This Article Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Blackstone, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Doing Good, Being Good, and the Social Construction of Compassion

University of Maine

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.

Key Words: civic engagement • activism • gender • ethnography

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 38, No. 1, 85-116 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0891241607310864


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?