Periods of localised social unrest are increasing in frequency and are usually described in terms of crisis. Events that unfold during these periods are often recounted retrospectively once a sense ...of stability has emerged. In contrast, this article contributes an empirical analysis of identity work undertaken by a group of individuals amid an unfolding crisis by drawing on interview data collected in one Hong Kong University across December 2019 and January 2020. We frame our analysis with the concept of liminality which draws attention to the space or state of in-between-ness occupied by people as they navigate and work to transition from ‘before’ to ‘after’ a time of great change. We explore linguistic representations of liminality by analysing the use of metaphors in these interview narratives. Metaphors, in this context, are considered key markers of complex cognitive and psychological processing. Findings of this analysis indicate the dominance of (dis)orientation to time and uncertainty about the future which are associated with liminality and identity work.
•Incidences of crisis are increasing globally.•Little is known about how people work to make sense of unfolding crisis events.•We draw on interviews collected in Hong Kong in November 2019 and January 2020.•We use liminality and metaphors to explore the narration of crisis.•Findings highlight a sense of disorientation and uncertainty.
The concept of liminality is explained and developed by anthropologists and aims to give the reader a closer look on how rituals are conducted in small societies combining everything with something ...that is based on experience. This paper aims on addressing the issue of old age, the connection between the passage of time and the gradual degradation of man, but it also focuses on other problems that arise with aging and the transition from life to death. Theoretical approaches are used to explain the use of the observational style in documentary filming when real people’s experiences are followed and then transposed in an observational style into a documentary film. It uses as a case study on my personal observational documentary entitled “You, Margaret” (2021).
•Migrants in limbo have high rates of PTSD, depression and anxiety disorders.•These rates are higher than reported prevalence in refugees.•Meta-analysis suggests an association between insecure ...status and poor mental health.•Stressors include threat of deportation, uncertainty, social exclusion and stigma.•Policies and interventions should address insecurity as a determinant of mental health.
The number of forcibly displaced people has more than doubled over the past decade. Many people fleeing are left in limbo without a secure pathway to citizenship or residency. This mixed-methods systematic review reports the prevalence of mental disorders in migrants living in limbo, the association between limbo and mental illness, and the experiences of these migrants in high income countries. We searched electronic databases for quantitative and qualitative studies published after January 1, 2010, on mental illness in precarious migrants living in HICs and performed a meta-analysis of prevalence rates. Fifty-eight articles met inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis yielded prevalence rates of 43.0 % for anxiety disorders (95 % CI 29.0–57.0), 49.5 % for depression (40.9–58.0) and 40.8 % for posttraumatic stress disorder (30.7–50.9). Having an insecure status was associated with higher rates of mental illness in most studies comparing migrants in limbo to those with secure status. Six themes emerged from the qualitative synthesis: the threat of deportation, uncertainty, social exclusion, stigmatization, social connection and religion. Clinicians should take an ecosocial approach to care that attends to stressors and symptoms. Furthermore, policymakers can mitigate the development of mental disorders among migrants by adopting policies that ensure rapid pathways to protected status.
This qualitative study explored the impact of the 2017 Mycoplasma bovis incursion and its management on farmers in southern New Zealand. Eighteen farmers and farming couples were interviewed about ...their experiences. Analysis of interview data evoked van Gennep's notion of liminality with its journey through distinct phases associated with ambiguity, confusion and uncertainty. Farmers described separation from usual farming practices during the incursion management process. The disruption to farming rhythms was characterised by long periods of waiting for test results, stand-down periods, and compensation claim outcomes. In emerging from the incursion, participants reflected on altered identities and relationships within rural communities and with the government, including greater awareness of biosecurity issues. The liminality of M. bovis was anchored upon the farm. However, the liminal space of M. bovis lingered long after the official exit of the farm from liminal status.
•Southern New Zealand farms became liminal places and spaces under Mycoplasma bovis biosecurity restrictions.•The on-farm intervention was a liminal journey for affected farmers.•Affected farmers described being altered by their liminal experiences.•The post- M. bovis farmscape was distinct to the pre- M. bovis farmscape on affected farms.•The liminal space of M. bovis extended beyond the official exit of the farm from liminal status.
Based on autoethnographic and ethnographic data from Macao, this study aims to elucidate the proposed concept of “political liminality.” This concept highlights that politics is constituted by ...multiple binaries with multiple ambiguities, where the overlapping, interacting, and staggering of multiple binaries occur across the political space. Political liminality also involves verb attributes, occurring in the productive process among three key binaries— macro/micro politics, state/non-state actors, and hybrid online/offline practices. Using Lefebvre's “perceived-conceived-lived” triad as an analytical frame, this study further investigates the production of political liminality in Macao. The authors not only analyze how the one-country-two-systems policy functions as representations of space intervening in spatial textures of borders, but also challenge the presumed passive role of non-state actors in nationalist activities, yielding a bottom-up political liminality in people's lived spaces. In the case of an enclave within Macao, the authors further discuss the ambiguities involved in political liminality over the geographical and digital issues of liminal sovereignty.
Abstract
Young people’s voices are rarely heard within research or policy discourse, including in respect of familial imprisonment. This article centralizes their voices and specific experiences of ...parental and/or sibling imprisonment by drawing on in-depth interviews with 17 young people aged 17–25 at the time of interview, though also reflecting back on when they were younger. Drawing on the concept of liminality, and specifically dual liminality, it argues that in order to fully recognize and understand these experiences, we must consider the interactions between the multiple forms of liminality they are subject to – in places, as people with a family member in prison and as adolescents – in order to understand their experiences as the family member of a prisoner and as young people.
As conditions of crisis disrupt established practices, existing ways of doing things are interrupted and called into question. The suspension of routine sociomaterial enactments produces openings for ...liminal innovation, a process entailing iterative experimentation and implementation that explores novel or alternative materializations of established work practices. We draw attention to three distinct tensions on the ground that arise in conditions of crisis — pragmatic, tactical, and existential — and show how these may be leveraged to produce liminal innovations in practice. While the process of liminal innovation can be challenging, it can also be generative, creating opportunities for the reconfiguration of digital work in conditions of crisis.
•Conditions of crisis generate opportunities for creative reconfiguration of work.•Liminal innovation allows iterative experimentation and implementation in practice.•Leveraging tensions on the ground can enable alternative material enactments of established routines.
This research extends our knowledge of liminality through investigating how the liminal experiences of festival-goers are constructed in a Chinese music festival context. The research employs a ...multi-site data collection approach undertaking field observations and 68 in-depth semi-structured interviews at seven music festivals across three years. The study contributes to the theoretical development of a liminality framework by providing empirical evidence of the nature of liminality. It extends our understanding of event tourist experiences by highlighting the development and role of three types of communitas and identifying six stages within a rite of passage. The resulting multifaceted coexistence of liminal behaviours and identity with everyday routine life provides a new approach to the critical understanding of the role of liminality.
•Provides empirical evidence of the nature of liminality and three communitas forms•Enriches the understanding of communitas through their attractiveness for visitors•Extends the conceptualisation of rite of passage by identifying a six-phase model•Proposes a more complex picture of the pre- and post-liminal stages in tourism•Reveals coexistence of liminal behaviours and identity with normal routine life
In this guest-editorial for a special section on "Imagination and organizational lives: Exploring the liminality of the human experience", we situate the questions that informed our call for ...contributions that would outline a different space in which MSR conversations could be stretched,
enriched and nurtured in a meaningful way. We hope to encourage imaginative, creative, and soulful questions, musings and reactions to the core proposition outlined, in different poetic ways, by our contributing authors: that art, body, dreams, and bold daring rawness are core to the human
experience; and that they are key to imagining how organizations could be managed in a way congruent with the spiritual liveliness of whole, complex, and interconnected beings.
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