosis (MS). The term top-down means that the target population was defined and the research design was generated by a research team composed of academics and social services management rather than a grassroots group composed of women with MS. Overall, the research was a success; however, in the authors' experience, to…
An Embattled Yet Enduring Influence
The papers in this special issue celebrate and build on the insights Blumer provides in his pivotal book Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. In setting the context for these papers, we discuss the significance of Blumer's variant of interactionism, his contributions to the discipline of sociology, the misinterpretations and misrepresentations of his approach, and the way in which the papers in this issue carry forward his legacy
Symbolic Interactionism in Canada
In this paper I critically discuss Helmes-Hayes and Milne's institutional perspective, as well as Neil McLaughlin's emphasis on scientific intellectual movements and Coserian intellectual sects, in explaining the emergence and potential future of symbolic interactionist theory in Canada. I contest claims that the interactionism is on the verge of disappearing and instead offer an explanation grounded in insights about shared meaning. I conclude t…
Whither Symbolic Interactionism in Canada
A response to Helmes-Hayes and Milne's article, 'The Institutionalization of Symbolic Interactionism in Canadian Sociology
Embodied Action, Embodied Theory
In 2010 Jacqueline Low was invited to become an editorial board member of the then new online open-access journal Societies. In that same year, Claudia Malacrida was approached to organize a session on the sociology of the body at the 2012 International Sociological Association (ISA) meetings in Buenos Aries. When the call came in 2011 from Societies for editorial board members to propose topics for special issues of the journal, it was a natural…
The voluntary sector and the realignment of government
This paper examines the realignment of government from a street-level vantage point. Gleaning inspiration from studies of governmentality and institutional ethnography, the study argues that street-level processes were intertwined with the consolidation of neoliberal forms of rule. This connection was evident in the growing centrality of voluntary organizations in social administration, which went hand-in-hand with a normalization of more extreme…
Negotiating Identities, Negotiating Environments
This paper explores the experiences of nine students with disabilities pursuing degrees at a large Canadian university. An ethnographic approach was followed using face-to-face, unstructured interviews and a focus group to generate data. The analysis focuses on how these students negotiate disabled and non-disabled identities while negotiating the physical environment of the university campus. I argue that these negotiatory processes are necessar…
Problematic Success
This article focuses on the problems encountered while conducting participatory action research (PAR) with women with multiple sclerosis (MS). The term top-down means that the target population was defined and the research design was generated by a research team composed of academics and social services management rather than a grassroots group composed of women with MS. Overall, the research was a success; however, in the authors' experience, to…
Managing Safety and Risk
In this article I focus on how individuals living with Parkinson's disease manage safety and risk in their participation in alternative and complementary health care. I take a qualitative approach in this research, using semi-structured interviews and grounded theory techniques as means of generating and analysing data. My analysis centres on how these informants construct certain therapies as risk free and therefore safe, and others as risky and…
Lay Acquiescence to Medical Dominance
The voluntary sector and the realignment of government
This paper examines the realignment of government from a street-level vantage point. Gleaning inspiration from studies of governmentality and institutional ethnography, the study argues that street-level processes were intertwined with the consolidation of neoliberal forms of rule. This connection was evident in the growing centrality of voluntary organizations in social administration, which went hand-in-hand with a normalization of more extreme…
Communication Problems Between Researchers and Informants With Speech Difficulties
Using data collected in a study of how people living with Parkinson's disease assess the efficacy of the alternative and complementary therapies they use, the author addresses the impact on qualitative data collection and analysis of communication problems between researchers and informants who experience speech difficulty. There is little literature that deals with these issues. In what little does, the emphasis is most often on the "problem" in…
Health promotion policy in Canada
In this paper, we analyse Canadian health promotion discourse past and present, in the context of selected federal and provincial government policy initiatives. Principally, we examine the health promotion discourse articulated in A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians, Achieving Health for All: A Framework for Health Promotion, the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, Improving the Health of Canadians, and Canada Health Action: Building on…
Social Causes of Health and Disease - By William C. Cockerham
Structure, Agency, and Social Reality in Blumerian Symbolic Interactionism
While I do not presume to question the importance Blumer assigns to the role played by Mead in the development of Blumerian symbolic interactionism, I argue that the perspective also owes much to the insights of Georg Simmel. In particular, a Simmelian flavor is evident in how Blumer addresses the core sociological issues of the nature of social reality, the nature of the relationship between the individual and society, and the nature of social a…
Conflict or Concert? Extending the Simmelian Triad to Account for Positive Third Party Presence in Face-to-Face Interviews with People Living with Parkinson’s Disease
A number of sociologists and other researchers have focused on the role of third parties since Simmel’s seminal conceptualization of the social organization of the triad. However, less attention has been given to third party presence in qualitative interviews, despite the fact that third party participation in interviews with people with chronic illness and/or disability occurs frequently. Here too it is assumed that third party presence promotes…
The Chicago School Diaspora
Chicago School Diaspora
Embodied Action, Embodied Theory
In 2010 Jacqueline Low was invited to become an editorial board member of the then new online open-access journal Societies. In that same year, Claudia Malacrida was approached to organize a session on the sociology of the body at the 2012 International Sociological Association (ISA) meetings in Buenos Aries. When the call came in 2011 from Societies for editorial board members to propose topics for special issues of the journal, it was a natural…
From Zoomers to Geezerade
This paper is based on an analysis of representations of seniors in the media. In particular, we examine images of the bodies of seniors in the advertising campaigns promoting a product called Geezerade sold in Circle K convenience stores in the Atlantic provinces of Canada in the summer of 2011. We contrast these with images of seniors in the Canadian magazine Zoomer, formally CARP magazine, a magazine published by the Canadian Association of Re…
The Chicago School Diaspora
When the University of Chicago was founded in 1892 it established the first sociology department in the United States. The department grew rapidly in reputation and influence and by the 1920s graduates of its program were heading newly formed sociology programs across the country and determining the direction of the discipline and its future research. Their way of thinking about social relations revolutionized the social sciences by emphasizing a…
Whither Symbolic Interactionism in Canada
A response to Helmes-Hayes and Milne's article, 'The Institutionalization of Symbolic Interactionism in Canadian Sociology
A Pragmatic Definition of the Concept of Theoretical Saturation
In this article I critically discuss the concept of theoretic saturation, first presented by Glaser and Strauss in their classic book The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Over my almost two-decade career of using, researching, and publishing on qualitative methods, I have lost count of the number of qualitative researchers that have defined saturation as an instance where “no new information” emerges from data analysis. I argue that such a definitio…
Symbolic Interactionism in Canada
In this paper I critically discuss Helmes-Hayes and Milne's institutional perspective, as well as Neil McLaughlin's emphasis on scientific intellectual movements and Coserian intellectual sects, in explaining the emergence and potential future of symbolic interactionist theory in Canada. I contest claims that the interactionism is on the verge of disappearing and instead offer an explanation grounded in insights about shared meaning. I conclude t…
Stigma management as celebration
In this paper, I present a celebration of diversity as a new form of stigma management based on a qualitative analysis of media images of disabled bodies in fashion shows, advertising, and other marketing campaigns. In making my arguments I am chiefly concerned with modes of stigma management appropriate to discrediting stigma, stigma that cannot be concealed and must be managed if the individual is not to suffer the punitive reactions of others.…
The Hughesian Legacy
In this paper, I discuss the invaluable role played by William Shaffir, my mentor and doctoral supervisor, who shaped my approach to interpretive fieldwork and deepened my understanding of symbolic interactionist theory. Known affectionately as Billy to his colleagues and students, Shaffir is a gifted educator and one of the finest ethnographic researchers of his generation. My focus is on how the scholarly tradition that flows from Georg Simmel…
An Embattled Yet Enduring Influence
The papers in this special issue celebrate and build on the insights Blumer provides in his pivotal book Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method. In setting the context for these papers, we discuss the significance of Blumer's variant of interactionism, his contributions to the discipline of sociology, the misinterpretations and misrepresentations of his approach, and the way in which the papers in this issue carry forward his legacy
Symbolic Interactionism and the Myth Of Astructural Bias
Symbolic interactionism continues to be criticized from both inside and outside of interactionist circles by those who claim that the perspective does not address issues of social structure and fails to recognize constraints on human agency. In this paper, we critically address these claims and defend Blumerian symbolic interactionism from three versions of the charge of astructural bias and demonstrate how the perspective accounts for social str…
Kathy Charmaz
Kathy Charmaz is arguably the most important member of the second generation of grounded theorists. In this paper we present our analysis of her research and published works in reference to the historical and biographic contexts that shaped them. Our analysis is framed by the sexpartite scholarly identity Charmaz developed over the course of the 55 years of her academic career, including: medical sociologist, symbolic interactionist, qualitative …
Dorothy Pawluch
Contemplating Phenomenology, Yoga, and the Embodied Sharing of Meaning
Experiencing the Body in Yoga Practice: Meanings and Knowledge Transfer By Krzysztof T. Konecki, Aleksandra Płaczek, and Dagmara Tarasiuk (Routledge, 2024) As an interpretive scholar of the body who has enjoyed years of yoga classes, I was pleased to review this volume. Konecki, Płaczek, and Tarasiuk have provided a descriptive phenomenological analysis of the experiences of individuals, including students; yoga instructors; and researchers who p…
Sociology (20 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Social science (14 works) · Epistemology (10 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (9 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Social and Cultural Dynamics (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Symbolic interactionism (7 works)